Youra with King Faisal II of Iraq during the player's days in Habbaniya
Youra during his days with the Air Force Club in Baghdad
Youra Eshaya was born in 1933, but where he was born is unclear, he could have been born in Iran or Russia. His family came from Iran and moved around during WWI to escape persecution and may have one of thousands of Assyrians who seeked refugee in Russia before moving to Baghdad to live at the RAF Station Hinaidi in 1935, where Youra’s father worked for the RAF. In 1937, the family moved again to the newly built RAF Station in Habbaniya.
There Youra started his career playing for his school team before being called up at the age of 15 to play for Levy Civilian in the RAF Football League in Habbaniya. In the same season, he captained the RAF Employees’(Assyrian)Club juniors to the RAF FA Youth Cup, which resulted in him being snapped up by the seniors for the 1949/50 season, the season where the club won the League and Cup Knock-out competition. Youra went onto to represent the RAF Habbaniya station team that played other RAF teams in Iraq and the Middle East, while he also played for the C.C. select team, that represented the Civil Cantonment, where Youra and other employees of the RAF lived with their families.
In April 1953 , he was spotted by Flight Lieutenant R. K. Weston, a football scout for English Football League club Bristol Rovers after scoring a hat-trick for an Iraqi command team against a RAF team from the Suez Canal. Youra arrived in England in August 1954 after the pilot, who discovered him and a group of RAF officers persuaded the club’s manager Bert Tann to accept him. As he was only in England on a one month work permit (it was renewed twice), he was ordered to leave by the Home Office. But he was given a reprieve and got a job working as a miner, while playing as an amateur for Bristol Rovers 3rd team in the Western League(The Colts). Youra made 23 appearances for the Bristol Rovers Colts in his first season scoring 3 goals; after hitting his first goal for the club, he got called up to play for the reserves playing in two games against Watford and Fulham.
After playing 4 games for the Colts in his second season, scoring 1 goal, he decided to return back to Iraq. The reason for this was that, he was persuaded by the president of the Royal Iraqi Air Force FC (Al Quwa Al Jawiya Al Malikiya Al Irakiya), Khadim Abbadi, who offered to obtain for Youra and his family members Iraqi naturalisation and a place for him on the Force as a warrant officer provided he play for his club. He agreed and returned home to Baghdad in December 1955, only months short of his eligibility to play professional football in England and less than a month before the greatest moment in his club's history beating the mighty Manchester United 4-0.
He made his international debut for Iraq in January 1956 in the 6-0 win over Tehran select at the Kashafa(‘Scouts’) stadium and went onto be came a regular for the Iraqi national team until the early 1960s, playing for Iraq’s first ever Olympic team during 1960 Olympic qualifiers against the likes of Lebanon and Turkey.
He retired in 1971, after being suspended for marrying Elizabeth, a Swedish women, after rules enacted by the Iraqi Baath Government forbid Iraqi military men marrying women from non-Arab countries. He was later "unfrozen" and transferred to the Habbaniya air base as a sports officer to coach and oversee the training of military sportsmen, but retired later on and emigrated to Sweden the next year, where he brought up 3 children while also coaching youngsters. On July 21, 1992 at the age of 59, Youra collapsed and died of a heart attack in Gothenburg, Sweden, while running on a football field coaching a bunch of youngsters.
