Soccer has led Columbus Crew's Justin Meram to Iraq national team

Martin Rogers | USA TODAY Sports

Becoming an international soccer player is a tough task, no matter the player, no matter the country. For Justin Meram, the route was a little more unusual, and much more painstaking, than most.

Meram, an attacking midfielder with the Columbus Crew, hit the headlines last week for scoring after just nine seconds of the Crew’s 2-0 victory in the first leg of its Major League Soccer Eastern Conference final against the New York Red Bulls.

Yet rare as such a speedy score is – Meram’s strike was the quickest in MLS playoff history – the 26-year-old is no stranger to taking the path less trodden.

Last year, Meram, born in Shelby Charter Township just north of Detroit, earned a call-up to the Iraq national team and has since become a regular member of its squad, a process that has involved consistently jetting to the Middle East to take part in World Cup qualifiers.

“I never even knew it was a possibility,” Meram told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview. “Then it all just happened.”

Meram was initially tracked down by members of a Facebook group founded by supporters of Iraqi soccer. The group seeks to find players with Iraqi heritage playing in leagues around the world, then alerts the country’s soccer authorities of their availability.

Meram had never been to Iraq, and still hasn’t, as FIFA prohibits international matches from being played there due to safety concerns, but was eligible for qualification as both his parents hailed from Mosul in the north of the country.

“It took nearly two years to get the all clear and become able to play,” he said. “The soccer governing bodies need proof and it wasn’t easy to come by.”

While Meram’s mother had kept documentary records that quickly established her credentials, things were much more difficult on his father’s side. Mosul is currently under the control of the Islamic State and in a state of devastation. It took several months before evidence of his father’s baptism was unearthed, followed by records of his middle school education.

Meram was then able to make his Iraq debut and has enjoyed some success, playing in the previous three qualifiers before being surprisingly dropped for last week’s victory over Chinese Taipei and seeing no playing time after making a 27-hour flight with two layovers.

There was no explanation for his omission, which has left Meram puzzled. However, soccer in Iraq remains intensely political, though things have improved beyond recognition from an odious period in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Back then, Saddam Hussein’s son Uday controlled Iraqi soccer and had underperforming players subjected to punishments such as imprisonment, floggings with electric cable or being thrown into pits of raw sewage.

Assimilation has been a challenge for Meram. His family is Chaldean Catholic and Meram spoke little Arabic at the time of his call-up.

“There are some players and a trainer who speak English, but I am trying to pick up as much of the language as I can,” he said. “Soccer is a universal language so it doesn’t make such a difference on the field, but I want to be part of it, get to know the players better and learn about their lives.”

Iraq’s performances have been solid enough that barring a late collapse, reaching the next Asian qualifying stage for the 2018 World Cup should be accomplished in March. Either four or five of the 12 teams to make it that far will go on to Russia for the biggest show in soccer.

For now, Meram’s primary focus is to help Columbus get past New York in Sunday’s second leg and reach the MLS Cup final for only the second time in the league’s 19-year history. Mercurial Argentinean import Guillermo Barros Schelotto masterminded a title game victory over the Red Bulls in 2008.

“We are in a good spot but there is still a lot of work to do,” Meram said. “There will be no complacency, in the MLS playoffs you have to expect the unexpected.”

The same could be said for Meram’s unique career journey.