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Amir Ghalenoei

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(Redirected from Amir Ghalehnoei) Iranian football coach and former player (born 1963)

Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei
Ghalenoei in 2024
Personal information
Full name Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei
Date of birth (1963-11-22) 22 November 1963 (age 61)
Place of birth Tehran, Imperial State of Iran
Height 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team Iran (Manager)
Youth career
1979–1981 Rah Ahan
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1982 Rah Ahan
1982–1987 Shahin
1987–1989 Al-Sadd
1989–1997 Esteghlal
International career
1979–1981 Iran U-20
1985–1996 Iran 20 (1)
Managerial career
1999–2000 Keshavarz
2001–2002 Bargh Tehran
2002 Esteghlal (caretaker)
2002–2003 Esteghlal Ahvaz
2003–2006 Esteghlal
2006–2007 Iran
2008 Mes Kerman
2008–2009 Esteghlal
2009–2011 Sepahan
2011–2012 Tractor
2012–2015 Esteghlal
2015–2017 Tractor
2017–2018 Zob Ahan
2018–2020 Sepahan
2020–2023 Gol Gohar
2023– Iran
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Iran (as manager)
CAFA Championships
Winner 2023 KGZ-UZB
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei (Persian: امیر قلعه‌نویی; born 22 November 1963 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian football coach and former player who currently manages Iran national football team. He has been the most successful coach in the Iran Pro League and managed several clubs, including Esteghlal, Mes Kerman, Sepahan S.C. and Tractor, with two of which he won a total of five championships and two Hazfi Cup titles. He was also the head coach of Iran national football team from August 2006 to July 2007 where he managed the team for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup where Iran was eliminated in the quarter-finals.

Club career

Rah Ahan

Ardeshir (Amir) Ghalenoei was born on 21 November 1963 in Tehran, Iran. His father, a taxi driver, died when Amir was only thirteen years old. He began his career in the late 1970s after passing a technical test for Rah Ahan, one of the oldest clubs in the Iranian football. He played for the club's youth team for two years and was promoted to the first team squad in 1981 by Nasser Ebrahimi. He had a good performance there and scored three goals during the domestic Tehran Hazfi cup. Ghalenoei left the club after the club's head coach signed for Shahin.

Shahin

When Ebrahimi became Shahin's coach, Ghalenoei moved to Shahin along with him. Shahin had several national players such as Nasrollah Abdollahi, Mehdi Dinvarzadeh, Hamid Majd Teymouri. Ebrahimi left the club in 1984, succeeded by Mehrab Shahrokhi who was the head coach for a short period before being replaced by Nasrollah Abdollahi. Ghalenoei became the club's captain after the retirement of Dinvarzadeh. During his time in Shahin, he helped the team to finish as runner-up in two Tehran leagues in 1985 and 1986.

He played his last match for Shahin in a 2–0 victory against Persepolis where both goals were on Ghalenoei's assists. He left the team in the middle of the 1987–88 season and signed with the Qatari club of Al-Sadd.

Al-Sadd

He signed a 1+1⁄2-year contract with Al-Sadd in 1987. He helped his side to two domestic league titles and one Emir of Qatar (FA Cup) title. Al-Sadd also won 1988–89 edition of AFC Champions League in spring of 1989 after defeating Al-Rasheed in the final. However, Ghalenoei had already left the club and returned to Iran, and thus was not a member of the Asian champions squad.

Esteghlal

Esteghlal shirt with Ghalenoei name given to him by the club in 2023

He joined Esteghlal in July 1989 and played for the club until his retirement. He made his debut in a game against Persepolis in a quarter final Hazfi Cup match where he lost his penalty kick.

He won the Iran league title in his first full season (1989–90) at the club in spring 1990. Esteghlal also won the Asian Club Championship on the following season (1990–91) after nearly twenty years.

Ghalenoei lost most of the next season (1991–92) due to a heavy injury. At that season, Esteghlal could not obtain an entry to the next season (1992–93) of Azadegan league and thus was asked to play in the 3rd Division for one season. This meant the departure of many players like Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, Shahrokh Bayani, Majid Namjoo-Motlagh, Samad Marfavi and Reza Ahadi but Ghalenoei remained at the team and was chosen as the club's new captain. Esteghlal again rose to the top level of Iranian football in 1994–95 and was ranked second on their first season return to the competition. Ghalenoei also scored twice in the final game of the following season (1995–96) Hazfi Cup. In his last season in Esteghlal, they started off successfully both in the Iranian and Asian Cup Winners' Cup, but could not sustain the good performance. Their head coach, Mansour Pourheidari – who had the club to the Asian glory – resigned midseason and Nasser Hejazi was appointed as the head coach and finished the league with sixth position. He retired at the end of this season after missing many matches due to injury.

He was the captain of Esteghlal in the last four years of his career, known as "General", a title bestowed on him by fans due to his outstanding skills in leading the team during his career as the club.

International career

International goals

Date Venue Opponent Result Competition Goals
1996-06-18 Kuwait City, Kuwait  Kuwait 2–2 Friendly 1

Managerial career

Esteghlal Ahvaz

After serving as the Esteghlal's interim head coach in 5 matches in spring 2002 and winning the Hazfi cup with this team, he was appointed as Esteghlal's assistant coach for the next season (2002–03). However, he left the team before the season started and joined Esteghlal Ahvaz in the 5th week of the 2002–03 league.

