Ammo Baba

Ammo Baba as a player

Ammo Baba ( Arabic عمو بابا, DMG ʿAmmū Bābā , Syriac-Aramaic ܥܡܘ ܒܒܐ, actually Emmanuel Baba Dawud ; * November 27, 1934 in Habbanija ; † May 27, 2009 in Dohuk ) was an Iraqi football player and coach . Baba was a member of the Assyrian people. In Iraq, alongside Ahmed Radhi and Hussain Saeed, he is the most famous football player in his country. Between 1978 and 1997 he was the Iraqi national coach several times. His entire family lives in Chicago , he lived in Baghdad . In Iraq he ran two football academies in Baghdad and Basra to train young players.

Career

player

His career began in 1951 when he played for the Iraqi school team at the Arab Games. In the same year he began his professional career at the Employee Club in Baghdad, from 1954 to 1957 he played for Haris Al-Maliki . In 1957 he moved to the traditional Baghdad club Al-Quwa Al-Dschawiya, where he played until 1960 and then from 1962 to 1964. Other stations in his career were Nadi Athori (1960–1962), Al-Maslaha Naqil Al-Rakab (1964–1965 and 1967–1968) and Kuliya Al-Askariya (1966–1967 and 1968–1970). In 1970 he finally ended his active career and became the coach of his last club, Kuliya Al-Askariya.

For the Iraqi team , Baba played several international games between 1957 and 1964. His first international match on October 19, 1957 was also the first international match played by the Iraqi team; there Ammo Baba scored the first ever goal in the history of the national team. His last game was the 0-0 win against Iran in Baghdad (1964).

Trainer

In 1971, Baba was appointed coach of the Iraqi military team, with which he became world champion for the first time in 1972. In 1977 and 1979 he repeated this success. Due to these successes, the Iraqi Federation appointed him national coach of the A-team in 1978, his first term of office ended when he won the 1979 Golf Cup in Baghdad . In 1981 he was again appointed national coach, during this period Iraq managed to qualify for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and to win the gold medal at the Asian Games in India in 1982. Furthermore, Baba was national coach 1987-1989 and briefly in 1993, 1996 and 1997. In total, he played 143 games with the Iraqi team as a coach.

His last coaching position was Al-Shurta , he coached the Baghdad club in the 2001/02 season. He died on May 27, 2009 in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk after a long illness.

Web links

• BBC interview (video) ( RAM ; 0 kB)