Ammo Baba
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Emmanuel Baba Dawud | ||
| Date of birth | 27 November 1934 | ||
| Place of birth | Baghdad, Iraq | ||
| Date of death | 27 May 2009 (aged 74) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1951–1954 | RAF Employees' (Assyrian) Club | ||
| 1954–1955 | Al-Haras Al-Malaki | ||
| 1955–1957 | Al-Nadi Athori | ||
| 1957–1960 | Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya | ||
| 1960–1962 | Al-Nadi Athori | ||
| 1962–1964 | Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya | ||
| 1964–1965 | Maslahat Naqil Al-Rukab | ||
| 1965–1967 | Al-Kuliya Al-Askariya | ||
| 1967–1968 | Maslahat Naqil Al-Rukab | ||
| 1968–1970 | Al-Kulyia Al-Askariya | ||
| National team | |||
| 1955–1965 | Iraq Military | 55 | (21) |
| 1957–1966 | Iraq | 17 | (11) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1970–1974 | Al-Kuliya Al-Askariya | ||
| 1974–1975 | Al-Jaish | ||
| 1976–1978 | Al-Tamim Province XI | ||
| 1978–1980 | Iraq | ||
| 1980–1981 | Al-Talaba | ||
| 1981–1984 | Iraq | ||
| 1986 | Al-Rasheed | ||
| 1986–1987 | Al-Tijara | ||
| 1987–1988 | Iraq | ||
| 1988–1989 | Iraq | ||
| 1991–1992 | Al-Zawra'a SC | ||
| 1992 | Al-Shorta | ||
| 1992–1993 | Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya | ||
| 1993 | Iraq | ||
| 1993 | Qatar SC | ||
| 1993–1994 | Al-Zawra'a SC | ||
| 1994–1995 | Al-Karkh | ||
| 1995–1996 | Ramadi FC | ||
| 1996 | Iraq | ||
| 1997 | Iraq | ||
| 1997 | Al-Shorta | ||
| 1997–1998 | Al-Zawra'a SC | ||
| 1999–2000 | Salahaddin FC | ||
| 2000 | Iraq U-16 | ||
| 2000–2001 | Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya | ||
| 2001–2002 | Al-Shorta | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Emmanuel Baba Dawud better known as Ammo Baba (Arabic: عمو بابا, Syriac: ܥܡܘ ܒܒܐ) (born November 27, 1934 in Baghdad, Iraq – May 27, 2009 in Duhok, Iraq), was a former Iraqi and ethnic Assyrian international football player and coach of the Iraq national football team. He scored the first international goal for Iraq in 1957 against Morocco at the 2nd Pan Arab Games in Beirut and later returned to the team as the coach in 1978.
Ammo Baba, exploded onto the middle eastern football scene at the age of 16 in a Pan Arab School Championship in Cairo for the Iraqi schoolboys against the home nation Egypt in 1951 after being spotted by Iraqi schoolboys' coach Ismail Mohammed playing for the Liwa Al-Dulaim school province team. It was the same coach that gave him the nickname 'Ammo Baba', and also advised him to move to Baghdad to play for one of Iraq's top teams. Ammo who is still revered by generations who never saw him play, was an instinctive out and out goalscorer, known for his bicycle kicks or backward double-kicks as they are known in Iraq, heading ability, and the power of his shooting. He had an opportunist's eye for goal but also displayed magnificent technique and virtuoso skill of a great footballer.
Ammo was born in Baghdad on the British controlled military camp RAF Hinaidi but moved with his family to live on the Civil Cantonment on the large RAF base in Habbaniya in 1937, where he first learnt to play the game of football. After playing for his school team, he moved to RAF Employees' (Assyrian) Club in 1951 replacing legendary striker and fellow Assyrian Aram Karam, where he played with other famous Assyrian footballers such as Hormis Goriel, Emmanuel "Ammo Simsim" Samson and Youra Eshaya. In 1954 he signed for Baghdad-based Haris Al-Maliki where he was a huge success, scoring bundles of goals, season after season. The prolific marksman was once the captain of a short-lived Arab national team during the mid-Sixties, in a Nasser-inspired experiment in Arab unity which failed due to the fact that, which Ammo Baba puts it 'no one wanted to play against us'. It had been the initiative of Arab radio station Sawt Al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) in Cairo, and two of the best players from each Arab country were called up to take part in the team, from Iraq Ammo Baba, and Qais Hamed were selected. The team organised in Egypt did not play in any international competitions, managing only to play a few local teams in Cairo and Alexandria. Ammo Baba had been picked alongside Qais Hamed, and the team was able to beat Al-Ismaili, Al-Ittihad Alexandria, draw with Zamalek and lose to Tersana, with Ammo scoring the first goal for the Arab team, and hit another two goals against Al-Ismaili.
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