Ahmed Qasem Makes Iraq’s World Cup Roster After Nationality Switch

Nashville SC’s Ahmed Qasem switched his international allegiance from Sweden to Iraq on May 11, and less than a month later he was named in Graham Arnold’s 26-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The 22-year-old attacking midfielder, born in Sweden with Iraqi and Palestinian ancestry, had exactly one senior cap when the roster was published: a debut against Andorra on May 29. Arnold named the final 26 on June 1. Iraq open their campaign against Norway on June 16 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Iraq’s return to football’s biggest stage ends a 40-year wait, and the Group I draw handed his side France, Norway and Senegal as opponents. That 26-man roster is the most internationally dispersed the country has ever sent to a World Cup: nine players based in European club football, Qasem arriving from MLS, and a domestic Iraqi core, all recruited inside thirteen months under a coach who inherited a faltering qualifying campaign and finished it.

Twenty-One Days from Paperwork to a World Cup Roster

Qasem played through Sweden’s entire youth programme, from under-17 to under-21, without earning a senior cap. His Iraqi mother’s ancestry made him eligible under FIFA’s regulations, which allow a player to switch allegiance once to a nation connected by birth or parentage, provided no competitive senior international has been played for the first country. Youth appearances do not block the move.

FIFA confirmed the authorization on May 11. A week later, he was included in a preliminary 34-man squad. On May 29, Qasem got 90 minutes of senior football in a 1-0 friendly win over Andorra, and the Iraq head coach published the final 26 three days later. From approval paperwork to a confirmed World Cup roster place: 21 days.

According to Nashville SC’s official World Cup squad announcement, Qasem has scored five goals and registered two assists across 53 appearances since joining the club from Swedish top-flight side IF Elfsborg in February 2025. He won the 2025 US Open Cup, the club’s first major trophy, and played through the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals. The Iraq coaching staff had 53 club appearances to assess and a single senior international cap.

The same Andorra night also featured Dario Naamo, a Dundee United defender who had switched his allegiance from Finland to Iraq and debuted that same evening. Naamo was cut when the squad was trimmed to 26. Qasem stayed.

“It’s the biggest thing that’s happened to me,” Qasem said on May 23, before leaving to join Iraq’s pre-tournament camp. He said he had watched the Bolivia match that sealed qualification from home while his family spent the whole day talking about it, well before he was ever part of the programme.

The Roster Arnold Built in Thirteen Months

When Jesús Casas was sacked in May 2025 after a 2-1 defeat to Palestine, Iraq’s Asia qualification path looked precarious. Arnold took the job nine days later. The squad published on June 1 makes the recruitment mandate visible.

• 9 players in the squad are based in European club football, drawn from England, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Cyprus
• 1 plays in MLS: Qasem, at Nashville SC
• 33 international goals scored by captain Aymen Hussein in 93 appearances, making him Iraq’s most dangerous attacking option
• 100+ caps carried by veteran goalkeeper Jalal Hassan, 35, of Al-Zawraa, the squad’s most experienced player

The European Contingent

The midfield anchor of the overseas group is Zidane Iqbal, 23, born in Manchester to a Pakistani father and an Iraqi mother. He came through Manchester United’s academy and made a Champions League appearance for the club in December 2021 before joining Utrecht in the Eredivisie. Iqbal chose Iraq over England and Pakistan, both nations he was eligible to represent, and has been a senior international since January 2022. His passing under pressure is Iraq’s clearest technical asset in the centre of the field.

Ali Al-Hamadi, 24, carries a different path. His family fled Iraq when he was a baby and settled in Liverpool; he became the first Iraqi to feature in the Premier League when Ipswich Town used him in August 2024, then spent last season on loan at Luton in League One. In the intercontinental playoff final against Bolivia in March, he headed home Iraq’s first goal in the 18th minute, with Aymen Hussein scoring the winner in the 53rd.

Six more Europe-based players complete the overseas group in Iraq’s complete 26-man World Cup squad roster: Merchas Doski (Viktoria Plzen), Hussein Ali (Pogon Szczecin), Amir Al-Ammari (Cracovia), Aimar Sher (Sarpsborg), Kevin Yakob (Aarhus GF) and Marko Farji (Venezia), drawn from the Czech Republic, Poland, Norway, Denmark and Italy respectively.

The Home Anchors

The domestic players provide the base the diaspora operates around. Hassan’s 100-plus caps in goal and Hussein’s 33 international goals up front give the squad a settled core that does not depend on diaspora availability. Hussein scored the winner against Bolivia to seal qualification on March 31 and is the physical focal point in the attacking third.

Qasem is the one outlier across the entire group. The eight European-based midfielders and defenders train in leagues with Champions League and Europa League overflow. He arrives from MLS, a different physical calendar and a different level of continental competition, and he is the only MLS-based player in the squad.

