BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi National football team arrived in Bahraini capital Manama to prepare for the 21st Gulf Cup tournament, which will be kicked off next Saturday.

 

"The team will hold its first training session at 8:15pm on Aaskar club," Abdulkhaleq Massoud, head of the Iraqi delegation, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

 

"The players are prepared and they are determined to won the cup and bring it back to Baghdad," he noted.

 

The organizing committee of the 21st Gulf Cup had received all the eight lists of squad coming to Bahrain for the prestigious football tournament, scheduled to take place from January 5 to 18.

 

Iraq was the last football federation to submit their squad, which features 35 probables, who will be further reduced to 23 players just before the start of the tournament.

 

The three-time Gulf Cup champions traveled to Bahrain with its full-strength squad, headed by veteran skipper and striker Younis Mahmood and experienced midfielder Nashat Akram.

 

Other prominent players, who were part of the Iraqi team that won the Asian Cup in 2007, include goalkeepers Noor Sabri and Mohammed Kassid, Hawar Mulla Mohammed, Samal Saeed, Ali Rehaima, Ala'a Abdulzahra and Ahmed Abbas.

 

The remaining players are Jalal Hassan, Hossam Ibrahim, Ali Bahjat, Amjad Kalaf, Hussam Kadhim, Abbas Rehaima, Ahmed Ibrahim, Amjad Radhi, Khaldoun Ibrahim, Osama Rashid, Dawood Haider, Salam Shaker, Walid Salem, Nabil Sabah, Saad Ameer, Hamadi Ahmed, Muthana Khalid, Ahmed Yassin, Mohammed Hamid, Ammar Abdul-Hussein, Saif Salman, Ali Adnan, Hammam Tarek, Muhannad, Abdul Rahim, Mustafa Nazim and Ahmed Abbas.

 

 

SH (TI)/SR