Afshin Ghotbi

Afshin Ghotbi (Persian: افشین قطبی‎, born February 8, 1964 in Shiraz, Iran)^[1] is an Iranian-American football coach and current head coach of the Japanese side Shimizu S-Pulse in J-League.^[5]

Early life

Though his family were from Shiraz, Afshin Ghotbi was born in the country's capital Tehran. He is the son of a teacher in Iran ^[6](See below) with whom he left Iran at the age of 13 and moved to Los Angeles, United States of America where he has been a resident for more than two decades. He received his B.Sc. qualification in Electrical Engineering from UCLA where he was a member of the men's soccer team.^[3][7]

Career

Early years

Prior to coaching in the professional ranks, for years he was one of the elite coaches in the talent-rich, highly competitive Southern California youth soccer scene, responsible for the discovery and development of players such as Peter Vagenas and John O'Brien.

In Korea

He worked for Korea Republic national football team under Dutchman Guus Hiddink from December 2000 till July 2002 as a football analyst.^[8] He continued his journey in Korea by taking the role of an assistant coach of Samsung Bluewings from 2002–2004. He returned to Korean National Team, as an assistant coach under Dick Advocaat from October 2005 until July 2006. He continued as an assistant coach for Korea under Dutch head coach Pim Verbeek from July 2006 till July 2007.

Return to Iran

In 2007 he was Head-Coach of Persepolis F.C., an Iran Pro League club, in compliance with the new contract he signed in August 2007. In February 2008 his name was on the shortlist for coaching the Iranian national team, however the job went to Ali Daei. He ultimately led Persepolis to Iranian Pro league championship in May 2008. Ghotbi left Persepolis in June 2008.^[9]

However, it was reported that Persepolis F.C. were holding talks with Ghotbi again just four weeks after his departure.^[10]

Afshin Ghotbi was re-appointed as the new Persepolis head coach on 3 July 2008, after agreeing to sign a two year deal following meeting Persepolis officials in Dubai.^[11]

Leaving Iran

Following the session held at Persepolis club on 18 November 2008, Ghotbi announced his resignation to the club’s board and left Iran on 19 November 2008. In a letter released on Persepolis’ official website, Ghotbi said, “I returned to Persepolis with great hopes but I think there is a conspiracy outside the club to prevent the team’s success. I am the target of this conspiracy. I love Persepolis and its fans, however I ought to leave the team. I am heartbroken and leave Persepolis in hope of the team’s prosperity. If my presence hinders the success of the team, I would rather leave.” ^[12]

Appointment as the National Team Coach

After just three weeks after being announced as manager, Mayeli Kohan became the spearhead of a heated dispute between himself and Esteghlal F.C. manager Amir Ghalenoei.^[13] This resulted in the IRIFF forcing Mayeli Kohan's resignation as manager of Team Melli.^[13] A week later, Afshin Ghotbi agreed to succeed Mayeli Kohan as head coach of the Iranian national team.^[14] After this appointment, Ghotbi said in an interview "A life dream, a longtime ambition and a journey written in the stars is about to be realized I have to thank all the people around the world who have cheered, supported and inspired me to have this opportunity,^[15] however, under Afshin Ghotbi, Iran failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This was in spite of the teams reasonable performance gaining 5 points from 3 games. His contract has now been renewed to continue coaching Team Melli. He continued to coach Team Melli in 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification where he won 3 matches out of 4 and lost the other one to Jordan Away which he the team earned 13 points and qualified as the group leaders.But he had some results in the friendlies (such as winning against Bosnia-Herzegovina and China and South Korea in their land) which surprisingly caused a lot of criticism and even some people in IRIFF decided to replace him as Iranian coachs and journalists could not accept an American-Iranian success over Team-melli. However, after a few days his job was secured and the Iranian Federation decided to keep him at least up to 2011 Asian Cup .He had poor results in the friendlies at the beginning and then was able qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup and slowly improved the results.In 2010 his team was able to win 8 matches in a row and gain trust.Later on he finished second in West Asian Football Federation Championship 2010.His team won all the three matches in the group stage of 2011 Asian Cup but got knocked out after the extra time goal against Korea Republic. Ghotbi officially resigned after the match and his assistant Ali Reza Mansourian was appointed as caretaker manager of the national football team until the appointment of Carlos Queiroz.

Move to J. League

After the Asian Cup, Ghotbi signed three-year contract with Japan's J. League Division 1 side Shimizu S-Pulse.^[16] He led the team for the end of 2011 seasion which ended in the tenth rank.

Coaching career statistics

As of 17 March 2012

Nat	Team	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %	GF	GA	+/-
	San Fernando Valley	1997	1997	18	9	7	2	50%	30	31	−1
	Persepolis	27 July 2007	18 November 2008	51	26	15	10	51%	88	59	+29
	Iran	22 April 2009	22 January 2011	30	16	6	8	53%	39	27	+12
	Shimizu S-Pulse	22 January 2011	Present	44	18	12	14	45%	59	60	−1
Total				143	69	40	34	52%	213	177	+36

Honours

• Iran's Premier Football League Winner: 1
  • 2007/08 with Persepolis

Individual

• Football Iran News & Events
  • Manager of the year (2007–08), Persepolis

• Iran Football Federation Award
  • Manager of the year (2007–08), Persepolis

Controversy

At the time of his arrival in Iran some media outlets reported that Afshin is the son of former National Iranian Radio and Television director Reza Ghotbi, the cousin of Farah Pahlavi.^[17] The rumor was widely circulated on the net and in the Iranian discussion forums because of its political sensitivity in Iran. However, that account was challenged by other Iranian newspapers by showing that in Ghotbi's birth certificate, his father's name is Mohammad, not Reza. Ghotbi himself has mentioned that his father was a teacher in Iran and that they left Iran in 1977.^[6]

References

External links

• Official Afshin Ghotbi Website

Afshin Ghotbi international tournaments v t e Iran squad – 2011 AFC Asian Cup 1 Rahmati 2 Heidari 3 Talebi 4 Hosseini 5 Aghili 6 Nekounam 7 Rezaei 8 Shojaei 9 Khalatbari 10 Ansarifard 11 Hajsafi 12 Mirzapour 13 Bengar 14 Teymourian 15 Hadadifar 16 Norouzi 17 M. Nouri 18 P. Nouri 19 Gholami 20 Nosrati 21 Afshin 22 Gordan 23 Mobali Coach: Ghotbi