Ammon News - Baghdad- Iraq's legendary football player and coach Emmanuel Baba Dawud has been buried at the country's biggest stadium in the capital Baghdad.

Dawud, better known as Ammo (uncle) Baba, died on Wednesday after suffering complications from diabetes. He was 74.

He scored Iraq's first goal in an international match in 1957, and was admired for his attacking flair.

After his retirement in 1970, he led the national football team to the Olympics in 1984 and 1988.

The coffin draped in an Iraqi national flag was lowered into a grave at Baghdad's al-Shaab football stadium compound - as Dawud had requested before his death.

"We loved Ammo Baba from our heart, as a player, trainer and a teacher," Iraqi Vice-President Abel Abdel Mahdi was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

"We loved him and bid him farewell with our heats, and he will always be in the Iraqi people's hearts."
* BBC