Iraq national under-23 football team

After 16 years without participation, Iraq qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics after winning the 2004 Olympic Asian Qualifiers under head coach Adnan Hamad and were scheduled to play against Costa Rica, Morocco and Portugal in the group stages. At the Olympics Iraq started with a shocking 4–2 win against Portugal. That was followed by a 2–0 win against Costa Rica and a 2–1 loss to Morocco. The quarter-finals saw them beat Australia 1–0, and in the semi-final against Paraguay, Iraq lost 3–1. In the bronze medal match, Iraq lost 1–0 to Italy and finished fourth.

Iraq line-up before a match with Brazil at the 2016 Rio Olympics

Iraq qualified for the 2016 Olympics by clinching third place at the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship. The first game saw Iraq play against Denmark, and the score turned out as a 0–0 draw, despite Iraq having 18 shots in the match. The second game was played against the hosts and pre-tournament favourites, Brazil, which also ended up as a 0–0 draw, which was hailed as a great result for Iraq. In the third game, Iraq tied South Africa 1–1, despite having a huge 29 shots in the match. This result, coupled with Denmark's defeat to Brazil, saw Iraq get eliminated at the group stage. Brazil eventually went on to win the tournament.

Iraq's first major honour on U-23 level was the 2013 AFC U-22 Championship. The tournament started with a 3–1 win against Saudi Arabia. That was followed by a 2–1 win against Uzbekistan and a 1–0 win against China. The quarter-finals saw them beat Japan 1–0, and the semi-final against favourites Korea Republic with another 1–0 win.

The final was against local rivals Saudi Arabia, and Mohannad Abdul-Raheem scored the only goal to win the tournament for Iraq. This victory secured Iraq's first Asian Cup U-23 title.

The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament is to be held in Qatar from 12–30 January 2016. Iraq qualified for the tournament by topping the group in the qualification stage in Oman in March 2015.

Iraq advanced from the group stage, beating Yemen 2–0, Uzbekistan 3–2, and a 1–1 tie with South Korea. In the quarterfinals, Iraq beat UAE 3–1 in extra time to progress to the semifinals. Iraq lost 2–1 to Japan.

In the third place match, Iraq came back from behind to beat Qatar 2–1 to qualify for 2016 Olympics.

Iraq qualified for the 3rd tournament by topping the group in the qualification stage in Saudi Arabia in July 2017.

In the final tournament, with the defending champion Japan not bringing their strongest squad and South Korea fielded a relatively inexperienced squad, Iraq had many chances to repeat 2013 success. In the group stage, they finished at the top of the group after beating Malaysia 4–1 and Jordan 1–0, with a 0–0 draw against Saudi Arabia. Iraq advanced into the quarter-final as the first seed of group C and was scheduled to face off against Vietnam, which was widely regarded to be Iraq's easiest ever opponent in this stage, boosting the enthusiasm among Iraqis. However, thing didn't go as planned, which an unexpected 3–3 draw after extra time meant that the result would be settled via a penalty shoot-out, in which Vietnam emerged victorious with the score of 5–3, thus eliminating Iraq from the tournament in the shock of its supporters.

Iraq qualified for the tournament by topping the group in the qualification stage in Iran in March 2019.

In the final tournament held in Thailand, Iraq was grouped in group A together with host Thailand, a resurgence Australia and the unknown Bahrain.

The following 23 players were named in the squad for the 2021 WAFF U-23 Championship.
Caps and goals correct as of 10 October 2021, after the game against Saudi Arabia

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Club
1	1GK	Emad Eisa		Zakho
2	2DF	Abbas Badie	(2000-01-09)9 January 2000 (aged 21)	Al-Mina'a
3	2DF	Ahmed Maknzi	(2001-01-01)1 January 2001 (aged 20)	Al-Zawraa
4	2DF	Hussein Ammar		Naft Al-Basra
5	3MF	Sadeq Zamel	(1999-07-15)15 July 1999 (aged 22)	Al-Shorta
6	2DF	Zaid Tahseen		Al-Talaba
7	4FW	Redha Fadhel		Amanat Baghdad
8	3MF	Zidane Iqbal	(2003-04-27)27 April 2003 (aged 18)	Manchester United Under-23
9	4FW	Wakaa Ramadan	(1999-04-17)17 April 1999 (aged 22)	Al-Talaba
10	4FW	Hassan Abdul Karim		Al-Karkh
11	3MF	Muntadher Mohammed (captain)	(2000-06-05)5 June 2000 (aged 21)	Al-Zawraa
12	1GK	Nadeem Omar	(2001-08-20)20 August 2001 (aged 20)	Falkenbergs
13	3MF	Abbas Yas		Al-Mina'a
14	4FW	Nehad Mohammed		Al-Diwaniya
15	2DF	Mohammed Al-Baqer	(2000-04-08)8 April 2000 (aged 21)	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
16	2DF	Muntadher Abdul Amir		Al-Karkh
17	4FW	Ahmed Sartip	(2000-02-20)20 February 2000 (aged 21)	Al-Zawraa
18	2DF	Mustafa Walid		Al-Karkh
19	2DF	Hassan Raed	(2000-09-23)23 September 2000 (aged 21)	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
20	3MF	Ali Mohsen	(1998-03-04)4 March 1998 (aged 23)	Al-Naft
21	4FW	Ammar Ghalib	(2001-03-13)13 March 2001 (aged 20)	Al-Shorta
22	1GK	Hassan Ahmed		Al-Talaba
23	3MF	Moammal Abdul Redha		Amanat Baghdad