Sajjad Alaa Abdul-Karim (; born 3 May 2003) is an Iraqi professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for Iraqi Stars League side

Al-Minaa Al-Mina'a Sports Club () is an Iraqi multi-sport club based in Al-Maqal, Basra that participates in the Iraq Stars League, the top tier of Iraqi football. It is one of the most popular clubs in Iraq, particularly in the south, and became the ...

Club career

Alaa started playing football at the Al-Minaa Academy, and was able to win with Al-Minaa U19 team the Iraqi Youth Premier League in 2022, and was the league's top scorer. In September 2022, he was promoted to play with the club's first team, and was able with his team to win the

Iraqi Premier Division League The Iraqi Premier Division League () is the second-highest division of the Iraqi football league system after the Iraq Stars League. The league is contested by 20 clubs and is operated by the Iraq Football Association (IFA). Each season, the two ...

and promotion to the

Iraq Stars League The Iraq Stars League (), is the highest level of the Iraqi football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Iraqi Premier Division League. It is governed by the Iraqi Pro League Associa ...

, and he scored one of the winning goals in the final. In August 2023, his contract with Al-Minaa was renewed and he played in the starting lineup regularly in the Iraqi Stars League, He was Al-Minaa's top scorer that season, scoring 8 goals, scoring against Al-Najaf,

Al-Talaba Al-Talaba Sports Club () is an Iraqi professional sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Baghdad. Its football team competes in the Iraq Stars League, the top flight of Iraqi football. Founded in 1969, the club was named Al-Jamiea but became known a ...

Al-Naft Al Naft Sports Club () is an Iraqi professional sports club based in the Adhamiyah District, East Districts of the Tigris River, Baghdad. Their football team plays in the highest division in Iraq which is the Iraq Stars League, which they have ne ...

Dohuk Duhok (; ; , ) is a city in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is the Capital (political), capital city of Duhok Governorate. Name The city of Duhok received its name from the Kurdish languages, Kurdish words ’du’ (two) and ’hok’ (lump) as a ...

Newroz Newroz () is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz; the arrival of spring and new year in Kurdish culture. The lighting of the fires at the beginning of the evening of March 20 is the main symbol of Newroz among the Kurds. In Zoroastrianism, fire i ...

Al-Kahrabaa Al-Kahraba'a Sports Club () is an Football in Iraq, Iraqi professional sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Iraq, Rusafa District, Baghdad, and is known for its football team that competes in the Iraq Stars League. History Al-Kahraba'a Sports Club w ...

, Naft Maysan, and Dohuk again. and the team coach, Hassan Ahmed, considered him one of the main pillars of the team and considered his presence very important in every match that Al-Minaa plays. In August 2024, his contract with Al-Minaa was renewed for an additional season.

International career

Alaa was first picked to represent Iraq in 2022, when the under-20 coach

Emad Mohammed Emad Mohammed Ridha (, born 24 July 1982) is a coach and former Iraqi football (soccer), football striker, currently managing Iraq national under-20 football team, Iraq U20. Club career On 25 June 2007, Emad renewed his contract with Sepahan S. ...

selected him to be a part of his 26-man squad to play in

2022 Arab Cup U-20 The 2022 Arab Cup U-20 was the eighth edition of the Arab Cup U-20. On 14 April 2022, the Union of Arab Football Associations granted Saudi Arabia the right to host. The tournament took place from 20 July to 7 August. Saudi Arabia were the defen ...

. He was also selected by the coach

Radhi Shenaishil Radhi Shenaishil Swadi (; born 11 August 1966) is a former Iraqi footballer and former coach of the Iraq national football team. Playing career Radhi Shenaishil was born and brought up in Al-Thawra City in Baghdad. He captained an Iraqi Und ...

to be part of the 26-man

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

squad to play in the

2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 6th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (previously the AFC U-23 Championship before rebranding from 2021), the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confeder ...

qualifiers for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Honours

Al-Minaa *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

*
Sajjad Alaa
at Ysscores
Sajjad Alaa
at Eurosport * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alaa, Sajjad 2003 births Living people Footballers from Basra Iraqi men's footballers 21st-century Iraqi sportsmen Men's association football wingers Iraq men's youth international footballers Iraq Stars League players Al-Minaa SC players