Opponent naturalizes two players, calls up former Man Utd prodigy to play for Vietnam team

On November 21, the Iraqi team will travel to My Dinh Stadium to compete with the Vietnamese team in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Before this match, the West Asian team announced the successful naturalization of two Swedish players, Montader Madjed and Danilo Al-Saed.

Đối thủ nhập tịch hai cầu thủ, gọi cựu thần đồng Man Utd đấu tuyển Việt Nam - 1 — Montader Madjed is a notable naturalized player in Iraq (Photo: Hammarby).

Notably, Montader Madjed has impressed in Sweden, having made 18 appearances for the Nordic country’s youth teams. The striker, born in 2005, is currently playing for Sweden’s top club Hammarby IF.

This season, he has scored 5 goals in 16 appearances for Hammarby IF, including a hat-trick in Hammarby IF's 8-0 win over GIF Sundvall. Currently, the 1.82m tall player is valued at 1 million euros.

Meanwhile, Danilo Al-Saed was born in 1999. This player plays for Sandefjord Club in the Norwegian league. Although not as popular as Montader Madjed, Danilo Al-Saed is also valued at 750,000 euros.

After successfully naturalizing the Swedish duo, the Iraqi team is promoting the naturalization of two more players, Peter Gwargis and Lucas Shilmon. These will be other notable firepowers of the West Asian team.

Đối thủ nhập tịch hai cầu thủ, gọi cựu thần đồng Man Utd đấu tuyển Việt Nam - 2 — Zidane Iqbal was called up to play for Iraq in the match against the Vietnamese team (Photo: Goal).

Iraq's squad at this time has many players playing in Europe such as Rebin Sulaka (Brommapojkarna, Sweden), Merchas Doski (Slovacko, Czech Republic), Osama Rashid (Vizela, Portugal), Amir Al-Ammari (Halmstad, Sweden), Ali Al-Hamadi (Wimbledon, England) and especially Zidane Iqbal (former Man Utd player, currently playing in Utrecht, Netherlands).

Iraq is currently ranked 68th in the FIFA rankings. They are the highest-ranked team in Group F of the second qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup. In a series of friendly matches in October, Iraq drew 0-0 with Qatar and won 3-2 against Jordan.

In the past, Iraq has had 4 encounters with the Vietnamese team. They won 3 matches and drew 1 match. In the most recent meeting at the 2019 Asian Cup, Iraq defeated the Vietnamese team with a score of 3-2.