 Only ten years earlier, he had gained a doctorate in Sports pedagogy.In 1969, the Iraq Football Association appointed the Soviet trainer as head coach of the Iraq national football team, military team and youth team, and managed some impressive results including the 3–0 thrashing of East Germany's national side by the Iraqi youth team (playing under the name of Baghdad Youth XI) on December 12, 1969 with a hat-trick from young outside right Falih Abid Hajim.The coach continued to build the national side around his youth team players such as Jalal Abdul Rahman, Rahim Karim, Falah Hassan, and Ali Kadhim, with his influential captain and midfield general Douglas Aziz however after a surprising 1–0 defeat to Lebanon in a 1972 Olympic qualifier in Beirut, the coach's contract with the Iraq FA had finished and he returned to Moscow to work as a scientific worker at the Central State Institute of Physical Culture.