Abstarct: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of team identity on athletes’ individual and team effort with the mediating role of team cohesion. Considering its nature, the present study was descxriptive–correlational and cross sectional in terms of time. The statistical population consisted of all youth football plaxyers in Anbar Province, from which 164 participants were selected as the sample using a convenience sampling method. The research instruments included three standard questionnaires: the Team Identity questionnaire by Bruner and Benson (2018), the Team Cohesion questionnaire by Carron and Brawley (1985), and a questionnaire measuring individual and team effort. To examine the face and content validity of the research instruments, the opinions of ten experts and professors in sport management were utilized. The reliability of the instruments was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha test. To test the research hypotheses, structural equation modeling with a variance baxsed approach was used. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 23 and Smart PLS version 4 software. The results showed that team identity and team cohesion have a positive and significant effect on athletes’ individual and team effort. In addition, team identity had a positive and significant effect on athletes’ team cohesion. The findings also indicated that team cohesion plays a mediating role in the relationship between team identity and athletes’ individual and team effort; in other words, part of the effect of team identity on individual and team effort depends on the presence of the team cohesion variable. baxsed on the findings, team identity and team cohesion, as two key psychological constructs, play an effective role in enhancing athletes’ individual and team effort. The results suggest that team identity not only directly increases athletes’ effort but also intensifies this effect through strengthening team cohesion. In other words, team cohesion, as a mediating variable, facilitates the transformation of a sense of belonging and shared identity into sustained and coordinated effortful behaviors. Therefore, strengthening team identity and team cohesion can be considered an effective managerial and psychological strategy in sports teams and should receive attention from coaches, managers, and sport psychologists. Creating a sense of belonging, empathy, and shared goals among athletes, in addition to increasing intra team cohesion, can enhance individual effort and coordinate team efforts. Accordingly, designing educational programs and psychological interventions baxsed on strengthening collective identity and team cohesion can lead to sustainable improvement in the performance and effectiveness of sports teams at different competitive levels.