Justin Meram has announced his retirement from Iraq international. The 32-year-old attacker of Real Salt Lake became unhappy with the national team, partly due to the collaboration with the new national coach Dick Advocaat. In an interview with the program hat trick from Iraqi UTV Meram tells his story. He speaks of discrimination within the national team and accuses Advocaat of a lack of both communication skills and passion for the team.
Meram says that he discussed his role in the team with previous national coaches such as Hakeem Shaker, Radhi Shenaishil and Srecko Katanec. He calls those trainers ‘ten times better’ than Advocaat, who did not talk to him. “He didn’t do a good job as a national coach. He exchanged one word with me, ‘hello’, and then there was never any direct contact. Lawyer is a bad trainer who is not suitable to lead the national team,” he said. he out. “I have never experienced such a trainer. To be honest, this trainer does not deserve to be the national coach of Iraq.”
“He is not willing to give himself completely for Iraq, as the players do. Previous national coaches had an enormous passion for the team. Lawyer is not ready to give everything for the team,” the winger repeats. “This national coach himself is never in Iraq to watch players. Instead, he sends his assistants. Wasn’t he chosen just because of his name?” Meram has had little contact with representatives of the union in recent months. When he joined nine days in early September for the World Cup qualifiers against South Korea (0-0) and Iran (0-3 defeat), he had no idea what his role and responsibilities were.
“And during halftime of a match, the assistant yelled at me to do one thing, but the head coach yelled at me to do another. What is that?” he wonders. Meram does not think that the cultural difference is the reason for the poor communication. He points to his past with Frank de Boer, Bob de Klerk and Orlando Trustfull at Atlanta United in 2019. “Lawyer also speaks plain English, so there are no excuses. The team’s unacceptable level in the last four games is due to the technical staff,” says Meram, who asks the people in Iraq not to turn against the players, although he himself therefore stops as an international.
“I say this with a heavy heart: I have decided to stop as an international,” says Meram. “Yes, my decision is final. I thank the people in Iraq for their support and I thank all the trainers who helped me in the training. I have proudly represented Iraq for seven years. I preferred an international career with Iraq to an international career with the United States. Maybe the situation will change in the future, you never know, but for now my story with the Iraq national team is over.” Meram has played a total of 35 international matches for Iraq since 2014, in which he scored 4 times.
Meram participated in the World Cup qualifiers against South Korea and Iran at the beginning of September. It was his first international match since October 2019. Meram was born in the United States, but has two Iraqi parents. His entry into the national team is precisely the result of a more active search by the national association for people with Iraqi roots who live abroad. Over the past ten years, that quest has also brought players such as Ahmed Yasin, Yaser Kasim, Brwa Nouri, Rebin Sulaka, Frans Putros, Amir Al-Ammari and the Dutch Iraqi Osama Rashid to the national team in recent years.
Yet Meram notices that there is envy towards players who are active abroad. “I didn’t want to say much about it at first, but now is the right time to tell the people of Iraq the truth,” he says. “I find it very hard to believe that all players from abroad do not have enough quality to play for the national team. There should be no distinction between players who are in and outside Iraq. It should be one team, without divisions Unfortunately, I encountered a clear division between local and ‘foreign’ players and that caused division in the team.”
Bringing in players with Iraqi roots who are not themselves from Iraq has been controversial. Founded in 2010, the organization IQ PRO was the first to target players who could qualify for the national team. Although some national coaches who have been active since then have listened to the findings of the organization, and supporters are behind the quality injection, according to Iraqi media, stories have been going around for some time about divisions in the national team. Meram recently posted a video about this on his social media channels. It elaborated on the bad relationship that would exist between domestic and foreign players, but he later removed that video. Meram now says that he has a good relationship with everyone and that he posted the video at a “moment of anger.”
“We feel that there is discrimination,” the attacker added. “For example, if a ‘foreign’ player is late for training, that is made a big problem. If a ‘local’ player is late, there is nothing to worry about.” Meram does not directly accuse anyone of discrimination. When asked, he does not want to name persons within or around the national team who specifically cause division. “For me it might be different, because I know the players and I’ve been with the national team for seven years. I know the players and my Arabic is a bit better. But for other players who come from outside it is very difficult to understand Iraq.” represent.”