The list of the Iraqi national team for the 27th Gulf Cup, led by Ayman Hussein, and the announcement of the Egypt camp in preparation for the 2027 African Nations qualifiers

Australian Graham Arnold, the coach of the Iraqi national team, announced a list of 26 players to participate in the Gulf Football Cup (Gulf 27) in Jeddah, led by the national team’s captain, Ayman Hussein, along with a group of players who participated with the “Lions of Mesopotamia” in the 2026 World Cup.

The goalkeeping list included Hussein Hassan, Mohamed Salah, and Ahmed Basil, and in defense, Ahmed Yahya, Mustafa Saadoun, Haitham Jabbar, Zaid Tahseen, Akam Hashem, Youssef Al-Imam, Mirkhas Doski, and Mohamed Delawar, while Arnold chose for the midfield Ibrahim Bayesh, Zidane Iqbal, Bassam Shaker, Zaid Ismail, Amir Al-Amari, Haider Abdel Karim, Abdel-Razzaq Qasim, Karar Nabil, Mohamed Qasim, Ahmed Qasim, and Ali Jassim. Attack: Ayman Hussein, Saif Rashid, Ali Al Hammadi, and Youssef Al Nasrawi.

The Iraqi team enters the tournament with the ambition of competing for its fifth Gulf title, after winning the tournament four times, most recently in the “Gulf 25”, as it competes in the first group competitions alongside host Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait.

Ibrahim Hassan, director of the Egyptian national team, revealed the “Pharaohs” camp program in preparation for the matches between Angola and South Sudan in the qualifiers for the 2027 African Cup of Nations.

Hassan explained that the team’s list for the two matches will be announced later, Wednesday, and that the camp will begin on Thursday, at the national teams center in “6th of October City.”

The Egyptian national team will begin its qualifying campaign by hosting Angola on September 25 at Cairo International Stadium.

After the match, the team's delegation will leave for Juba on September 27 on a private plane, in preparation for facing South Sudan on the 29th of the same month, in the second round of the qualifiers.

The delegation is scheduled to return to Cairo on September 30, and the team will continue its program by playing a friendly match against South Africa on October 4 at Cairo International Stadium.

In its fifth hosting of the competition, the Saudi national team is looking forward to being crowned champion of the Arabian Gulf Football Cup this year (Gulf 27), for the fourth time in its history, and the first in more than 22 years.

The 27th edition of the competition - the first edition of which was launched in 1970 - will be held from September 23 to October 6.

The draw for the group stage of the tournament - which was held on May 19 - placed the Saudi national team, which is preparing to record its 26th appearance in the tournament, in the first group, along with the teams of Iraq, the Sultanate of Oman and Kuwait.

The Saudi national team will begin its participation in the tournament by facing the Kuwaiti national team on September 23, before facing its Omani counterpart three days later in the second round, while the Iraq national team will meet on the 29 of the same month at the conclusion of its first round matches.

The Greek Georgios Donis, coach of the Saudi national football team, announced on Wednesday the Green team participating in the Arabian Gulf Cup (Gulf 27), hosted by Jeddah. The green list included Muhammad Al-Owais, Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Hamed Youssef, Abdul-Ilah Al-Omari, Jihad Zikry, Rayan Hamed, Hassan Kadish, Hassan Timbukti, Nawaf Bushel, Muhammad Mahzari, Mutaib Al-Harbi, Zakaria Hawsawi, Musab Al-Jawir, Muhammad Al-Qahtani, Muhammad Kanno, Ziad Al-Juhani, Abdul-Ilah Al-Khaibari, Nasser Al-Dosari, and Alaa Al. Hajji, Sultan Mandash, Muhammad Abu Al-Shamat, Hammam Al-Hammami, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Firas Al-Braikan and Abdullah Al Salem.

The list did not include the name of the Saudi national team star, Salem Al-Dosari, due to his lack of readiness, after the injury that kept him out of the stadiums during the last period. The player Ali Lagami is also absent from the list, as well as Saud Abdul Hamid due to his professionalism in the French League.

The Saudi national team hopes to bring a smile back to its fans, who are waiting for the Green Team to ascend to the throne of Gulf football, after having previously won the championship for the first time in the twelfth edition in 1994 in the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudis waited 8 years until they won their second Gulf Cup title, when they hosted the tournament in their stadiums in 2002 in the fifteenth edition, while the last time the team held the prestigious cup was in the next edition in 2003 in Kuwait, which concluded its competitions in early 2004.

The Saudi national team is competing in the tournament under the leadership of its Greek coach, Georgios Donis, who took over the leadership of the team last April, succeeding Hervé Renard, but the team did not appear satisfactory to its fans during its participation in the last World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada this summer.

The Saudi team exited the World Cup early in the group stage, after finishing bottom of the tenth group with two points. Where they tied 1-1 with Uruguay, and without goals with the Cape Verde national team (Cape Verde), which participated in the tournament for the first time, and suffered a harsh 0-4 loss against the Spanish national team, which worked its way to winning the title.

Donis seeks to show the Saudi team, which exited the last edition of the Gulf Cup in Kuwait in the semi-finals, with a different face than it showed in the World Cup, in the next edition of the Gulf Cup, especially since the tournament is being held in its stadium and in front of its fans in the city of Jeddah.

The Saudi national team is ranked 58th in the world, and fifth in Asia, in the latest classification issued by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) for the teams last July, noting that it currently has the best ranking among the teams participating in the “Gulf 27”.

During its previous 25 participations in the Gulf Cup, the Saudi national team achieved runner-up 7 times, and achieved third place similarly, and fourth place once, in addition to having 3 titles in the competition, noting that it reached the semi-finals in the 2009 edition and the previous edition, without holding a match for the third-place team in them.

The Saudi national team played 116 matches in the Gulf Cup, with a difference of 3 matches behind the Kuwait national team, the team that played the most matches in the tournament. During which it achieved 59 victories, topping the list of teams with the most victories in the competition, while it tied in 25 matches, and suffered 32 losses, and its players scored 174 goals, while conceding 114 goals.

Retired star Majed Abdullah tops the list of the Saudi national team's historical scorers in the Gulf Cup with 17 goals, noting that he shares second place in the list of the tournament's historical scorers in general with Iraqi Hussein Saeed, with a goal difference behind Kuwaiti Jassem Yaqoub (the leader).

The largest victory achieved by the Saudi national team in the tournament came during the fifth edition held in Iraq in 1979, when it defeated the Qatari national team 7-0, in a match that witnessed Majed Abdullah scoring 5 goals alone.