International Career
He represented Iraq whilst playing his club football at Al-Zawraa. He played for in Iraq at the time when Uday Hussein was in charge of the national team. Hussam was included in the 1996 and 2000 squads for the Asian Cup.
The Iraqi football team came into public attention when newspapers started publishing stories of how Uday was known to punish players physically for achieving poor results in matches. This was used as one of the many reasons used by Tony Blair for justifying the Iraq war.
As a result of difficulties and the resulting Iraq war Hussam was unable to play international football for a while, however with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein football started to be played again - The Iraqi league had previously been suspended since March 2003. Hussam captained Iraq for the first time on 13 August 2003 against Iran in the first international after this, and for the determination in a difficult time, the 2003 FIFA Presidential Award was presented to the Iraqi footballing community, whom Husam represented at the award ceremony as the National Team captain.
After the war Hussam spoke about his experiences in London, saying:
| “ | When players get punished in the West, they get wages taken away, but never their physical safety. There were tortures, there were imprisonments, but this is the time to rebuild. |
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—Hussam Fawzi |
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He also admitted the after the Iraqi players were relieved the past was behind them but he refused to justify the war.
Read more about this topic: Hussam Fawzi
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)