Raad Hammoudi Salman al-Aredhi (Arabic:رَعْد حَمُّودِيّ سَلْمَان الْعَارِضِيّ; born 1 May 1953[1]) is a retiredIraqifootball player who represented his country as agoalkeeper in the Olympics and the World Cup. He is known as the most successful goalkeeper in Iraqi football, leading Iraq to the1986 FIFA World Cup. He made his international debut in 1976 against Turkey. Raad was an important part of the Al-Shorta side, captaining them to the Iraqi League in season 1979/80. He took three penalties for Al-Shorta, scoring two and missing one. He was goalkeeper of the tournament during Iraq's win in the 1979 Gulf Cup, when he conceded just one goal in six games, he was also in goal when Iraq won the Asian Games in 1982. Raad started his career in 1972 when he joined second division club Kuliya Al-Shurta (where he won the Iraqi Central Second Division), a team which along with Shurta Al-Najda and Aliyat Al-Shorta were replaced in the top-flight by Al-Shurta Sports Club.[2]
Raad played in the 1984 Olympics and 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he played in the two games againstParaguay andBelgium. In 1999, Raad was placed by the German-based Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) as Iraq's 4th best player of the century behind the likes ofAhmed Radhi,Hussein Saeed andHabib Jafar.[citation needed]
He is currently the president of the Iraqi Olympic Committee.[citation needed]
