Graham Arnold is the Head Coach of the Iraqi National Football Team. He took on the role in May 2025, bringing more than two decades of elite coaching experience across international and domestic football.
As the longest-serving Head Coach in Socceroos history, he oversaw the most successful period in Australian national team football. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, he guided the Socceroos to the Round of 16 for only the second time in the country's history, defeating Tunisia and Denmark to become the first Australian-born coach to win multiple matches at the same World Cup tournament and reach the knockout stage. Following the tournament, French sports newspaper L'Équipe named him the best coach in the competition. He resigned in September 2024, departing with the national team records for most games and most wins as Head Coach.
Before his two stints with the Socceroos, Graham built a formidable domestic legacy. He guided the Central Coast Mariners to a Premiership and Championship, then took Sydney FC to two Premierships, a Championship, and an FFA Cup, earning the A-League Coach of the Year award three times across both clubs. He also coached the Olyroos to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where they recorded a landmark 2-0 win over Argentina.
As a player, Graham was a prolific striker who represented Australia 56 times at senior level, scoring 19 international goals, and spent a decade in the Netherlands with Roda JC and NAC Breda, and in Belgium and Japan, before returning home as a player-coach.
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How Graham Arnold Took Iraq to the World Cup After 40 Years
One of the greatest coaching feats in world football. Former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold joins The Howie Games to tell the unbelievable story of how he led Iraq to the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 40 years. Through war zones, political chaos, empty airspace, security convoys, and the most dramatic qualifiers imaginable.
