Shawqi Aboud

Shawqi Aboud (in Arabic شوقي عبود) (Adhammiya, Iraq 1927 - d. Baghda 2008) was an Iraqi coach that managed the Iraqi national team on three different occasions.

He was born in Adhammiya where his father worked for the Capital Municipality, it was there he first got the taste of sports growing up in Baghdad and playing at the local sports grounds of the area. He studied sports at primary and secondary school before enrolling at the Military College (Kuliya Al-Askariya) in 1948 and later became a champion sprinter at the College.

While at the Military College in Baghdad he also studied the game of football playing in the Iraq League before being transferred to the city of Basra, however as he was an officer in the Iraqi army, he was unable to register with any sports club in the city.

In 1954, Shawqi traveled to England to take part in a training course along with Adil Basher. He spent a month in England where he got to know Irish coach William Cook, formerly a professional with Everton and Celtic who joined the Iraq delegation on their return to Baghdad to manage the Iraq army team. Cook spent six months training the Iraq army team at the Sarsink Camp on a wage of only a few Iraqi dinars, where they played a number of friendly games, with Shawqi playing a few matches for Iraq in the outside right position, as well as working as one of Cook’s coaching assistants.

Shawqi went on to coach army teams Al-Farqa Al-Awola (First Division), Al-Farqa Al-Thalatha (Third Division), Al-Farqa Al-Rabaa (Fourth Division) before he took over Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (Air Force) in 1963 which was to be his last coaching job.