Hussein Ali Jasim Al Saedi (; born 29 November 1996) is an Iraqi professional footballer who plays for Iraqi Premier League club Al-Shorta and the Iraq national team. A creative player, he mainly plays as an attacking midfielder but can also perform well as a winger.
Club career
Early career
Hussein was born in Baghdad in 1996 and comes from Sadr City. The player started in the youth system of Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya for their Ishbal or cubs team until he enrolled at the Ammo Baba School. There he was trained by the Habib Jafar, a former Iraq player. Like his mentor, Hussein began his career as a right winger but is seen as more than just a right sided attacker. Hussein has a versatility to his game and has already proven that he can play anywhere in midfield, whether it be in the center, out-wide on either wings or as a playmaker. He went onto play for the Iraqi U-14s and for the Iraqi Schoolboys’ team at the 2013 Arab School Championship in Tunisia where he played three matches in the city of Grombalia and scoring one goal in a 3–0 win over Kuwait.
A gifted footballer in his youth, he was often overlooked by youth coaches because of his height. Standing at , he struggled to make the cut ahead of more physically developed players. This could have stalled the careers of many others, according to football writer Hassanin Mubarak but not Hussein, a player that was destined to make it as a footballer. "If you ask him what he fears most about life, he will tell you, the only thing he fears is failure, which is why he gives every inch on the field and is never one to give up or concede defeat." That overwhelming determination to succeed has seen him win both a league and cup winners’ medal by the time he had turned 20 and he was a regular in Iraq's national side.
Al Zawraa
Growing up, Hussein Ali was always seen by his coaches as a gifted footballer and the young Hussein traveled the region, playing football for teams in youth tournaments. At just 12 he was part of a 22-man Iraqi Under-14 squad that participated at the Asian Under-14 Games in Doha where he met and took a memorable photo as a memento with Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud, then a player at Al-Gharafa. Hussein was one of the youngest players in the squad but eight years later, he was the only member of the side to have made it at the top level in the Iraqi league.
After a spell with Nadi Amana Baghdad's U-17 side, Hussein moved to Al-Zawraa which was where he found his spiritual home. He was a student in the fourth grade of middle school when he joined the club's youth side and the coaches at the club knew they had a real talent on their hands. Hussein came under the supervision of Basim Luaibi and played in a youth championship winning team which included defender Najim Shwan and by the time he had turned seventeen, the club's training staff believed it was the right time for him to move up to the first team.
At the start of the season Hussein had been one of the players promoted by the club's new coach Jamal Ali from Al-Zawraa's youth team and had been designated the No.34 as his squad number. However just two matches into the season, the coach, who had brought him into the first team, was sacked after a humiliating 4–2 defeat to lowly Al-Masafi Al-Wasat. His replacement was a former club favourite and player Emad Mohammed.
Whilst there was talk of financial worries behind the scenes in the club boardroom, further exasperation by the team's stuttering league form, Hussein's path to first team football was blocked by players such as Egyptian professional Mostafa Jalal, Mohammed Saad, Haidar Sabah and Amjad Walid and he slid further down the pecking order when Al-Zawraa signed a Brazilian and a Syrian as they looked to challenge for the league title.
In early 2015 and three months after he had turned eighteen, Hussein Ali was on the fringes of making his first team debut for the White Seagulls and on March 6, 2015, he was finally handed his league debut against Naft Al-Wasat at just 18 years, three months and five days. His team were one-nil down to the Najaf-based oil club when his coach Emad Mohammed instructed him to get stripped and warmed-up and moments later he was sent on for another substitute, the same player who had replaced injured Jô Santos after only half-an hour of the match. The Brazilian's injury and the club's decision to subsequently terminate his contract by mutual consent, had opened the door for Hussein Ali.