Abstarct: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of ethical leadership on cognitive trust and job involvement among physical education teachers in Salah al-Din Province, Iraq. This research was applied in terms of purpose and correlational in nature, and it was conducted using a non-experimental design, as it examined the relationships among variables within a causal model. The statistical population consisted of all physical education teachers in Salah al-Din Province. Using a convenience sampling method, 157 participants were selected as the research sample. Data were collected using three standard questionnaires: the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire developed by Schmidt et al. (2008) with 10 items, the Cognitive Trust Questionnaire by Nemati (2024) with 5 items, and the Job Involvement Questionnaire by Schaufeli and Bakker (2008) with 9 items measuring three dimensions: vigor, dedication, and absorption. All questionnaires were measured on a five-point Likert scale. A demographic questionnaire was also used to collect information such as age, gender, marital status, and work experience. The face and content validity of the instruments were confirmed by 10 experts in sport management, and construct validity was examined through convergent and discriminant validity. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, which were 0.88 for ethical leadership, 0.83 for cognitive trust, and 0.89 for job involvement. Data analysis was conducted using descxriptive and inferential statistics. Structural equation modeling with a variance-baxsed approach was employed to test the hypotheses using SPSS version 23 and Smart-PLS version 4. The results indicated that ethical leadership had a positive and significant effect on the cognitive trust of physical education teachers (β = 0.665, T = 12.686). Furthermore, ethical leadership had a positive and significant effect on the job involvement of physical education teachers (β = 0.668, T = 10.909). The findings suggest that strengthening ethical behaviors among supervisors and school administrators can enhance cognitive trust and increase job involvement among physical