Ahmed Adel Alykob, the footballer, said: We experienced frustration at Word Cup Qualification and Arab Cup Tournament. I was overcome with grief as our national team used to be the best in the Arab World and Asia. This should definitely lead to start a new football era.
Alykob stressed that the team has underperformed lately especially in the World Cup Qualification due to many reasons: poor planning and inexperience in starting a professional football team with the best players in respect to both age and experience. Again, here emerged the urgent need to start a new football era.
He pointed out that at this stage everyone needs to be frankand highly responsible in order to get out of this situation. He believes Iraq has great competent footballers who will put the Iraqi football on the right track again.
Alykob stressed on the important role scouts play in looking for talented players. This can be achieved by making scouts follow international training programs whichwill help guide them establish the standards of selecting the player with talent either in tournaments or on the street.
He added trainers such as Amo Bbel, Wathek Naji, Abdul Ilah Abdul Hamid and Adel Bashir used to cover different places in Baghdad to choose promising players who later became big names in the national team. He thinks it is not right just to scout players from overseas to build the national team; locals are also important in order not to create a negative feeling for the fans.
In the end, it is worth mentioning that Ahmed Adel Alykob was born in 1993, and he was one of the top players in the Iraqi tournament.