A Coach Who Has Navigated This Before

Arnold was named Iraq’s head coach on May 9, 2025, succeeding Casas with qualification hanging by a thread. He had recently resigned from the Australia role after a difficult run in World Cup qualifying for this same tournament. His international track record is what Iraq’s federation was purchasing.

He led Australia to the round of 16 at Qatar 2022, where they lost 2-1 to eventual champions Argentina. He also served as Guus Hiddink’s assistant for Australia’s 2006 campaign, which reached the same stage before a late loss to Italy. Across both experiences, the competency he demonstrated was keeping organized, lower-ranked sides competitive deep into a tournament against individually superior opponents.

We’ve got to go there with a mentality of, it’s man against man, it’s human being against human being, and go out there with a great mindset of shocking the world and have that belief and confidence in yourself that you can do something.

Iraq’s head coach spoke those words to Al Jazeera ahead of the tournament. The tactical expression of that mentality, based on qualifying, is a compact 4-4-2 that sits in two banks of four and releases quickly to Hussein as the aerial target.

The path to the tournament was not clean. Iraq played 21 matches across more than two years of qualifying, navigated travel disruptions that required charter flights out of the region, and arrived in Monterrey as the last of 48 nations to secure a place. They clinched the spot with a 2-1 win over Bolivia on March 31, a result that sent celebrations across Baghdad. Winning tight games as the lower-ranked side is precisely the template the Iraq coaching staff wants for Group I.

Group I and Iraq’s Clearest Opening

France entered the tournament as one of the clear overall favorites, with Kylian Mbappé captaining a squad that also includes Ousmane Dembélé, N’Golo Kanté and Lucas Hernandez from the 2018 championship team. Didier Deschamps confirmed this will be his final tournament as head coach. Iraq’s three group matches run Norway on June 16 in Foxborough, France on June 22 in Philadelphia and Senegal on June 26 in Toronto.

Norway in Boston

Norway returned to the World Cup for the first time in 28 years carrying Erling Haaland, who scored 16 goals in eight qualifying matches. That figure makes Norway dangerous regardless of what surrounds him. But Norway’s qualifying campaign raised consistent questions about defensive structure and goalkeeping that France and Senegal do not carry. They will create chances; they will also concede them.

Iraq’s coach has told his squad that the Norway match in Foxborough is the primary target of the group stage. A point or three there changes the arithmetic for what France and Senegal represent. Iraq ranked 57th in FIFA’s table going in, and against a side with genuine vulnerabilities behind Haaland, the counter-press and Hussein in the air offer a workable structure. The Iraq coaching staff framed the group publicly as a chance to make things uncomfortable for opponents who are heavily favored, and the Norway match is where that argument gets tested first.

Third Place as Survival

The expanded 48-team format gives Iraq a meaningful secondary route. The top two from each of the 12 groups advance automatically; the eight best third-placed finishers across the whole tournament also reach the round of 32. A competitive points tally from two or three games, even without finishing second, could be enough if results in other groups fall cooperatively.

Senegal’s June 26 match in Toronto is Iraq’s closing fixture. Their squad carries real quality throughout: Sadio Mané, Kalidou Koulibaly as captain at the back, and an attacking press built by coach Pape Bouna Thiaw, appointed in late 2024. A draw in Toronto would be a significant result for Iraq and would strengthen any case for one of those third-place spots.

Qasem’s Profile and the Options He Creates

Iraq’s compact 4-4-2 puts Zidane Iqbal and Aimar Sher in the base midfield roles, with Amir Al-Ammari as a third option. Qasem, listed as an attacking midfielder but also deployed in wide positions, competes for a more advanced role in the system, most likely coming off the bench when the match needs a different pace or angle in the final third. Youssef Amyn and Ali Jassim are also options in the attacking line, meaning Qasem starts the tournament as a rotation piece.

Three specific things separate what he brings from the other midfield options:

• Pace in wide channels: he was deployed in wide areas during the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup run, using his acceleration to stretch defensive lines in transition, a pattern that fits the preference for counter-attacking width
• Pressing intensity: MLS’s physical tempo has sharpened a closing rate that suits the front-foot pressing applied through qualification, particularly in phases where Iraq won the ball back high up the pitch
• European technical grounding: four years at IF Elfsborg in the Swedish Allsvenskan gave him structured, organized football before MLS, bridging a European technical education and the directness of the American game

His cap total is still one. A debut against Andorra, a nation ranked outside the top 150, tells the coaching staff almost nothing about how Qasem holds up when Haaland is pressing from the front or Mané is collecting in the channel. He arrives at a tournament where his Group I opponents combined have won multiple World Cups, continental titles and individual Golden Boots, as a player who was cleared to represent Iraq less than four weeks before the squad was named. The actual read on what 53 Nashville SC appearances in MLS amount to against this opposition comes June 16 in Foxborough.

Iraq’s World Cup starts against Norway on June 16. For Qasem, it will be his second cap.