Naft

Aymen Hussein spent three seasons at Al-Naft before going on to score Iraq's opening goal of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He was not the only one to pass through and be shaped there: Mohammed Dawood Yaseen wore the yellow and black between 2016 and 2021, in the years after he had been named the best player of the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship.

The club itself was never meant to be just another Baghdad side. It was set up in 1979 by the Ministry of Oil, formally registered with the sports authorities three years later, and its colours were chosen to say exactly what stood behind it. Al-Naft reached the top flight in the 1985–86 season and has stayed there ever since.

What it has not done is win anything. On the continent, Al-Naft once got past CS Sfaxien in the Arab Club Champions Cup before Al-Hilal ended the run in the next stage.

There is no fixture here with a name attached to it, no derby in the sense Baghdad's Big Four would recognise. Al-Naft's rivalries sit a level below that, with Al-Karkh and Al-Kahrabaa.