Sirous Ghayeghran

Sirous Ghayeghran (22 January 1962 – 7 April 1998) was an Iranian footballer and former captain of Iran national football team.

He played most of his club career for Malavan FC.

In February 1986 he made his debut for the national team against Pakistan.

In 1987 Ghayeghran became the national team captain, after most of the already established national team members who had participated in the Asian tournaments from 1984 to 1986 resigned from playing (these included top stars such as Nasser Mohammadkhani, Hamid Alidoosti, Shahrokh Bayani, etc.) In 1988 thanks to Ghayeghran's leadership an underprepared and inexperienced Iran side finished third in the Asian Cup tournament.

He and Mehdi Fonoonizadeh came out as the two players with their trademark long-range shots, which usually compensated for Iran's shortage in the area of teamwork.

In 1990, he signed for Ai-Ittihad of Qatar.

He did not forget his roots and soon returned to Malavan, helping the club win the Hazfi Cup and participate in the Asian Club Championship.

Two years later the team became the 1990 Asian Games champions, where Ghayeghran scored one of the most memorable goals in Iranian football history against South Korea.

He finished his international career with 43 caps and 6 goals.

In 1993, he moved to the big spending team of the time Keshavarz FC, where he was also a coach.

The team obtained respectable results but Ghayeghran moved to second division team Masoud Hormozgan where he coached once again.

In 1997 and 1998 Ghayeghran stated numerous times that he would like to be involved with Malavan again, either as a coach or player.

On 7 April 1998 as Ghayeghran and some family members were driving towards Tehran during a holiday in Norouz, they collided with a truck, leaving Ghayeghran and his son dead.