List of Iran national football team managers

The role of an Iran national football team manager was first established in January 1941 with the appointment of Hossein Sadaghiani.[1]
Forty-seven men have occupied the post since its inception; six of those were in short-term
Croatia has the largest number of managers to have coached Iran, with over five managers. Several managers also hold dual nationalities, for instance Afshin Ghotbi, who holds both American and Iranian citizenships.
Position
Role
The Iran manager's role means he has sole responsibility for all on-the-field elements of the Iran team. Among other activities, this includes selecting the national team squad, the starting team,
The manager is given a free hand in selecting his coaching ("back room") staff. For example, in 2011 Carlos Queiroz appointed two
as fitness coach).Appointment
The process of appointing a new Iran manager is undertaken by an FFIRI committee, which is composed of board members and other high-ranking FFIRI officials.
History
Hossein Sadeghiani

Sadaghiani was the first manager of Iran national team appointed in 1941. He led the team in only three matches with two wins and one loss. His assistant,
Mahmoud Bayati
A former
Parviz Dehdari
He was appointed as head coach of national football team in 1971. He coached the team in Olympic Games in Munich. The team was able to successfully enter the Olympic competition but Dehdari resigned before the tournament. He resigned because of differences he had with his assistant, Mohammad Ranjbar. He was re-appointed as head coach of national team in 1986. He led Team Melli in 1986 Asian Games and 1988 AFC Asian Cup. Team Melli won third place in the 1988 Asian Cup and Dehdari was sacked on 22 January 1989.
Mohammad Ranjbar
Ranjbar began his coaching career as manager of
Heshmat Mohajerani

Mohajerani began his coaching career in 1971; he started his coaching career as the
Under his coaching and management, Iran won the Asian Youth Championship for 4 consecutive years, while before his time the Youth Team had never won the Asian Championship. This achievement is a record that no other coach has been able to match. After this brilliant record with the youth team, Mohajerani was appointed as assistant coach to Irishman Frank O'Farrell.
Mohajerani's first major achievement was winning the 1976 Asian Cup when his team beat Kuwait 1–0 in the final at Azadi Stadium.
Shortly, the team was qualified for the Montreal Olympic games and for the first time in Iran's history, the team qualified for the next round. The pinnacle of Mohajerani's achievement, however, was the first ever advancement of the Iran national football team to the World Cup finals in Argentina in 1978.
Under his astute coaching, Iran managed to draw against Scotland, while performing gallantly against eventual runner-up the Netherlands.
In one of the most intriguing encounters and as a sign of the deep trust in youth, Mohajerani challenged the Kuwaiti Team, under the management of Carlos Alberto and Mario Zagalo, on their home turf in the last match of the World Cup preliminary game. Although Iran had already qualified, it was a matter of honor to keep the unbeaten record of the team. Mohajerani fielded a youth team against the full strength Kuwait and still managed to beat them 2–1 in a historic match.
Ali Parvin
In late 1989 Parvin became the Iranian national team manager. He had already gained experience managing Tehran powerhouse Persepolis FC. At first his popularity grew even more as the team won the
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan
After good results with national futsal team, he was elected as manager of Iran national football team after Stanko Poklepović's resignation. He coached the team in 1996 AFC Asian Cup and was ranked in third place.
Jalal Talebi
He was the head coach of the
Miroslav Blažević
Well known throughout the football world for his 1998 World Cup sensation, Ćiro accepted an offer to lead the
Branko Ivanković

Ivanković was appointed to the head of the Iranian team on 29 January 2002. Under Ivanković, Iran's U23 football team won the
Ivanković had become very popular in Iran and the public media demanded a contract renewal, but the Football Federation was initially reluctant to appoint him as the head coach. Finally, after a period of negotiations he was reappointed as the head coach of Iran on 3 October 2003.[9]
Ivankovic led Iran to 2004 AFC Asian Cup third place.[10] They lost only to the hosts, China, in penalties in a very controversial match in which the Chinese luckily avoided multiple red cards.[citation needed]
Ivanković also led Iran to qualify for the
Despite him being the most successful coach of the Iranian National Team in terms of winning percentage, Ivankovic was not liked by the Iranian government who deliberately tried to replace him with a native coach.
