Farhad Majidi (; born 3 June 1976) 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 former player who most recently managed Al Bataeh Club. He mostly played as

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for Esteghlal when he was a football player. He scored 2 important goal for AlAin at

2002–03 AFC Champions League The 2002–03 AFC Champions League was the twenty-second edition of Asia's premier football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and the first edition under the AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abb ...

Club career

Having played for Esteghlal Tehran for several seasons, Majidi's performance attracted

Rapid Vienna Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English language, English, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian cham ...

to recruit him for one season. However, the offer for a permanent transfer to Austria was not accepted by the Austrians, and they released Majidi who joined Al-Wasl in the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

. In the

UAE League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

and in combination with his compatriot

Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht * Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht (; born 30 June 1980) is an Iranian football coach and former player. He has played for Aboomoslem, Esteghlal, Al-Wasl, Persepolis, Steel Azin, Saba Qom, Paykan, Damash Gilan, Khoneh Be Khoneh, and the Iran nat ...

, Majidi scored a handful of goals and topped the league chart with Al Wasl. Majidi was unlucky with injuries and was out of action for quite a few matches. One of the highlights of Majidi's career was his short loan to

Al-Ain Al Ain () is a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the seat of the administrative division of the Al Ain Region. The city is bordered to the east by the Omani town of Al-Buraimi. Al Ain is the largest inland city in ...

. Majidi was the star of the

semi-final game against Dalian Shide. His goal helped Al Ain to reach the

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 ...

final match, eventually winning the trophy for the first time in the club's history. All together in the five years Majidi played for Al Wasl FC, he scored over 100 goals. He left Al Wasl in 2006, joining another UAE club,

Al-Nasr Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...

. On 10 February 2007, Majidi signed a contract until the end of the season with Al-Ahli. At the end of the season, Majidi signed a season-long contract with Esteghlal tehran. He extended his contract with Esteghlal tehran for two more season and he was mostly used as the attacking midfielder in 2008–09

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

which ended up in winning the league. He had a very good season in 2009–10 season where he was the top scorer of the team and one of the top scorers of ACL. On 21 December 2011, Majidi left Esteghlal due to personal problems and joined the

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

i side

Al Gharrafa Al Gharrafa () is a Qatari district of Al Rayyan City, which is located in the municipality of Al Rayyan. In close proximity to Education City and constituting a part of the Doha Metropolitan Area, the Doha Expressway and Al Shamal Highway run a ...

. He played until the end of the season at Al Gharafa and his contract was expired on 1 July 2012. Majidi announced his retirement from football on 28 September 2012 after Esteghlal refused to offer him a contract extension. but upon request of Esteghlal fans and management, he later withdrew his decision and rejoined the team with an 18-months contract on 18 December 2012. He then won the league title with the team and scored six goals. Finally, Majidi retired for the second time as a football player on 29 October 2013 after Esteghlal was unable to qualified to the finals of the

2013 AFC Champions League The 2013 AFC Champions League was the 32nd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 11th under the current AFC Champions League title. The defending champions, Ulsan ...

International career

He made his debut for Iran national football team in December 1996 in the

1996 Asian Cup The 1996 AFC Asian Cup was the 11th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in the United Arab Emirates between 4 and 21 Decembe ...

match against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. He was occasionally getting called up but never became a regular starter till the arrival of Branko Ivankovic where he was experiencing the top of his football. He was mostly benched by Ivankovic because of

Ali Daei Ali Daei ( ; born 21 March 1969) is an Iranian Association football, football manager and former professional footballer. A Striker (association football), striker, he was the captain (association football), captain of the Iran national footbal ...

and Arash Borhani and decided to leave

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

camp in 2004 just before the

2004 AFC Asian Cup The 2004 AFC Asian Cup was the 13th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held from 17 July to 7 August 2004 in China. ...

where Iran lost the

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America ...

match against Jordan in Tehran and he was benched for the whole match. Before the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

, he was called for a few friendlies but could not break it through to the tournament. Majidi was invited by Amir Ghalenoei and

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 ...

in 2006 and 2009 for the

2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification The 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification was held in late 2005 and the final qualification round was held from February to November 2006 with 25 nations participating. For the first time, the defending champions (Japan), did not earn an automatic ...

and

2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification The 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification saw various countries take part to determine 10 spots to the final tournament in Qatar under the new qualification system set by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Six other teams also qualified for th ...

for a couple of matches and was used as the substitute. He was called for few friendlies three months before

2011 AFC Asian Cup The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the secon ...

but decided to announce his retirement. Majidi was again invited on 23 August 2011 by

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 was the oldest player in the Iran national team since he had been a member of the team since 1996, however Majidi does not have many international caps. Farhad Majidi and the

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 ...

captain,

Ali Karimi Mohammad Ali Karimi ( ; born 8 November 1978) is an Iranian football coach and former professional footballer. During his professional football career, he has played as a playmaker in the Iran Pro League, UAE Pro League, Qatar Stars League and B ...

, were considered two of the fans' favorite players during the

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA#Structure, FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil national football team, Bra ...

. On 27 September 2011, Majidi announced his retirement from national playing.

Club statistics

*Assists

International goals

:''Scores and results list Iran's goal tally first.''

Managerial statistics

*The result of wins and losses on penalties is calculated in the statistics of wins and losses.

Honours

Player

Club

; 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 ...

: 1997–98, 2008–09, 2012–13 *

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 ...

: 2007–08 *

runner-up: 1998–99 *

semi final:2013 ;

: 2002–03 ; Al-Ahli *

UAE Football League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to wi ...

: 2005–06 ;

Al-Gharafa Al-Gharafa Sports Club () is a Qatari multi-sports club based in the Al Gharrafa district of Ar Rayyan, Al Rayyan municipality. The club is best known for its association football, football team, although it also has teams for other sports. The ...

Emir of Qatar Cup Emir of Qatar Cup (), also known as the Emir Cup, but changed to Amir Cup starting in 2019, is an association football tournament played every season by all first and second division teams in Qatar. The tournament is played in a knockout system, ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

National

;

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

WAFF Championship The West Asian Football Federation Championship (), or simply WAFF Championship, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF), the ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Manager

; Esteghlal *

: 2021–22 *

runner-up: 2019–20, 2020–21

References

External links

* * * * * *
Persianleague Profile

Soccermanager Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Majidi, Farhad 1976 births Living people Footballers from Qaem Shahr Footballers from Tehran Iranian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Iranian football managers Esteghlal F.C. players SK Rapid Wien players Al-Nasr SC (Dubai) players Shabab Al Ahli Club players Al Wasl F.C. players Al Ain FC players Al-Gharafa SC players Bahman F.C. players Esteghlal F.C. managers Iranian expatriate men's footballers Iran men's international footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Iranian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Azadegan League players Persian Gulf Pro League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players UAE Pro League players Qatar Stars League players Al-Ittihad Kalba SC managers Persian Gulf Pro League managers Al Bataeh Club managers