Younis Mahmoud

Younis Mahmoud Khalaf is an Iraqi striker, born on 3 February 1983 in Dibis, Kirkuk Governorate, who captained Iraq to its only AFC Asian Cup title in 2007, scoring the winning goal in the final and winning the tournament's most valuable player award. He played club football in Iraq, the Emirates and Qatar — longest with Al-Gharafa — and retired in 2016. ^{1 2 3}

Mahmoud began with Dibis and Kirkuk before joining Al-Talaba in Baghdad, then moved abroad: Al-Wahda in the Emirates, and in Qatar a long spell with Al-Gharafa, where he finished as the league's top scorer, shorter spells with Al-Wakrah, Al-Sadd and others, a period with Al-Ahli, and a return to Iraq with Erbil and Al-Talaba before retiring in 2016. ^{1 2 3}

He made his Iraq debut in July 2002 and played at the 2004 Olympic Games. At the 2007 AFC Asian Cup he captained Iraq through an improbable run to the title, scoring the only goal of the final against Saudi Arabia, and was named the tournament's most valuable player and its joint top scorer. The victory, in the middle of Iraq's civil war, was reported around the world as a rare moment of national unity. He has married three times, and his younger brother Omar is also a footballer. ^{1 2 3}

Mahmoud's Sunni affiliation is named personally by two independent sources. Reporting Iraq's 2007 triumph, the Washington Post of 30 July 2007 wrote: “Mahmoud, a Sunni Turkmen, scored the winning goal.” Al Jazeera English, reporting independently in 2007, wrote that the team “was captained by a Sunni Turkman from Kirkuk — Younis Mahmoud”. Both quotations were verified in the archived articles. The English article's personal-life section states the same Sunni fact, though it calls him an Arab where its own two sources call him a Turkmen; the museum records the Sunni attestation, on which both sources agree, and not the contested ethnic label. The Arabic article's text says only that he is a Muslim, and its “Iraqi Sunni Muslims” category is a filing, which never attests; Wikidata gives only generic Islam. His faith is recorded as Sunni, documented on the two named sources. ^{1 2 3}