The Ministry for Physical Education, which is a governmental watchdog on sports, tried to replace the coach before the World cup in Germany. However the Football federation of Iran resisted the pressure and kept Ivankovic for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Iran, at their opening game at the World Cup, showed a scintillating first half performance against Mexico, but conceded two goals in the second half to lose 1-3. The second match against Portugal was not successful either, with Iran conceding two late goals to lose 2–0 and being left without any chances of advancing to the second stage of the tournament. Mexico drew against Angola on the previous evening and left Iran at an unreachable four points behind. So, the third group match against Angola became insignificant for Iran. Angola put themselves into the lead with the opening goal after one hour of playing. The Iranians managed to equalise fifteen minutes later, eventually scoring their only point at the 2006 World Cup since the match ended in a 1–1 draw. This point was, however, only enough for Iran to occupy the last place in their group.
After the World Cup, MPE removed the Head of the Football federation of Iran, replacing Branko Ivanković with
Amir Ghalenoei
Ghalenoei was appointed as manager of the Iran national football team on July 17, 2006, to succeed Branko Ivanković. After a quarterfinals finish during the
Ali Daei
On 2 March 2008
Afshin Ghotbi
After just three weeks after being announced as manager,
Carlos Queiroz

On 4 April 2011,
Since Queiroz's role as manager of the Iranian national team, he has been renowned for introducing players from the
Iran qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup as group winners and competed in Group F alongside Argentina, Nigeria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 1 June 2014, Queiroz announced his 23-man squad.[21] Prior to the tournament, they founded the Central Asian Football Association.[22] In the opening match of the tournament on 16 June, Iran drew Nigeria 0–0, making it their first clean sheet of the FIFA World Cup.[citation needed] In their next match, Iran was defeated by Argentina 1–0 with a late goal from Lionel Messi, and received praise after holding Argentina for 90 minutes while creating some attacking opportunities of their own.[23] Iran was eliminated from the tournament in their next game, a 3–1 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Iran's lone goal was scored by Reza Ghoochannejhad.[24] After the tournament, Queiroz extended his contract until the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[25]
Iran qualified for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup as group winners, where they were the highest ranked seed.[26] Iran faced Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE in Group C. With the second highest number of fans in the tournament after hosts Australia, the Iranians defeated Bahrain 2–0 with limited preparations.[27][28] A defensive minded Iran then defeated Qatar 1–0 thanks to a Sardar Azmoun goal before defeating the UAE by the same scoreline to reach the top of their group.[29][30] In the quarter-finals Iran faced rivals Iraq, who they had beaten weeks prior in a friendly match. Having received a controversial red card in the first half from referee Ben Williams, Iran led a valiant effort with ten men, scoring two goals late in extra time to draw the match 3–3. In the ensuing penalty shootout, Iran lost 7–6 in sudden death.[31][32][33]
Iran began their
Iran's 2018 World Cup run was the most successful in their history of FIFA World Cup qualifications. With Queiroz took charge, with Iran managed to easily top the group, only being held draw twice by Turkmenistan and Oman away and won all the remaining games.[40][41] In the third round, Iran was drawn together with South Korea, Uzbekistan, China, Qatar and Syria. This time, Iran went being undefeated throughout the qualification, managing seven wins out of ten and only conceded goals in the final game against Syria at home when Iran had already guaranteed a place in Russia.[42] This led to stronger enthusiasm for Iran in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Yet, despite high expectation, Iran was once again denied a place to reach the World Cup's knockout stage. Sharing group B with powerhouse Spain, Portugal and African opponent Morocco, Iran gained its first major World Cup win after 20 years in the match against Morocco, thanked to Aziz Bouhaddouz's own goal.[43] Iran then faced up Spain, where the Iranians bravely defended until getting slumped by a goal from Diego Costa that led Iran to suffer a heartbreaking 1–0 loss.[44] In the last game against Portugal, Iran held Cristiano Ronaldo's side 1–1 with a penalty in 90+4', and Alireza Beiranvand made headline with a heroic penalty save from Ronaldo as well, thus gave Iran four points, the country's best performance ever in the World Cup. However, with Morocco and Spain held draw 2–2, it was not enough to seal Iran in at the expense of two Iberian opponents.[45] Following the World Cup, Queiroz announced he would resign from the Iranian team.
He last led Iran in a major tournament occurred at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup where Iran took group D along with Iraq, Vietnam and Yemen. The Iranians started their campaign comfortably, with a 5–0 demolition of Yemen, before beating Vietnam 2–0 to reach the round of sixteen.[46][47] In the knockout stage, Iran proved to be a stubborn yet solid at defense, beating Oman and China on their way.[48][49] But in the semi-finals facing up Japan, Iran could not hold their temper and got whipped by the Japanese in a disappointing 0–3 defeat.[50] This crushing defeat was the last game of Queiroz for Iran, which he fulfilled by resigning from the team after the match.
