Foreign coaches who lived in Iran 5+ years

[Rooyintan]

I decided to search and list all foreign coaches who lived in Iran for 5 years and more regardless of consecutive years in Iran. It seems most of them were Croatians. A quick look at major clubs from our big cities, it seems most foreigners who coached in Iran were Croatians, Portuguese, also some Brazilians, Germans and Romanians more than others [Turkish, British, Russian, Serbian, Dutch, Armenian, Azerbaijani and others].

Here is the list, if you know any more please post in thread. Thank you.

1. Vinko Begović (Croatia) [1999-2009, 2012-]

Appointments: 1999-2003 Foolad, 2003-2004 Persepolis, 2005-2006 Pegah Gilan, 2006-2007 Iran U23, 2007-2009 & 2012-2013 Pas Hamedan, 2013-2015 Mes Rafsanjan, 2015-2016 Mes Kerman, 2016 Gol Gohar.

2. Zdravko Rajkov (Yugoslavia) [1969-1978]

Appointments: 1969-1976 Taj, 1969-1970 Iran, 1978 Sepahan.

3. Darko Dražić (Croatia & Bosnia-Herzegovina) [2003-2007, 2010-2013, 2017-]


Appointments: 2003-2007 Persepolis (Assistant), 2007 Pegah Gilan, 2010-2011 Damash Iranian, 2011-2012 Mes Kerman (Assistant), 2012-2013 Damash (Assistant), 2017-2018 Mes Kerman, 2018- Mes Rafsanjan.

4. Nenad Nikolić (Croatia) [1999-2003, 2006-2008]

Appointments: 1999 Foolad B, 1999-2003 Foolad (Assistant coach), 2006 & 2007 Foolad, 2007-2008 Iran U20, 2008 Iran U23.

5. Carlos Queiroz (Portugal) [2011-2019]

Appointments: 2011-2019 Iran.

6. Branko Ivanković (Croatia) [2001-2006, 2015-]

Appointments: 2001-2002 Iran (assistant), 2002-2003 Iran U23, 2002-2006 Iran, 2015- Persepolis.

7. Zlatko Kranjčar (Croatia) [2009, 2011-2014, 2017-]

Appointments: 2009 Persepolis, 2011-2014 & 2017-2018 Sepahan, 2018- Iran U23.

8. Luka Bonačić (Croatia) [2003-2011, 2013-2014, 2017]

Appointments: 2003-2004 Foolad, 2004-2005 Esteghlal Ahvaz, 2006-2008 & 2011 Sepahan, 2009 Foolad, 2009-2010 & 2013 & 2014 Mes Kerman, 2010-2011 & 2017 Gostaresh, 2013-2014 Zob Ahan.

9. Vasile Godja (Romania) [1990-1997, 2003]

Appointments: 1990-1997 & 2003 Tractor Sazi.

10. Hans-Jürgen Gede (Germany) [1993-1995, 1998, 2005-2006, 2011-2014]

Appointments: 1993-1994 Persepolis (Assistant), 1994 Persepolis, 1994-1995 Iran U23, 1998 Iran (Technical Director), 2005-2006 Shahid Ghandi, 2011 Esteghlal (Assistant), 2011-2012 Zob Ahan (Assistant), 2013 Aluminium (Assistant), 2013-2014 Aluminium.

11. Engin Fırat (Germany & Turkey) [2006-2008, 2011, 2013-2014]

Appointments: 2006-2007 Saipa (Assistant), 2007-2008 Iran(Assistant), 2008 Sepahan, 2011 Gostaresh, 2013-2014 Saipa.

12. Alan Rogers (England) [1969-1974, 1976]

Appointments: 1969-1970 Paykan, 1971-1974 Persepolis, 1976 Shahbaz.

13. Yevgeny Lyadin (Soviet Union & Russia) [1974-1978, 1994-1995]

Appointments: 1974-1978 & 1994-1995 Zob Ahan.

[Karimi 8]

Interesting I wonde why the large Croatian population? Let’s see who the next team Melli coach will be he’ll most likely be foreign too.

[DR Strangemoosh]

Interesting I wonde why the large Croatian population? Let’s see who the next team Melli coach will be he’ll most likely be foreign too.

Combination of a number of factors

- Good political relations between IR and Croatia (Iran was the first Asian or Muslim-dominated country to recognise Croatia)

- Some cultural links between Croatia and Iran and vague ancestral links - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin...Iranian_theory

- Croatian coaches generally have a good pedigree, and are often good value (eg compared to a high-tier Italian/Portuguese/Spanish/English)

- Effective networks in Croatia between agents, intermediatory agencies, club and national team coaches, scouts and players.

We have had some great Croatian coaches, overall we have to thank guys like Ivic, Begovic, Bonacic etc... for their contributions to our football's development.

[ehsan singapore]

welcome to the croatian mafia

[Roxanaz80]

Croatians designed the tie...

[Foolad Khuzestan]

Croats have persian roots 2, google it.

[Sly]

Croatians designed the tie...

Interesting! I did not know that!

[Hadi]

Top coaches to ever coach in Iran:

Queroiz
Blazevic
Ivankovic
Ivic
Denizli

rest are trash

[Sarbaze-Vatan]

Top coaches to ever coach in Iran:

Queroiz
Blazevic
Ivankovic
Ivic
Denizli

rest are trash

How about Schafer and Kranjcar?

[Sly]

^^and Georges Leekens?

[soniq]

They've learnt from iranian coaches, just change your club every 1-3 years and rotate through the selection, example:

Just go where the money is.

[Futbaldoost]

Rajkov spoke Farsi. He had a heavy accent yet he was relatively fluent speaking without interpreters. I could understand him as a kid who loved football. I don't remember any other who did. It's rather disappointing that CQ did not learn Farsi considering that he is fluent in at least three languages.

[Roxanaz80]

Rajkov spoke Farsi. He had a heavy accent yet he was relatively fluent speaking without interpreters. I could understand him as a kid who loved football. I don't remember any other who did. It's rather disappointing that CQ did not learn Farsi considering that he is fluent in at least three languages.

Probably understood it after 8 years.
Had he learnt farsi, he might have had more koshteh mordeh.