Basil Gorgis

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Basil Gorgis Hanna (Arabic: باسل جورجيس‎) (or Basil Korkis, * September 6, 1961) was a former Iraqi Assyrian international football player. Despite having a short career, he is considered to be one of the best player of all time in Iraq, being known for his tenacity and attacking threat.

As a player, Basil took the national team to uncharted territory, where he was part of the Iraqi "golden team" of the 1980s that included Hussein Saeed and Ahmad Radhi.

[edit] Club career

Like all up and coming Iraqi players, "It all started in the streets" as Basil was once quoted. As a teenager, he played with the youth league team Homentmen, a youth club belonging to Nadi Al-Armeni (Armenian Club). At the age of 16, he moved on to the club of Tammuz, a Junior team belonging to Nadi Al-Athori, where he caught the eye of the then first division Al Amana coach Mustufa Auda. Throughout his youth, Basil points to Zia Isaac as the one who coached him into the player he would become. Basil remained in the Iraq Super League for all his career, where he went on to play for Al Shabab amd Al Talaba.

[edit] National career

Basil made his deput for Iraqi on the national level in 1981 against Jordan, in Baghdad. He stayed on the national team roster and became a big part of the team in the 1985 Arab cup in Morocco. Coach Anwar Jassam and the IFA chose to go ahead with their B team and 5 players from the A team, that included Basil and Ahmed Radhi. The team went on to win the tournament, where Basil scored on a header in the final game, giving Iraq the title.

In the 1986 World Cup qualification stage, Iraq found itself against Syria on a head-to-head match to determine the Asian representative. The first game in Damascus ended in a 0–0 tie, but in the second leg, Basil led Iraq pass Syria 3–1, scoring the first goal in the game and setting up the next two. The win gave Iraq is first appearance in The World Cup. Iraq did not surpass the group stage round in the World Cup, and Basil received a red card against Belgium.

Basil was forced out of Iraq and led to his professional retire at the young age of 30 in 1992. He arrived in Canada where he currently resides and waited for the arrival of official release from the Iraq Football Association, but never received them, thus not allowed to play in the Canadian league.

Basil's own personal favorite goal was against Al Shorta in the 1981 Iraqi league final. He is quoted as saying "I dream of the day when I can go back and walk through the facilities at Al Shabab club in Baghdad."

v • d • e Iraq squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup 1 Hammoudi • 2 Ibrahim • 3 Khalil Mohammed • 4 N. Shaker • 5 S. Shaker • 6 Ali Hussein • 7 H. Mohammed • 8 Radhi • 9 Saddam • 10 Saeed • 11 Abdul-Rahim Hamed • 12 Jamal Ali • 13 Karim Mohammed • 14 Gorgis • 15 N. Hashim • 16 Shaker Mahmoud • 17 Abid • 18 I. Mohammed • 19 Qasim • 20 Fatah Nasif • 21 Jassim • 22 Oraibi • Coach: de Macedo