Marc Wilmots
Belgian manager Marc Wilmots was appointed to lead Iran in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification where they were grouped with Bahrain, Iraq, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Iran played two friendlies against Syria at home and South Korea away, both with positive results.[51][52] The trend continued in their first stage of the World Cup qualification games when Iran easily whipped Hong Kong 2–0 at home before creating their biggest World Cup win since 2002, a 14–0 victory over Cambodia at home. (The latter was the first time women were allowed to enter Iranian stadiums.[53]) Iran however were unable to build on these achievements. The team suffered two shock losses to Arab rivals Bahrain and Iraq, both away, which put Iran in danger of not qualifying to the World Cup.[54][55] Wilmots resigned as Team Melli Manager when his wages weren't paid on time, and he left Iran and filed a claim with FIFA. FIFA arbitrated and ordered the Iranian football federation to pay Marc Wilmots €6,137,500 as compensation for breach of contract plus 5% interest. [56]
Statistics
- As of 25 March 2025
- caretaker♦
Name | Nat | From | To | P | W | D | L | Win% | Tournaments | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hossein Sadaghiani | ![]() |
15 January 1941 | 5 March 1951 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 33.33 | ||
Mostafa Salimi | ![]() |
5 March 1951 | 2 April 1952 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 40.00 | 1951 Asian Games | Silver Medal |
József Mészáros | ![]() |
5 December 1957 | 18 December 1959 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 50.00 | 1958 Asian Games | 14th Place |
Hossein Fekri | ![]() |
1 June 1961 | 16 March 1966 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 12.50 | 1964 Summer Olympics | 12th Place |
György Szűcs | ![]() |
10 September 1966 | 24 November 1967 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 57.14 | 1966 Asian Games | Silver Medal |
Hossein Fekri | ![]() |
24 November 1967 | 26 November 1967 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50.00 | ||
Mahmoud Bayati | ![]() |
26 November 1967 | 7 March 1969 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 | 1968 Asian Cup
|
Winners |
Zdravko Rajkov | ![]() |
7 March 1969 | 17 September 1970 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 80.00 | ||
Igor Netto | ![]() |
4 November 1970 | 10 September 1971 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.00 | 1970 Asian Games | 8th Place |
Parviz Dehdari | ![]() |
10 September 1971 | 7 May 1972 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50.00 | ||
Mohammad Ranjbar | ![]() |
7 May 1972 | 25 June 1972 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 55.56 | 1972 Asian Cup
|
Winners |
Mahmoud Bayati | ![]() |
26 June 1972 | 17 January 1974 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 55.56 | 1972 Summer Olympics | 12th Place |
Danny McLennan | ![]() |
17 January 1974 | 3 September 1974 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50.00 | ||
Frank O'Farrell | ![]() |
3 September 1974 | 10 August 1975 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 77.78 | 1974 Asian Games | Gold Medal |
Heshmat Mohajerani | ![]() |
10 August 1975 | 6 September 1978 | 28 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 53.57 | 1976 Asian Cup
|
Winners |
1976 Summer Olympics | Quarter Finals | |||||||||
1978 WC | 14th Place | |||||||||
Hassan Habibi | ![]() |
12 March 1979 | 25 February 1982 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 75.00 | 1980 Asian Cup
|
3rd place |
Jalal Cheraghpour♦ | ![]() |
1 March 1982 | 25 November 1982 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 50.00 | 1982 Asian Games | 8th Place |
Mahmoud Yavari | ![]() |
7 August 1984 | 1 December 1984 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 | ||
Nasser Ebrahimi♦ | ![]() |
1 December 1984 | 16 February 1985 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 25.00 | 1984 Asian Cup
|
4th place |
Fereydoun Asgarzadeh
|
![]() |
11 February 1986 | 21 February 1986 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 | ||
Parviz Dehdari | ![]() |
March 1986 | 22 January 1989 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 50.00 | 1986 Asian Games | 6th Place |
1988 Asian Cup
|
3rd place | |||||||||
Reza Vatankhah | ![]() |
