Hussein Saeed

Hussein Saeed Mohammed (حسين سعيد محمد, born 21 January 1958) is an Iraqi former footballer who played as a forward and is a former president of the Iraq Football Association.

Saeed is in ninth place in the list of top international goal scorers, with 78 goals.

Along with Ahmed Radhi, he is considered to be the best Iraqi player of the 20th century and features in 25th place in Asia's Best Players of the Century list.

Hussein's 78 international goals make him currently the Iraqi national team's highest scoring player.

Hussein Saeed was born on 21 January 1958 in Al Adhamiya, where most of the Al-Ubaid tribe lived, to a conservative Baghdadi family.

His mother is of Kurdish descent and was born in Arbil while his father is an Arab.

The family moved from Al Adhamiya to live in Al-Iskan when his father, who had previously worked as a fabrics merchant, got a job in the Ministry of Construction and Housing.

Hussein Saeed started playing football in the streets before joining Al-Iskan's youth center.

He led them to an Iraq Youth Centers' Championship, scoring a hat-trick in a 4–2 win against Al-Zawra'a youth team and catching the eye of Dawoud Al-Azzawi, the manager of the Iraq national under-17 football team and Iraq national varsity football team.

Saeed started his professional football career at the age of 17, when he joined the Iraq national varsity football team and won the 1975 Arab Schools Games gold medal.

In 1975, he joined Al-Jamiea, who later became known as Al-Talaba, where he spent all 15 years of his career, achieving three league titles and getting the top goalscorer of the league award in three seasons.

He won two AFC U-19 Championships, two Arabian Gulf Cups, where he was the top goalscorer of both occasions and the best player of one, a World Military Cup, and an Asian Games gold medal.

Al-Azzawi called him up to the varsity team and, in his first competitive tournament with the team, he won the gold medal in the 1975 Arab Schools Games in Egypt.

Saeed joined Al-Jamiea when he was 17 years old in 1975 with an invitation from the manager Jamal Salih who lived in Saeed's neighborhood.

His first match for Al-Jamiea was in the 1975–76 Iraq FA Cup against Al-Shorta, which Al-Jamiea won 3–0.

He scored his first league goal with the club against Al-Hilla in a 1–1 draw.

The club eventually finished in 8th place.

They came very close to achieve the league in the 1976–77 season but they settled in 2nd place in the league table behind Al-Zawra'a.

In the 1977–78 season, Saeed scored two goals with his team finishing in 8th place.

Al-Jamiea became known as Al-Talaba SC ahead of the 1978–79 season after merging with a new club of the same name, which saw Saeed reach the top three goalscorers of the league for the first time, netting six goals for Al-Talaba which made him the second top goalscorer behind Falah Hassan with only one goal and along with his teammate, Haris Mohammed, in 3rd.

However, Baghdad XI lost the final 2–1 to Al-Rasheed; Saeed scored Baghdad XI's only goal in the final in the 78th minute with a penalty.

The season after, in 1979–80, Al-Talaba finished in 3rd place at 27 points in the league and reached the final of the 1979–80 Iraq FA Cup where they came up against Al-Jaish and lost on penalties 4–2 after a 1–1 draw.

In the 1980–81 season, Al-Talaba won their first ever league title after tying with Al-Shorta on both points and goal difference in the end where the Iraq Football Association declared Al-Talaba as champions due to them having more wins than Al-Shorta.

Hussein Saeed was the top goalscorer of the league with 11 goals in 11 matches out of Al-Talaba's total 19 goals.

In the cup, Al-Talaba reached the final for the second time in the row and came up against Al-Zawra'a and lost again in the final 1–0.

In the 1981–82 season, Al-Talaba retained their league title, sitting in 1st at 34 points with Saeed being the second top goalscorer of the league with 11 goals, along with Al-Amana's Ghazi Hashim and behind Al-Zawra'a's Thamer Yousif.

They reached the cup final for the third time in the row and lost to Al-Zawra'a again 2–1.

The next season, Saeed continued his battle for the top goalscorer in which he scored 17 goals surpassing his teammate, Rahim Hameed, with 8 goals.

Al-Talaba finished in 2nd place with one point away from the champions, Salahaddin.

In the 1983–84 season, Saeed came in third in the goalscorers table with 7 goals behind Al-Jaish's Rahim Hameed and Ali Hussein Mahmoud.

Al-Talaba finished as the runners-up for the third time in their history at 36 points behind Al-Jaish.

The season after, before the league was abandoned, Saeed scored 14 goals out of his team's 20 goals and was the top goalscorers of the league.

The 1985–86 season was one of Al-Talaba and Saeed's best season in their history where Al-Talaba achieved their third league title after beating their rivals at the time, Al-Rasheed, in front of 50,000 spectators, with Saeed's only goal from a penalty, finishing in 1st with 25 points from 15 matches.

Saeed finished the season as the top goalscorer of the league along with Al-Zawra'a's Ahmed Radhi and Al-Jaish's Rahim Hameed where, for the first time, every one of them scored 9 goals in the league.

As of that season, Saeed was also made the club's vice president.

In the 1986 Saddam International Tournament, Saeed played for Baghdad XI, rather than Al-Talaba, because Baghdad XI was essentially the Iraq national team under a different name.

Baghdad XI won all of their group matches including a victory over Saeed's club Al-Talaba to qualify for the semi-finals where they thrashed Al-Zawra'a to reach the final.

Saeed returned to Al-Talaba for the 1986 Iraqi Perseverance Cup between Al-Talaba and Al-Rasheed; Al-Rasheed won the match 2–1.

Al-Talaba finished in 3rd place in the table at 15 points.

The club finished in 5th place at 15 points and reached the quarterfinal of the Al-Rasheed Cup.