Bakhtiarizadeh takes interim role as Esteghlal pursues new coach
Former Iranian international center-back Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh was named as the interim coach of Esteghlal as the Tehran Blues seek to appoint “a high-profile foreign manager” in the coming days, the Persian Gulf Pro League club said on Tuesday.
Bakhtiarizadeh, 51, replaces Javad Nekounam, who stepped down from his role after a 2-0 loss to Al Sadd in the AFC Champions League Elite on Monday.
The defeat in Doha was Esteghlal’s third in seven outings in all competitions this season – more than the club conceded across the entire previous campaign (2).
Having seen a significant portion of the Blues faithful turn against him for his defensive approach in the derby defeat against Persepolis last week as well as his never-ending feud with the club hierarchy, Nekounam handed first his resignation last Thursday, only to see his decision rejected with the Al Sadd game looming.
An ex-Esteghlal player in the early 2000s, Bakhtiarizadeh was last in charge of a top-flight team in February, when he took the role at San’at Naft Abadan but parted ways with the southern Iranian side after just seven games.
The interim coach’s first game on the Blues bench will come on Saturday against Havadar, which is yet to win a game in the league this season and sits rock bottom of the table with three points.
Without a league victory since the opening-day win at Shams Azar, Esteghlal will head into the international break after the Saturday game, with tricky tests against Zob Ahan and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr coming Blues’ way in late October.
Rumors keep swirling around the Esteghlal job, with Portuguese Ricardo Sá Pinto headlining a list of candidates in the Iranian media.
In a statement published right after Nekounam’s departure on Monday night, Sa Pinto, who has been without a team since leaving APOEL Nicosia in June, expressed his desire to return to Esteghlal for a second spell, having steered the club to a third-place finish in the league as well as the domestic cup final in his previous season-long stint in the 2022/23 campaign.