Alireza Mansourian (; born 2 December 1971) is an Iranian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and retired player.

Club career

Mansourian was born in Tehran. During his career, he played for Singapore S.League clubs: Balestier Khalsa and

Geylang United Geylang International Football Club is a professional football club based in Bedok, Singapore, that competes in Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club was founded in 1973 and played their first season in 1 ...

along with the Iranian club Esteghlal. He moved to Greek club

Skoda Xanthi Xanthi Football Club () is a Greek Association football, football club based in Xanthi, Western Thrace. They play their home matches at Skoda Xanthi Arena Founded in 1967, Xanthi is well set up in terms of their financial support and youth set ...

in 1998 after Xanthi fans contributed to raise the amount of money needed to complete the transfer. He played for Skoda Xanthi for one and a half seasons, taking part in 23 games. In December 1999, Mansourian went to Greek club Apollon Smyrnis for six months where he played seven games and scored once. After Apollon's relegation, he continued his career in Germany with

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St. Pauli (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg. The team plays in the Bundesliga from the 2024–25 Bundesli ...

where he remained for two seasons. Finally he returned to Iran and Esteghlal where he was appointed as the team's captain. Mansourian said farewell to professional football at the end of the 2007–08 season in which Esteghlal became

Hazfi Cup Hazfi Cup (, ) formerly known as Pahlavi Cup () is an Iranian knockout football competition held annually by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranian Football League, Iranian football league was not held during the 1980s, h ...

champions.

International career

Mansourian made 46 appearances for the Iran national team and scored eight goals. He also participated in the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

Coaching career

Early years

He was head coach of PAS for four months in 2009. In August 2010,

Afshin Ghotbi Afshin Ghotbi (, born 8 February 1964) is an Iranian football coach who works as head coach of Vancouver FC in the Canadian Premier League. Early life Afshin Ghotbi was born in Tehran. He is the son of a teacher in Iran with whom he left Iran ...

chose Mansourian as his assistant coach for the

Iran national football team The Iran national football team (), recognised as IR Iran by FIFA since 2018, represents Iran in men's international senior Association football, football and is governed by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI). At the cont ...

. After resignation of Ghotbi as head coach of national team, Mansourian was named as interim head coach until the appointment of

Carlos Queiroz Carlos Manuel Brito Leal de Queiroz (; born 1 March 1953) is a Portuguese football manager. He has served as the manager of his native Portugal's national team, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Iran, Colombia, Egypt and Qatar, leading ...

. He also coached Iran in a 1–0 win against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Iran U-23

On 28 April 2011, he became head coach of the Iranian national under-23 football team. On 2 January 2014, Mansourian resigned as head coach of Iran's under-23 side. He was replaced with

Nelo Vingada Eduardo Manuel "Nelo" Martinho Bragança de Vingada (born 30 March 1953) is a Portuguese football manager and former footballer. Managerial career Early years Vingada was born in Serpa. His first steps as a professional football manager were ...

Naft Tehran

He became manager of

Iran Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League (, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Premier League (, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is a professional association football league in Iran and the highest level of the Iranian football league s ...

club Naft Tehran on 31 May 2014. He led Naft Tehran to the third position and

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

game of

in his first season at the club. They lost Hazfi Cup final to Zob Ahan. Mansourian's team also showed a good performance at

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

. Naft Tehran qualified from group stage after finishing second in their group. They also defeated Saudi Arabia's Al-Ahli in Round of 16 by away goals rule. However, they lost to Al-Ahli Dubai in Quarter-finals. At the end of the season, Esteghlal offered Mansourian to take the charge of their team after sacking of Amir Ghalenoei. The negotiations broken after Naft Tehran refused to release Mansourian. Mansourian signed a contract extension on 19 August 2015 for next two years. Naft Tehran began the season with selling of some of their squad stars, like Kamal Kamyabinia to

Persepolis Persepolis (; ; ) was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (). It is situated in the plains of Marvdasht, encircled by the southern Zagros mountains, Fars province of Iran. It is one of the key Iranian cultural heritage sites and ...

, Hossein Ebrahimi to Foolad and Leandro Padovani to

Sepahan Foolad Mobarakeh Sepahan Sport Club (, ''Bâšgâh-e Farhangi-Varzeši-ye Fulâd-e Mobârake-ye Sepâhân''), commonly known as Sepahan, is an Iranian sports club based in Isfahan. It is best known for their football section that play in the P ...

. Unless Naft facing financial problems during the season, Mansourian finished the season with Naft in fifth position. After the end of the season, Mansourian officially resigned and left the club. He received offers from English team

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

in late 2015, but he turned it down to take over his former club Esteghlal Tehran. There was a tremendous pressure from the fans to bring him back to Esteghlal Tehran.

Esteghlal

On 1 June 2016, Mansourian was named as head coach of Esteghlal, signed a three-year contract with the club. On 20 September 2017, he resigned from his role having managed the team for 16 months. Following his resignation, his assistant coach Mick McDermott took the job as caretaker manager.

Zob Ahan

On 15 November 2018, Mansourian became head coach of Zob Ahan, replacing Omid Namazi. On 18 December 2019, Mansourian stepped down as Zob Ahan football club's coach by mutual consent.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Iran's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mansourian goal.''

Managerial statistics

Mansourian coaching Naft Tehran against El Jaish

Honours

Player

Esteghlal * Iranian Football League (2): 1997–98, 2005–06, Runners-up 2003–04 *

(2): 1995–96, 2007–08, Runners-up 2003–04 *

: Runners-Up 1998–99 Iran 1998 Asian Games Football:Goald medal

Manager

Naft Tehran *

runner-up: 2014–15 Esteghlal *

Persian Gulf Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League (, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Premier League (, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is a professional association football league in Iran and the highest level of the Iranian football league s ...

runner-up: 2016–17

Individual

*IFCA Manager of the Month: March 2015

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansourian, Ali Reza 1971 births Footballers from Tehran Living people Men's association football midfielders Iranian men's footballers Iran men's international footballers Nirooye Zamini F.C. players Esteghlal F.C. players Balestier Khalsa FC players Geylang International FC players Xanthi F.C. players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players FC St. Pauli players Persian Gulf Pro League players Azadegan League players Singapore Premier League players Super League Greece players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 1996 AFC Asian Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Asian Games gold medalists for Iran Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games Iranian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Singapore Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Singapore Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Iranian football managers Pas Hamedan F.C. managers Iran national football team managers Esteghlal F.C. managers Zob Ahan Esfahan F.C. managers Tractor S.C. managers Aluminium Arak F.C. managers Sanat Naft Abadan F.C. managers Foolad F.C. managers Persian Gulf Pro League managers