 Ghalenoei in 2024 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1963-11-22)22 November 1963 (age 62) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Tehran,Imperial State of Iran | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | 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
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei[a] (born 22 November 1963) is an Iranianfootball coach and former player who currently managesIran national football team. He has been the most successful coach in theIran Pro League and managed several clubs, includingEsteghlal,Mes Kerman,Sepahan S.C. andTractor, with two of which he won a total of five championships and twoHazfi Cup titles.
He was also the head coach ofIran national football team from August 2006 to July 2007 where he managed the team for the2007 AFC Asian Cup where Iran was eliminated in the quarter-finals. He returned as coach of Iran in 2023 and led them to a semi-final appearance at the2023 AFC Asian Cup.
Ghalenoei has been regarded as an incompetent manager and his disputes with several footballers, especiallyMahdi Torabi, has led to controversy.[1][2] In September 2025, following poor performance of the Iran national team, an unsuccessful petition was held to sack Ghalenoei as manager.[3]
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 forRah 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 byNasser 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 forShahin.
When Ebrahimi becameShahin's coach, Ghalenoei moved to Shahin along with him. Shahin had several national players such asNasrollah Abdollahi,Mehdi Dinvarzadeh,Hamid Majd Teymouri. Ebrahimi left the club in 1984, succeeded byMehrab 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 twoTehran leagues in 1985 and 1986.
He played his last match for Shahin in a 2–0 victory againstPersepolis 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 ofAl-Sadd.
He signed a1+1⁄2-year contract withAl-Sadd in 1987. He helped his side to two domestic league titles and oneEmir of Qatar (FA Cup) title. Al-Sadd also won1988–89 edition ofAFC Champions League in spring of 1989 after defeatingAl-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.
He joinedEsteghlal in July 1989 and played for the club until his retirement. He made his debut in a game againstPersepolis in a quarter finalHazfi 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 theAsian 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 the3rd Division for one season. This meant the departure of many players likeAhmad Reza Abedzadeh,Shahrokh Bayani,Majid Namjoo-Motlagh,Samad Marfavi andReza 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 andNasser 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.
| Date | Venue | Opponent | Result | Competition | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996-06-18 | Kuwait City, Kuwait |  Kuwait | 2–2 | Friendly | 1 |
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 joinedEsteghlal Ahvaz in the 5th week of the 2002–03 league.
He was officially named as Esteghlal's head coach before the2003–04 season by the club chairmanMohammad Gharib. He succeededMansour Pourheidari who Ghalenoei was his assistant for the years. At the end of the season, Esteghlal lost the league after a defeat toEsteghlal Ahvaz, team Ghalenoei coached in 2002 in the final match.
IRIFF appointed Ghalenoei as head coach of the Iran national football team on 17 July 2006 to succeedBranko 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 toSouth Korea in the penalty shoot-outs of the Quarters Final match and was eliminated from the2007 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.
Despite being in negotiations withUzbek League championsFC Pakhtakor Tashkent[4] on 1 January 2008, Ghalenoei signed a contract until the end of the2007–08 season withIran Pro League sideMes Kerman.[5] 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.
He signed forSepahan in summer 2009. Where he won thePersian Gulf Cup for the second time in a row, but failed to qualify for last 16 in theAFC 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 inAFC 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[6] though he had led the club to the quarter finals of theAFC Champions League as the best team of the west Asian division.
On 13 June 2011, he was named as newTractor head coach.[7]
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.
| 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 | ||
| 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 |
| National Team | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | GF | GA | +/- | |||
 Iran | August 2006 | July 2007 | 17 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 058.82 | 30 | 12 | +18 |
| Iran | March 2023 | Present | 41 | 28 | 9 | 4 | 068.29 | 92 | 31 | +61 |
| Total | 58 | 38 | 15 | 5 | 65.52 | 122 | 43 | +79 | ||
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Iran Pro League Winning Manager 2005–06 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Iran Pro League Winning Manager 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Iran Pro League Winning Manager 2012–13 | Succeeded by |
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Esteghlal Tehran FC captain 1992–1997 | Succeeded by |
Iran squads | |||||||||||||
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