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Profile: Afshin Ghotbi
Head Coach
Born in the city of Jahrom , Fars province on February 8, 1964. left Iran with his parents when he was 13 years old. He completed his studies in California with his majors being in computer science. Ghotbi engaged in football activities at small scale by coaching a ladies team in California.

in 1997 he was part of USA Football federation scouting team. In 2000 , the Korean FA recruited him as a match analyst where he worked with the Korean national team coaches. Ghotbi also worked as an assistant coach with the Korean Club Suwon Samsung Bluewings (followed by a similar post with the Los Angeles Galaxy)

In 2004 he returned back to Korea where he was appointed as an assistant coach working with a trio of Dutch coaches starting with Guus Hiddink , then under Dick Advocaat from October 2005 until July 2006. He continued as an assistant coach for Korea national football team under Dutch head coach Pim Verbeek from July 2006 till July 2007.

After the Asian Cup 2007 , where he was part of the coaching team of Korea which defeated Iran in the penalty shoot-out in the quarter finals, Ghotbi was recruited as Perspolis as a head coach. This was his first ever professional coaching appointment. In his first year , Ghotbi managed to win the championship for this popular Iranian club , but left the club early next season citing differences with the management.

Ghotbi was appointed as Team Melli head coach after the sacking of Ali Daei and the short appointment of Mayeli-Kohan in April 2009.
The best achievement of Ghotbi with Team Melli was in 2010 where he had an 8 match winning streak before the disappointment of losing to the reserve team of Kuwait in the final of the WAFF 2010 tournament.
The last major competition undertaking by Ghotbi's was the Asian Cup 2011 where Iran had an immaculate 100% record in the group stages beating Iraq , Kora DPR and UAE. However , for the fifth time in the row Iran had to play its nemesis Korea Rep. in the quarter final , where the East Asian won by a solitary goal in extra time. That was Ghotbi's last match as he bid farewell to the team.

Ghotbi's faced lots of difficulties while working in Iran mainly due to the lack of support he was receiving and the stand by the local coaches who were not convinced of his ability and resume.

He also had to deal with quite a few player's indiscipline and the coverage of these by the media creating some ill feelings in the camps. However , Ghotbi's management of these semi crises were admirable as he maintained the spirit of the team and managed to focus on his job demanding that his players ignore all the side issues while in the camps.
Start:
23-Apr-09
End: :
22-Jan-11
Matches: 30
Won : 16
Drawn : 6
Lost : 8
Winning ratio: 53.33%

Age:
60

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