November 16, 2007
BERLIN (AFP) – Former Cameroon coach Winfried Schaefer is in talks with the bosses of Iran's football team about coaching the national side, according to a report in German newspaper Die Welt on Friday.
"The people in charge of the Iranian team are keen to recruit me," Schaefer told the paper ahead of Monday's negotiations which will take place in Germany.
"This job interests me, the Iranian team is good, I already know certain players like Ali Karimi. The team is growing a little old and they didn't do so well at the Asian Cup, but they have many talented players," said the 57-year-old.
Iran, 38th in the world according to FIFA rankings, have been without a coach since they were knocked out of the Asian Cup in July by South Korea and Amir Ghalenoei was dismissed after their exit.
Schaefer won the African Nations Cup with Cameroon in 2002 and has coached for more than 20 years having launched the career of German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn while at Karlsruhe, for whom he used to play.
His last role was as coach of Al Ahli in Dubai from 2005 to February 2007 where he won the United Arab Emirates Championship in 2006 before being dismissed.
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فارسی
November 16th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Doesn’t seem like he has enough credentials to coach Iran
November 16th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
No he doesn’t, and a couple of th IFF guys have said that he is not on the top of the list, but who knows who is getting paid off here. So don’t be surprised if eynollAh bAgherzadeh becomes the coach. That will only let you that his dad mash bAgher paid off the right people so he could get the job!!!!!!
November 16th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
[...] Schaefer?!! It seems like the Iranian football’s downward spiral has no end! You can not add Schaefer’s name to the succession of foreign coaches that started in 1998 with Ivic and ended with Ivankovi [...]
November 18th, 2007 at 8:08 am
i think wimfried isn`t iran`s next coach
but i can say we need to much better coach like
jose pekerman for raising iran`s football quality
even yurgen klinsman ` any way i `ll hope to come good coach
November 19th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Pekerman is a Jew, what makes you think he would even step into Iran?
It’s a shame that Galaxy hires Ruud Gullit and the best Iran can do is hire some guy that was fiered by a club in Emirates. Although, I can see how hiring a decent coach would put a financial strain on Mr. Aliabadi’s budget.
November 19th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I am not so sure about the quality of this coach either, but I am guessing the best coaches around may not be willing to coach our team in Iran, or may ask for simply more money than IFF is wiling to offer.
November 20th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I agree with Behrad, no self respecting coach would take a coaching job with a federation that has no chief.
Regarding Faraz’s comment on Pekerman, I don’t know what his faith is, but there are Jewish people in Iran. I have even heard of tourists of Jewish faith who have travelled to and out of Iran without a problem. So I don’t think it is an automatic.
If you mean that Pekerman would never take the job because of his faith, that is possible, but we don’t know for sure, or do we?