Ahmed Radhi Amaiesh Al-Salehi ‑ an Iraqi footballer who played as a forward – succumbed to Covid-19 on 21 June 2020.
Known for his speed, attacking ability, headers and also his good looks, Radhi was and is regarded as one of Iraq’s best players of all-time. Radhi scored the only Iraqi goal in the FIFA World Cup during its 1986 edition, a low shot to the corner of the net against Belgium in the 2–1 defeat. He was voted the 1988 Asian Footballer of the Year. As a forward on Iraq’s national team from 1983 to 1997, he scored sixty-two goals.
Radhi grew up in a poor working-class, Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. With Iraq he won 2 Arab Cups, 1 Pan-Arab Games & a Gulf Cup, while he also represented Iraq in the Olympics in 1988. In 1988, was voted Asian player of the year and 9th best Asian player of the century in 1999.
In October 2007, he was nominated by the opposition Iraqi Accord Front to the Council of Representatives of Iraq, replacing Abd al-Nasir al-Janabi, who had resigned to join the insurgency.
Radhi had three daughters and one son.
Radhi was admitted into Al Nuaman General Hospital in Adhamiyah, Baghdad on 13 June 2020 after contracting COVID-19. He left the hospital to be readmitted on 18 June after his condition worsened. On 21 June, Radhi was pronounced dead at the age of 56 following complications from COVID-19.