Mahdi Karim

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Personal information
Mahdi Karim
Full name	Mahdi Karim Ajeel
Date of birth	December 10, 1983
Place of birth	Baghdad, Iraq
Position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Apollon Limassol
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2002 2002-2005 2005-present	Al Shurta Al-Khutot Al-Salikh Al-Shabab Al Naft Al Talaba Apollon Limassol	? (?) ? (?) ? (?) ? (?) ? (?) ? (?) 19 (5)
National team
2001-present	Iraq
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Mahdi Karim (مهدي كريم in Arabic, born December 10, 1983) is an Iraqi footballer who is a winger for Apollon Limassol and the Iraq national football team. Mahdi Karim is known to be one of Iraq's fastest players.

1 Profile
2 Career
3 Other honours (individual)
4 Famous matches
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Profile

Date of birth: 10 December 1983
Birthplace: Baghdad, Iraq
Height: 170 cm (5'7")
Weight: 70 kg (1104 lbs.)
Position: Midfielder
Previous Clubs: Al-Shorta, Al-Khutot, Al-Salikh, Al-Shabab, Al-Nafat, Al-Talaba].
Current Club: Apollon Limassol
Int'l Goals:
Int'l Caps:
Hobbies:

[edit] Career

Mahdi Karim was one of the most exciting young forwards in Iraq before he was switched to the right wing by Talaba coach Thair Ahmed. He had joined the club in 2002 and found his path to the forwards position blocked by Ala Khadim, Younis Mahmoud and Ahmed Salah.

The previous season, he had led Al-Nafat to the Iraqi Cup semi-final for the second consecutive season and netted 13 goals in the 2001-2002 season earning him a move to the Students club. Mahdi began his career with the Al Shurta youth team in 1995 and decided to move after finding his first team chances limited, joining Al-Khutot, Al-Salikh and Al-Shabab before finally settling at Al-Nafat.

In late 2001, he was called into the Iraqi national team by Iraq’s Croatian coach Rudolf Belin after scoring two goals in six minutes to help his club beat Defaa Al-Jawia 2-1 in the only the second league game of the Iraqi Premiere League 2001 –2002 season and made his debut in the 2-1 defeat by Iran in Tehran coming on as a substitute for Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail for the last quarter of an hour.

After the end of the war, he was called into the Olympic team by Adnan Hamad and formed a lethal formation with Hawar Mulla Mohammed on the left flank and Mahdi on the right, their performances together later earned themselves a place in the Iraqi national team. [1]

[edit] Other honours (individual)

[edit] Famous matches

Iraq olympic team vs. Costa Rica olympic team (Men's Olympic Football Tournament 2004) -- Mahdi scored the second goal of the game to secure Iraq a place in the quarterfinals.
Iraq vs. Jordan (Friendly 2005) -- Mahdi scored a spectacular goal from almost half field.