Ammo Baba

Ammo Baba (Arabic عمو بابا, DMG ʿ Ammu Bābā, Syro -Aramaic ܥ ܡ ܘ ܒ ܒ ܐ, Emmanuel Baba Dawud actually; born November 27, 1934 in Habbaniyah; † 27 May 2009 Dohuk ) was an Iraqi football player and coach. Baba was a member of the Assyrian people. In Iraq, he is next to Ahmed Radhi and Hussain Saeed as the most famous football players of his country. Between 1978 and 1997 he was repeatedly Iraqi coach. His entire family lives in Chicago, he lived in Baghdad. In Iraq, he maintained two football academies in Baghdad and Basra to train youth players.

Career

Player

His career began in 1951 when he ran aground on Iraqi youth team at the Arab Games. In the same year he began his professional career with the Employee Club in Baghdad from 1954 to 1957, he played for Haris Al -Maliki. In 1957, he moved to Baghdad traditional club Al- Quwa Al- Dschawiya, where he played until 1960 and then from 1962 to 1964. Further stations of his career were Athori Nadi (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 a coach of his last club Kuliya Al- Askariya.

For the Iraqi team Baba graduated from 1957-1964 several international games. His first international international match on October 19, 1957 was also the first international country game that denied the Iraqi team; there Ammo Baba scored the first goal ever in the history of the national team. His last game was the 0-0 draw with Iran in Baghdad (1964).

Coach

1971 Baba was appointed coach of the Iraqi military team, with whom he first became world champion in 1972. 1977 and 1979 he repeated this success. Because of these successes, the Iraqi Association appointed him in 1978 to coach the senior team, his first term of office ended by winning the Gulf Cup 1979 in Baghdad. In 1981 he was re-appointed to the coach, in this period, Iraq managed to qualify for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and winning the gold medal at the Asian Games 1982 in India. Furthermore, Baba was 1987-1989 and briefly in the years 1993, 1996 and 1997 national coach. In total he played 143 games as a coach with the Iraqi team.

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