Amir Ghalenoei

Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei (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.

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.

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 was first invited to Iran national B football team in 1985 by Nasser Ebrahimi, a coach that he began his career with.

He left the team in the middle of the 1987–88 season and signed with the Qatari club of 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.

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.

He was invited to Iran national football team again in 1993 by Ali Parvin and played against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 September 1993.

Esteghlal again rose to the top level of Iranian football in 1994–95 and was ranked second on their first season back 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 mid season 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.