Why I like Coach Afshin Ghotbi

June 11th, 2009 | By: Afshin Afshar | 2 Comments »

Team Melli Coach, Afshin Ghotbi Since Afshin Ghotbi stepped into the limelight of Iranian football, he has been a topic of conversation within Iranian football circles around the world.

The opinions of him are of course very subjective. The old school football establishment in Iran sees him as a threat, but overwhelming majority of young football fans simply adores him! I know this because I have a couple of football blogs and I get a lot of emails and comments through these blogs from the fans all over the world.

I remember the day that Perspolis clinched the Iranian league championship in the last minute of the last game of the season, there were floods of emails and comments from fans all across the world, and not only Perspolis fans either! There were fans of Perspolis’ old rivals Esteghlal who were happy to see the coach succeed!

The day that Ghotbi quit and left Perspolis, there was just a dreary feeling in every message I received. My friend’s report from Perspolis camp in Tehran reflected the same thing.
Then he returned; this time as the head coach of Team Melli. The fans were and are happy again.

Besides the fact that we share the same first name, we are both Iranian-Americans, are about the same age, and both live, until recently, in California, I like Afshin Ghotbi because he is a link.

Afshin Ghotbi is a link between my old and new countries. His story is one that I always enjoyed hearing; the young boy leaves his home country, struggles but manages to fit and make it in the new land, gets into the profession of his childhood dreams and excels at it, returns home to a warm welcome, promises big things and delivers to become a hero, leaves again in tears only to return and land on an even bigger stage.

I don’t know how Iran’s World Cup Qualifying Campaign might end, but no matter what the outcome, Afshin Ghotbi will always be a winner in my book!

Tags: Afshin Ghotbi, Perspolis, Team Melli

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Comments

By mansoor | June 11th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

I actually happened to be one of those “former rival” fans who congratulated him. It was a great victory and come-back. The problem we have these days, as we always have, is the rivalry beliefs that come before the success of the National Team; even though many of us Iranian fans may actually deny that.

Ghotbi is not Moses to show miracles in one or two games (even though, in my opinion he already has.)

Think about how it would look like if we make it through and have him to work with these guys to become prepared for the WC.

How many people criticized appointment of Jalal Talebi before the 1998 WC? Did he do bad? Not in my opinion. So what was the difference? He gave the team its needed identity back in a relatively short time. Afshin Ghotbi has brought that mentality back to the team. He is a real coach with great mentorship.

I wish we had made this decision a little earlier so that he had more time to prepare these guys. After watching 3 matches, I see beter harmony and chemistry among players. Gut tells me we see even a better team in Seol. I like the man for who is, what he knows, and what he brings to the table.

By kia | June 11th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

I agree Afshin jon. I like him too. For some the same reasons you mentioned above but also for the reason he was the best we could get at this time and the best IFF would let us have (even this was barely agreed to – they had no other choice). Also, because he is truely passionated about the game and the job. We could have hired some big shot highly paid European coach if we had a competent federation (who whould have pursuaded one to come to Iran and was inclined to keep him there). But even then, the passion and enthusiasm that Ghotbi brings with himself would have been missing. It makes a difference if you want to be there for money or politics (like some local ones), or you want to be there becasue it’s your dream….

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