22 January 1989 | 17 March 1989 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 | ||
Mehdi Monajati | ![]() |
30 May 1989 | 22 July 1989 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 66.67 | ||
Ali Parvin | ![]() |
1 November 1989 | 28 October 1993 | 34 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 44.12 | 1990 Asian Games | Gold Medal |
1992 Asian Cup
|
5th Place | |||||||||
Stanko Poklepović | ![]() |
3 October 1994 | 26 April 1996 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 25.00 | 1994 Asian Games | 9th Place |
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan | ![]() |
26 April 1996 | 7 November 1997 | 38 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 60.53 | 1996 Asian Cup
|
3rd place |
Valdeir Vieira | ![]() |
16 November 1997 | 28 November 1997 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.00 | ||
Tomislav Ivić | ![]() |
28 November 1997 | 22 April 1998 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 20.00 | ||
Jalal Talebi | ![]() |
3 June 1998 | 13 October 1998 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 25.00 | 1998 WC | 20th Place |
Mansour Pourheidari | ![]() |
13 October 1998 | 22 March 2000 | 17 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 52.94 | 1998 Asian Games | Gold Medal |
Jalal Talebi | ![]() |
22 March 2000 | 1 January 2001 | 21 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 61.90 | 2000 Asian Cup
|
Quarterfinals |
Ademar Braga | ![]() |
1 January 2001 | 19 January 2001 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 | ||
Miroslav Blažević | ![]() ![]() |
24 April 2001 | 6 February 2002 | 19 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 52.63 | ||
Branko Ivanković | ![]() |
6 February 2002 | 4 February 2003 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 40.00 | ||
Homayoun Shahrokhi♦ | ![]() |
4 February 2003 | 26 September 2003 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 20.00 | ||
Branko Ivanković | ![]() |
26 September 2003 | 21 June 2006 | 42 | 29 | 6 | 7 | 69.05 | 2004 Asian Cup
|
3rd place |
2006 WC | 25th place | |||||||||
Amir Ghalenoei | ![]() |
8 August 2006 | 22 December 2007 | 17 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 58.82 | 2007 Asian Cup
|
Quarterfinals |
Mansour Ebrahimzadeh♦ | ![]() |
10 January 2008 | 20 March 2008 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
Ali Daei | ![]() |
20 March 2008 | 28 March 2009 | 24 | 15 | 6 | 3 | 62.50 | ||
Erich Rutemöller | ![]() |
1 April 2009 | 1 April 2009 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
Afshin Ghotbi | ![]() ![]() |
22 April 2009 | 22 January 2011 | 30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 53.33 | 2011 Asian Cup
|
Quarterfinals |
Carlos Queiroz | ![]() |
4 April 2011 | 28 January 2019 | 100 | 60 | 27 | 13 | 60.00 | 2014 WC | 28th Place |
2015 Asian Cup
|
Quarterfinals | |||||||||
2018 WC | 18th Place | |||||||||
2019 Asian Cup
|
Semifinals | |||||||||
Marc Wilmots | ![]() |
22 May 2019 | 6 December 2019 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 50.00 | ||
Dragan Skočić | ![]() |
6 February 2020 | 7 September 2022 | 18 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 83.33 | ||
Carlos Queiroz | ![]() |
7 September 2022 | 30 November 2022 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 50.00 | 2022 WC | 26th Place |
Amir Ghalenoei | ![]() |
12 March 2023 | 31 | 24 | 6 | 1 | 77.42 | 2023 Asian Cup
|
Semifinals |
By nationality
Country | Managers |
---|---|
![]() |
23 |
![]() |
5 |
![]() |
2 |
![]() | |
![]() |
1 |
![]() | |
![]() | |
![]() | |
![]() | |
![]() | |
![]() | |
![]() | |
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References
- (in English) Iran National Football Team Coaches
- (in Persian) تاريخچه مربيان تيم ملي فوتبال ايران
- ^ Hossein Sadeghiani, First Iran national team head coach [permanent dead link ]
- ^ "Heshmat Mohajerani". Archived from the original on 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
- ^ "Omid Namazi joined to the Queiroz staff". Archived from the original on 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
- ^ Ranjbar, Mohammad
- ^ Longman, Jere (16 January 2000). "A Match With Diplomacy on the Sideline". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
- ^ "Iran World Cup coach Talebi resigns". allsports.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 9 August 2007.
