Safaa Hadi

Safaa Hadi (Arabic: صفاء هادي‎, born 14 October 1998) is an Iraqi professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Russian Premier League club Krylia Sovetov Samara and the Iraqi national team.

Safaa Hadi
Hadi playing for Iraq at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup
Personal information
Full name Safaa Hadi Abdullah Al-Furaiji
Date of birth (1998-10-14) 14 October 1998
Place of birth Baghdad, Iraq
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position(s) Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Krylia Sovetov Samara
Number 7
Youth career
Ammo Baba School
Amanat Baghdad
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2016 Amanat Baghdad (1)
2016–2017 Al-Minaa 7 (0)
2017–2019 Al-Zawraa (1)
2019–2020 Al-Shorta 3 (0)
2020– Krylia Sovetov Samara 2 (0)
National team‡
2014 Iraq U17
2016 Iraq U20 6 (0)
2017–2018 Iraq U23 6 (0)
2018– Iraq 27 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 26 June 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 5 December 2019

Club career

Youth career

Safaa Hadi started in the youth system of the prestigious Ammo Baba School in Baghdad which has seen many of its graduates represent the Iraqi national team.[1] Later, he joined Amanat Baghdad's youth team.

Amanat Baghdad / Al-Minaa

He was promoted to Amanat Baghdad the first team in 2015, representing the first team in the Iraqi Premier League in the 2015/2016 season. He scored his first league goal for Amanat Baghdad on 29 February 2016 against Al-Najaf.[2] In June 2016, he moved to Al-Minaa where he spent the following season.[3]

Al-Zawraa

In January 2017, Safaa signed for Iraqi giants Al-Zawraa,[4] the most successful Iraqi club in history, where he would remain for the next two and a half seasons and establish himself as a star for the team as well as cementing himself as a first-choice midfielder for the Iraqi national team.

He won the Iraqi FA Cup in his first season with the club before winning the Iraqi Super Cup a few months later. Al-Zawraa went on to dominate the Iraqi Premier League in 2017–18 with Hadi being a key player for the team, eventually winning the 2017–2018 Iraqi Premier League title.

In 2018–2019 Safaa played in the AFC Champions League for the first time in his career as Al-Zawraa came third in their group behind Iranian club Zob Ahan and Saudi club Al-Nassr. He won the Iraqi FA Cup for the second time in his career at the end of that season, scoring the winning goal in the final which was his last game for the club.

Al-Shorta

The summer of 2019 saw Safaa heavily linked to Russian giants Zenit before eventually signing for defending Iraqi Premier League champions Al-Shorta. His debut for the club came in the 2019–20 Arab Club Champions Cup against Al-Kuwait. His next match was against his former side Al-Zawraa in the 2019 Iraqi Super Cup which Safaa won with his new club. Al-Shorta would go on to reach the quarter-finals of the Arab Club Champions Cup, the first Iraqi club to reach that stage of the competition since 2013, and Safaa also played three Iraqi Premier League games for Al-Shorta before the league was postponed. On 23 January 2020, he was allowed to leave the club and went to Turkey.[5]

Krylia Sovetov Samara

The 2020 winter transfer window once again saw Safaa strongly linked to Russia and Zenit. On 21 February 2020, he moved to Russian Premier League side Krylia Sovetov Samara on a 2½–year contract, making him the first Iraqi in history to play in the Russian Premier League[6], and the second Iraqi ever to join a Russian club, after Hadi Haidar who played for Torpedo Moscow in 2017-18. He made his debut for Krylia Sovetov on 16 March 2020 in a game against FC Tambov, substituting Artyom Timofeyev in the 86th minute.

International career

Youth teams

Safaa first represented his country in 2014 when he was called up to the Iraq Under-17s. Over the following four years he would go on to play for the Iraq Under-20s and the Iraq Under-23s.

Senior team

On 8 May 2018, Hadi was called up to the senior national team for the first time and made his international debut against Palestine.[7] He has since won 26 caps for the national team, playing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and was part of Iraq's 2019 AFC Asian Cup squad.

Style of play

Safaa is usually deployed as a defensive midfielder. He is a very hard-working player with high levels of concentration and excels at intercepting loose balls and breaking down opposition plays due to his positional sense and defensive attributes.

Personal life

Safaa was born in Baghdad in 1998 and comes from Sadr City.[8] He has a younger brother who plays for Al-Naft and the Iraqi youth national teams.

Honours

Club
Al-Zawraa
Al-Shorta

References
  1. "صفاء هادي : نشأت ومودريتش قدوتي في الوسط .. واتمنى اللعب بجوار بروا نوري - IQ PRO" (in Arabic).
  2. "Match: Al-Najaf Vs Amanat Baghdad". goalzz.com.
  3. "Safaa Hadi to Al-Minaa SC". altaakhipress.com (in Arabic).
  4. "Hadi joined for Al-Zawraa SC". alghadpress.com (in Arabic).
  5. "صفاء هادي يقترب من احد اندية الدوري الروسي واللاعب غادر من عمان الى تركيا ولم يعد الى بغداد مع وفد فريقه بعد مباراة الشباب". @IrqSport (in Arabic). 23 January 2020.
  6. "«Крылья Советов» объявили о трансфере хавбека сборной Ирака Хади". www.championat.com (in Russian). 21 February 2020.
  7. "Iraq vs Palestine 0 - 0 | FIFA Friendlies | 2018 | May | World Football".
  8. العراقية, معرض الكرة (31 July 2018). "on Twitter" (in Arabic).
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