Duhok

None of it looked likely a decade earlier. Duhok, founded in 1970 and playing out of Duhok Stadium in front of up to 22,800 supporters, withdrew from the Iraqi Premier League during the 2015–16 season and dropped into the lower divisions. Getting back took roughly six years, a runners-up finish in their First Division group, and a play-off win over Al-Kufa that returned them to the top flight in September 2022.

The Mountain Hawks, as the crest has it, had tasted the top before: an Iraqi Premier League title in 2009–10, a runners-up finish two years after. The other fixture that matters locally is against Erbil, the South Kurdistan derby.

He grew up in Duhok, went through SC Heerenveen's academy in the Netherlands, and came home to play centre-back for the club his father, Khalid Amin Zaro, once turned out for as a forward.