Appearances for Bristol Rovers Colts 1954 28 August Portland United A Lost 0-1 4 September Ilfracombe Town H Won 4-0 11 September Weymouth Reserves A Won 3-2 25 September Bristol City Colts A Won 2-1 2 October Bridgwater Town H Won 2-0 4 October (WL Cup) Gloucester City R. A Drew 1-1 9 October Chippenham Town A Lost 1-3 16 October Portland United H Won 3-2 23 October Bideford A Lost 0-1 30 October Salisbury H Won 2-0 13 November Poole Town A Drew 0-0 20 November Trowbridge Town H Won 3-1 4 December Wells City A Lost 2-3 11 December Bath City Reserves H Won 4-2 (1goal) 27 December Bath City Reserves A Lost 2-4 1955 1 January Bristol City Colts H Won 1-0 8 January Glastonbury A Won 3-0 5 February Trowbridge Town A Lost 0-2 12 February Weymouth Reserves H Drew 2-2 (1goal) 5 March Dorchester Town H Drew 1-1 9 April Chippenham United H Won 4-0 (1goal) 11 April Barnstaple Town A Lost 0-2 16 April Salisbury A Lost 1-2 30 April Salisbury A Lost 1-2* * Salisbury v Bristol Rovers Colts(A) was replayed on the 30th April 1955 for reasons that are unknown. Western League Division 1 1954/55 Final Table P W D L F A Pts 1.Dorchester Town 34 23 5 6 103 46 51 Champions 2.Chippenham Town 34 21 7 6 83 39 49 3.Bath City Reserves 34 22 4 8 87 52 48 4.Salisbury 34 17 8 9 71 50 42 5.Portland United 34 18 6 10 89 70 42 6.Bideford 34 18 6 10 69 56 42 7.Bridgwater Town 34 18 5 11 91 69 41 8.Poole Town 34 13 12 9 80 62 38 9.Bristol Rovers Colts 34 16 5 13 73 55 37 10.Barnstaple Town 34 13 8 13 69 66 34 11.Trowbridge Town 34 14 5 15 65 55 33 12.Bristol City Colts 34 11 4 19 53 62 26 13.Weymouth Reserves 34 10 6 18 49 67 26 14.Chippenham United 34 10 5 19 57 97 25 15.Glastonbury 34 8 9 17 51 89 25 16.Wells City 34 5 9 20 49 90 19 17.Street 34 7 4 23 51 100 18 Relegated 18.Ilfracombe Town 34 5 6 23 35 100 16 Relegated Promoted: Bristol Rovers Colts, Bristol City Colts Relegated: Clandown, Stonehouse Appearances for Bristol Rovers Reserves 1954 18 December Watford Reserves H Won 4-3 25 December Fulham Reserves H Won 2-1
Appearances for Bristol Rovers Colts 1955 27 August Salisbury H Lost 1-2 3 September Wells City H Lost 0-1 22 October Wells City A Won 3-2 (1goal) 10 December Frome Town A Won 3-1 Western League Division 1 1955/56 Final Table P W D L F A Pts 1.Trowbridge Town 32 24 2 6 100 36 50 Champions 2.Poole Town 32 20 7 5 79 33 47 3.Dorchester Town 32 21 4 7 106 57 46 4.Chippenham Town 32 20 4 8 70 50 41 5.Salisbury 32 17 7 8 64 31 41 6.Bideford 32 14 10 8 58 50 38 7.Portland United 32 16 3 13 87 76 35 8.Barnstaple Town 32 15 4 13 61 66 34 9.Weymouth Reserves 32 10 12 10 63 70 32 10.Frome Town 32 10 7 15 69 64 27 11.Yeovil Town Reserves 32 11 5 16 57 86 27 12.Bristol Rovers Colts 32 10 4 18 49 65 24 13.Bristol City Colts 32 8 7 17 43 63 23 14.Wells City 32 8 7 17 53 92 23 15.Bridgwater Town 32 7 5 20 59 98 19 16.Chippenham United 32 7 5 20 54 90 19 Relegated 17.Glastonbury 32 3 9 20 47 92 15 Relegated Promoted: Yeovil Town Reserves, Frome Town Relegated: Street, Ilfracombe Town League shortened to 17 after Bath City Reserves left the Western League. Appearances for Bristol Rovers Reserves 1955 24 September Paulton Rovers A (friendly) Won 5-3(1goal) NB: The Reserves played in the Football Combination League.
overview of Iraqi players abroad
Thanks to Bristol Rovers' programme editor Keith Brookman (keithbrookman@btinternet.com) for the research and also to Chris Swift (c.swift@bepp.co.uk) from the Sports desk at Bristol Evening Post for his help.
Prepared and maintained by Hassanin Mubarak for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Hassanin Mubarak
(Iraqifootball@yahoo.com)
Last updated: 11 Feb 2002
(C) Copyright Hassanin Mubarak and RSSSF 2002
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.