Esteghlal Tehran

Ghalenoei managing Esteghlal at Tehran derby

He was officially named as Esteghlal's head coach before the 2003–04 season by the club chairman Mohammad Gharib. He succeeded Mansour Pourheidari who Ghalenoei was his assistant for the years. At the end of the season, Esteghlal lost the league after a defeat to Esteghlal Ahvaz, team Ghalenoei coached in 2002 in the final match.

Iranian national team

IRIFF appointed Ghalenoei as head coach of the Iran national football team on 17 July 2006 to succeed Branko Ivanković. After finishing first in the qualifying round 2 points ahead of South Korea and then finishing first in the group stage of the final tournament in Malaysia, Iran lost to South Korea in the penalty shoot-outs of the Quarters Final match and was eliminated from the 2007 Asian Cup. Ghalenoei was heavily criticized by the press. After a period of discussion in the Iranian football federation, his contract was not renewed and national team was left with a caretaker manager for several months.

Mes Kerman

Despite being in negotiations with Uzbek League champions FC Pakhtakor Tashkent on 1 January 2008, Ghalenoei signed a contract until the end of the 2007–08 season with Iran Pro League side Mes Kerman. where he led the club to finish among the top teams of the second half-season, even though it was at the bottom of the table when he accepted the job.

Sepahan

He signed for Sepahan in summer 2009. Where he won the Persian Gulf Cup for the second time in a row, but failed to qualify for last 16 in the AFC Champions League for the second time in the row.

Ghalenoei renewed his contract with Sepahan for the upcoming season, where he won the league for the third time in the row and second time with Sepahan. Sepahan had excellent performance in AFC Champions League as well and qualified for quarter final with five wins in seven matches. However, after that he left Sepahan on 4 June 2011 due to conflict with the new board director though he had led the club to the quarter finals of the AFC Champions League as the best team of the west Asian division.

Tractor

Ghalenoei and his staff at Tractor

On 13 June 2011, he was named as new Tractor head coach.

Club statistics

These statistics include all formal club-level games since Ghalenoei started coaching at the highest division of Iran football in 2002: Iran Pro League, Hazfi Cup, and AFC Champions League.

As of 5 April 2022
Team From To Record
G W D L Win % GF GA +/-
Esteghlal June 2002 June 2002 5 3 1 1 060.00 12 9 +3
Esteghlal Ahvaz November 2002 June 2003 21 5 9 7 023.81 18 20 −2
Esteghlal July 2003 July 2006 95 52 31 12 054.74 163 92 +71
Mes Kerman January 2008 May 2008 17 7 7 3 041.18 20 12 +8
Esteghlal May 2008 June 2009 45 21 15 9 046.67 90 47 +43
Sepahan July 2009 June 2011 86 47 26 13 054.65 155 72 +83
Tractor July 2011 June 2012 35 19 10 6 054.29 57 32 +25
Esteghlal June 2012 June 2015 121 64 32 25 052.89 165 99 +66
Tractor December 2015 May 2017 62 35 16 11 056.45 104 53 +51
Zob Ahan June 2017 June 2018 40 19 12 9 047.50 58 43 +15
Sepahan June 2018 August 2020 70 31 28 11 044.29 97 52 +45
Gol Gohar September 2020 March 2023 92 43 25 24 046.74 124 96 +28
Total 689 346 213 281 50.86 1063 627 +436

As manager of Esteghlal

Ghalenoei in press conference before Tehran derby as manager of Esteghlal
Tournament Games Won Draw Lost GF GA
League 212 113 67 35 330 198
Cup 43 33 5 5 104 30
ACL 24 9 8 7 33 27
Total 265 138 81 46 422 246

Iran National Team statistics

As of match played 19 November 2024
National Team From To Record
G W D L Win % GF GA +/-
Iran Iran August 2006 July 2007 17 10 6 1 058.82 30 12 +18
Iran Iran March 2023 Present 29 23 5 1 079.31 74 22 +52
Total 46 33 11 2 71.74 104 34 +70

Honours

Player

Rahahan
Shahin
Esteghlal
Al-Sadd

Manager

Esteghlal
Sepahan

Individual

References

  1. "Amir Ghalenoei in Pakhtakor talks". The-AFC.com. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
  2. "Ghalenoei becomes Head Coach of Mes Kerman F.C." IranSport.net. Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2008.
  3. Ghalenoei resigns as Sepahan Head Coach
  4. Ghalenoei becomes Tractor's head coach

External links


Awards and achievements
Preceded byMladen Frančić Iran Pro League Winning Manager
2005–06 		Succeeded byAli Daei
Preceded byAfshin Ghotbi Iran Pro League Winning Manager
2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 		Succeeded byZlatko Kranjčar
Preceded byZlatko Kranjčar Iran Pro League Winning Manager
2012–13 		Succeeded byHossein Faraki
Sporting positions
Preceded byShahin Bayani Esteghlal Tehran FC captain
1992–1997 		Succeeded byJavad Zarincheh
Current managers of AFC national teams
Iran squads
Iran squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup
Iran
Iran squad – 2023 AFC Asian Cup semi-finalists
Iran
Awards
Iranian football league winning managers
Hazfi Cup winning managers
Managerial positions
Esteghlal Ahvaz F.C. – managers
(c) = caretaker manager
Esteghlal F.C. – managers
(c) = caretaker manager
Iran national football team – managers
Mes Kerman F.C. – managers
Sepahan Isfahan F.C. – managers
Tractor S.C. – managers
Zob Ahan Isfahan F.C. – managers
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