Essam Hamad Salim

Essam Hamad is an Iraqi football Midfielder who played for Iraq in the 1996 Asian Cup. He also played for Al-Tawun^[1]

Essam Hamad was a fully committed, tough tackling midfielder with excellent distribution and dead ball skills. The former Olympic player broke into the national team in early 95. Essam won the double with Al Zawraa in 1995 and 1996. He was a regular during the 1996 and 2000 Asian Cup and the Olympic qualifying campaign in 1996. The highly experienced and hard-working player was selected to play for an Asian All-Star team on January 21, 2000 by AFC in the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran to commemorate the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The team was managed by Khalil Ibrahim of Saudi Arabia and included Jamal Taha of Lebanon, Jordanian Badran Shaqran, Qatari keeper Mohammad Anyas, South Korean trio Hong Myung-Bo,Yoo Sang-chol and Lee Dong-gook, a team-mate of Abbas Obiad at Pohang Steelers who with Japanese superstar Hidetoshi Nakata were unable to attend the game. Essam captained the side in the 2nd half and also missed a penalty as the Asian stars were beaten 5-0 by Iran. ^[2]

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