- ^ "Iranian inquest into Cup defeat". BBC. 29 October 2000. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
- ^ Blazevic manages to unite Bosnia, The Independent, September 6, 2009
- ^ a b c "Ivanković ponovno izbornik Irana" (in Croatian). Index.hr. 2003-10-01. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ^ a b "Iran - Group D". World Cup 2006. CBC.ca. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- The Times (Malta). Reuters. 2006-06-18. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- FIFA.com. 2006-11-23. Archived from the originalon 2008-10-26. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ^ "Ali Daei 'surprised' by Iran football coach job". Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
- ^ a b "IFF confirms Mayelikohan resignation". Retrieved 2024-03-07.
- ^ "Iran Appoint Afshin Ghotbi As National Team Coach | Goal.com".
- ^ Bell, Jack (23 April 2009). "Iran Asks Iranian-American to Salvage Cup Bid". The New York Times.
- ^ Soccernet, Goal (4 April 2011). "Carlos Queiroz agrees deal to become Iran head coach". Sport. Dubai: Soccernet. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
- ^ "Hosts Australia top seeds for 2015 Asian Cup". Reuters. 18 March 2014. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
- ^ "5 Iran Players to Watch at the World Cup". ABC News. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
- ^ "Ashkan Dejagah says Felix Magath is the right man to keep Fulham up". The Guardian. 18 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ "Queiroz trims Iran squad to 24". FIFA.com. 1 June 2014. Archived from the original on 1 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ^ 'Central Zone' gets thumbs up from Tajikistan Archived 2014-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Argentina 1–0 Iran
- ^ Reza makes Charlton history at World Cup Archived 2014-07-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Queiroz ends contract saga by signing Iran deal
- ^ "Hosts Australia top seeds for 2015 Asian Cup". Reuters. 18 March 2014. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
- ^ Iranian crowd sets Asian Cup standard Archived 2015-01-24 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Queiroz: Iran victimised by Fifa sanctions
- ^ #teammelli: Social media helps Iranian fans defy censorship of images from Asian Cup matches in Australia
- ^ Iran 1-0 UAE: Ghoochannejhad strikes late as Queiroz's men win Group C
- ^ "Iraq beat Iran on penalties to settle classic Asian Cup encounter". The Guardian. 2015-01-23. Archived from the original on 2023-04-30.
- ^ "Iranian women stand united in protest and hope at Asian Cup". The Guardian. 2015-01-23. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04.
- ^ Former Socceroos blast referee Ben Williams for 'embarrasing' [sic] send-off in Iran's Asian Cup loss to Iraq
- ^ Iran 2-0 Chile
- ^ Ibra silences raucous Iran fans to give Sweden 3-1 win
- ^ Regimkritiska budskap på Friends kan ge böter
- ^ Queiroz quits as Iran coach Archived 2015-03-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Asian draw throws up derbies and drama
- ^ U-turn as Carlos Queiroz stays as Iran coach
- ^ "Iran, Turkmenistan tie 1-1 in 2018 World Cup qualifier".
- ^ "Oman, Iran Share Points in World Cup/ Asian Cup Qualifiers - Sports news - Tasnim News Agency". Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
- TheGuardian.com. 5 September 2017.
- TheGuardian.com. 15 June 2018.
- ^ "Spain hold off resilient Iran to move a step closer to World Cup qualification". 20 June 2018.
- ^ "Iran 1-1 Portugal: VAR's the star as referee awards two penalties and hands Cristiano Ronaldo tough task in World Cup - Adrian Kajumba - Mirror Online". Daily Mirror. 25 June 2018.
- ^ "Iran thrash Yemen 5-0 in first match of AFC Asian Cup".
- ^ "Iran beats Vietnam 2-0 for 2nd win at Asian Cup". 12 January 2019.
- ^ "Iran into the quarter-finals with solid performance against Oman". 20 January 2019.
- ^ "China 0 Iran 3: Azmoun punishes Lippi's lacklustre side". 24 January 2019.
- ^ "Japan seal Asian Cup 2019 final spot with second half blitz". 28 January 2019.
- ^ "Iran sweeps Syria 5-0 during friendly football match - Xinhua | English.news.cn". Archived from the original on August 14, 2019.
- ^ "South Korea, Iran Draw 1-1 in Football Friendly".
- ^ "Hong Kong fans boo their own anthem in loss to Iran".
- ^ "Iran football loses 0-1 to Bahrain at World Cup qualifier". 15 October 2019.
- ^ "Iraq beats Iran 2-1 at FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 group C match - Xinhua | English.news.cn". Archived from the original on June 30, 2020.
- ^ "FIFA orders Iran to pay Wilmots €6m". 17 August 2020.