Bassam Al-Rawi

Bassam Hisham Ali Al-Rawi (Arabic: بسام هشام الراوي; born 16 December 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Al-Duhail and the Qatar national football team. Born in Iraq, he represents the Qatar national team.

Bassam Al-Rawi

Bassam celebrating Qatar's victory in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Final
Personal information
Full name	Bassam Hisham Ali Al-Rawi
Date of birth	(1997-12-16) 16 December 1997 (age 27)
Place of birth	Baghdad, Iraq[1]
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Position(s)	Centre back, right back
Team information
Current team	Al-Duhail
Number	5
Youth career
0000–2015	Al-Rayyan
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2015–2017	Al-Rayyan
2016	→ Celta Vigo B (loan)
2016–2017	→ Eupen B (loan)
2017–	Al-Duhail	78	(5)
2018	Al-Duhail B	3	(1)
2023–2024	→ Al-Rayyan (loan)	21	(0)
International career‡
2015–2016	Qatar U20	7	(1)
2016–2017	Qatar U23	9	(0)
2017–	Qatar	69	(2)
Medal record Representing  Qatar Men's Football AFC Asian Cup Winner 2019 UAE Team Winner 2023 Qatar Team
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 5 December 2023 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 7 January 2024 (UTC)

Personal life

Born in Iraq, Bassam was naturalized to represent the Qatar national team.^[3][4] Bassam's father, Hisham Ali Al-Rawi, played for the Iraq national football team in the 1990s.^[5] His brother Ahmed is also a footballer. Bassam attended school in Qatar before being admitted to the Aspire Academy.^[6]

International career

Bassam playing for the Qatari under-23 team in January 2018

2019 AFC Asian Cup

Bassam made his appearance for Qatar in a 0-1 loss to Czech Republic in Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium. He was included in Félix Sánchez Bas' Qatari squad for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates.^[7] He made his first international goal on 9 January 2019 against Lebanon. On 22 January, he scored his second international and the winning goal for Qatar against his country of origin, Iraq, which helped his team reach the quarter-finals of the competition.^[8][9] His team would eventually conquer the Asian title for the first time.

Eligibility dispute

On 30 January 2019, soon after the 2019 Asian Cup semi-final tie between the UAE and Qatar, which Qatar won 4–0, the UAE Football Association lodged a formal appeal to the on the fact that Bassam did not qualify to play for Qatar on residency grounds of the Article 7 of the FIFA statutes, which states a player's eligibility to play for a representative team if he has "lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association".^[10] It was claimed that Bassam had not lived continuously in Qatar for at least five years over the age of 18.^[11] On 1 February 2019, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee dismissed the protest lodged by the United Arab Emirates Football Association.^[12][13]

Career statistics

International

As of 12 July 2023

Qatar
Year	Apps	Goals
2017	3	0
2018	10	0
2019	14	2
2021	22	0
2022	7	0
2023	4	0
Total	60	2

International goals

Scores and results list Qatar's goal tally first.^[14]

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	9 January 2019	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates	Lebanon	1–0	2–0	2019 AFC Asian Cup
2.	22 January 2019	Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	Iraq	1–0	1–0	2019 AFC Asian Cup

Honours

Al-Duhail

• Qatar Stars League: 2017–18, 2019–20
• Emir of Qatar Cup: 2018, 2019
• Qatar Cup: 2018

Qatar

• AFC Asian Cup: 2019, 2023

Individual

• AFC Asian Cup Team of the Tournament: 2019^[15]
• Qatar Stars League Team of the Year: 2023–24

References

1. "بسام الراوي يخرج عن صمته بعد اثارته جدلا في العراق". Shafaaq (in Arabic). 23 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
2. "FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 – List of Players: Qatar" (PDF). FIFA. 19 June 2015. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
3. Bassam Al-Rawi at Soccerway
4. "Soccer: Qatar's Bassam certain he will get a final chance to shine". Reuters. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
5. "UPDATE 1-Soccer-Stunning free kick sends Qatar into Asian Cup quarter-finals". Reuters. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
6. "Iraq-born Qatar footballer Bassam Al-Rawi shuts down trolls with epic reply". Qatar Day. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
7. "AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Complete Squad Lists" (PDF). The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 27 December 2018. Archived from the original on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
8. "Iraqi football fans angered by 'own goal' against Qatar in the Asian Cup". The National. 23 January 2019.
9. "Iraq-born Bassam Al-Rawi scores the goal that put Qatar through in the AFC Asian Cup 2019". Fox Sport Asia. 22 January 2019. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
10. "FIFA Statutes" (PDF). 2015.
11. "UAE lodge formal protest with AFC over eligibility of two Qatar players at Asian Cup". The National. 31 January 2019.
12. "UAE FA protest dismissed". The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
13. "UAE protest at eligibility of Qataris dismissed on day of final". Reuters. 1 February 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
14. "Bassam Al-Rawi". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
15. "AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Technical Report and Statistics". AFC. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2020.

External links

• Bassam Al-Rawi at National-Football-Teams.com
• Bassam Al-Rawi profile 1 and profile 2 at Kooora.com (in Arabic)
• Bassam Al-Rawi at WorldFootball.net
• Bassam Al-Rawi at WorldFootball.com