Names popping up as Persepolis coach quest drags on
By Amirhadi
Arsalanpour
Staff writer
Rumors keep swirling around the future of Persepolis bench with numerous foreign names popping up as the candidates for the managerial role over the past couple of weeks.
While Esteghlal and Sepahan, which stood behind Persepolis in the newly-finished Persian Gulf Pro League season, are expected to continue with Javad Nekounam and Jose Morais at the helm respectively, Reds’ supporters are growing frustrated as they are yet to find out who will lead their team’s title defense for the start of the new campaign season in August.
The Tehran-based club announced on Friday that negotiations have been going on with “several candidates” since Brazilian interim coach Osmar Loss Vieira refused to take the permanent role.
Osmar took over from Yahya Golmohammadi – to whom he served as a number two – in January and led the Reds to a seventh top-flight crown in eight years but decided to move back to Brazil to stay close to his family.
Dragan Skocic, who steered Iran to a place at the 2022 World Cup before being replaced by Portuguese Carlos Queiroz for the finals in Qatar, was the first coach to be approached by Persepolis but a deal fell through over what was reported to be the Croatian’s wage demand.
Serie A coach Walter Mazzarri looked to be set for the Persepolis job in recent days, according to the Italian media and journalists, but the club’s sports deputy Hossein Badamaki said on Friday that the Reds and former Napoli manager are far from reaching full agreement as “his coaching staff are undecided on joining him for the new role.”
Another high-profile name brought up in the Iranian media is Dutch coach John van ‘t Schip, who took charge at struggling Ajax in October before a run of 14 wins in 25 outings saw the club finish fifth in the Eredivisie table and secure a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers.
However, Badamaki confirmed that the Dutchman’s “personal reasons” stalled the negotiations between him and Persepolis.
Meanwhile, Iranian website Football360 reported on Friday that Andrea Stramaccioni and Marcos Paqueta have also been lined up by Persepolis for the vacant job.
Stramaccioni is a familiar face for football fans in Iran as the 48-year-old Italian was appointed to the managerial role in Persepolis’s city rival Esteghlal for the start of 2019/20 campaign but his reign was cut short after seven months as he stepped down over unpaid wages.
Widely adored by the Tehran Blues’ fans, Stramaccioni has been without a team since being sacked by Qatari club Al Gharafa in October 2022.
Brazilian Paqueta, 65, is also no stranger to working in the Middle East, having been in charge of numerous clubs across the region over the past two decades – including Saudi giant Al Hilal as well as Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan in the Qatari top flight.
The head coach of Saudi Arabia during the 2006 World Cup, Paqueta led CR Belouizdad to a runner-up finish in the Algerian league earlier in the month.