He was also the head coach of Iran national football team from August 2006 to July 2007 where he managed the team for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup where Iran was eliminated in the quarter-finals. He returned as coach of Iran in 2023 and led them to a semi-final appearance at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
Ghalenoei has been regarded as an incompetent manager and his disputes with several footballers, especially Mahdi Torabi, has led to controversy.[1][2] In September 2025, following poor performance of the Iran national team, an unsuccessful petition was held to sack Ghalenoei as manager.[3]
Club career
Rah Ahan
Ardeshir "Amir" Ghalenoei was born on 21 November 1963 in Tehran, Iran. His father, a taxi driver, died when Amir was only thirteen years old. He began his career in the late 1970s after passing a technical test for Rah Ahan, one of the oldest clubs in the Iranian football. He played for the club's youth team for two years and was promoted to the first team squad in 1981 by Nasser Ebrahimi. He had a good performance there and scored three goals during the domestic Tehran Hazfi cup. Ghalenoei left the club after the club's head coach signed for Shahin.
Shahin
When Ebrahimi became Shahin's coach, Ghalenoei moved to Shahin along with him. Shahin had several national players such as Nasrollah Abdollahi, Mehdi Dinvarzadeh, Hamid Majd Teymouri. Ebrahimi left the club in 1984, succeeded by Mehrab Shahrokhi who was the head coach for a short period before being replaced by Nasrollah Abdollahi. Ghalenoei became the club's captain after the retirement of Dinvarzadeh. During his time in Shahin, he helped the team to finish as runner-up in two Tehran leagues in 1985 and 1986.
He played his last match for Shahin in a 2–0 victory against Persepolis where both goals were on Ghalenoei's assists. He left the team in the middle of the 1987–88 season and signed with the Qatari club of Al-Sadd.
Al-Sadd
He signed a 1+1⁄2-year contract with Al-Sadd in 1987. He helped his side to two domestic league titles and one Emir of Qatar (FA Cup) title. Al-Sadd also won 1988–89 edition of AFC Champions League in spring of 1989 after defeating Al-Rasheed in the final. However, Ghalenoei had already left the club and returned to Iran, and thus was not a member of the Asian champions squad.
Esteghlal
Esteghlal shirt with Ghalenoei name given to him by the club in 2023
He joined Esteghlal in July 1989 and played for the club until his retirement. He made his debut in a game against Persepolis in a quarter final Hazfi Cup match where he lost his penalty kick.
He won the Iran league title in his first full season (1989–90) at the club in spring 1990. Esteghlal also won the Asian Club Championship on the following season (1990–91) after nearly twenty years.
Ghalenoei lost most of the next season (1991–92) due to a heavy injury. At that season, Esteghlal could not obtain an entry to the next season (1992–93) of Azadegan league and thus was asked to play in the 3rd Division for one season. This meant the departure of many players like Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, Shahrokh Bayani, Majid Namjoo-Motlagh, Samad Marfavi and Reza Ahadi but Ghalenoei remained at the team and was chosen as the club's new captain. Esteghlal again rose to the top level of Iranian football in 1994–95 and was ranked second on their first season return to the competition. Ghalenoei also scored twice in the final game of the following season (1995–96) Hazfi Cup. In his last season in Esteghlal, they started off successfully both in the Iranian and Asian Cup Winners' Cup, but could not sustain the good performance. Their head coach, Mansour Pourheidari – who had the club to the Asian glory – resigned midseason and Nasser Hejazi was appointed as the head coach and finished the league with sixth position. He retired at the end of this season after missing many matches due to injury.
He was the captain of Esteghlal in the last four years of his career, known as "General", a title bestowed on him by fans due to his outstanding skills in leading the team during his career as the club.
After serving as the Esteghlal's interim head coach in 5 matches in spring 2002 and winning the Hazfi cup with this team, he was appointed as Esteghlal's assistant coach for the next season (2002–03). However, he left the team before the season started and joined Esteghlal Ahvaz in the 5th week of the 2002–03 league.
He was officially named as Esteghlal's head coach before the 2003–04 season by the club chairman Mohammad Gharib. He succeeded Mansour Pourheidari who Ghalenoei was his assistant for the years. At the end of the season, Esteghlal lost the league after a defeat to Esteghlal Ahvaz, team Ghalenoei coached in 2002 in the final match.
Iranian national team
IRIFF appointed Ghalenoei as head coach of the Iran national football team on 17 July 2006 to succeed Branko Ivanković. After finishing first in the qualifying round 2 points ahead of South Korea and then finishing first in the group stage of the final tournament in Malaysia, Iran lost to South Korea in the penalty shoot-outs of the Quarters Final match and was eliminated from the 2007 Asian Cup. Ghalenoei was heavily criticized by the press. After a period of discussion in the Iranian football federation, his contract was not renewed and national team was left with a caretaker manager for several months.
Mes Kerman
Despite being in negotiations with Uzbek League champions FC Pakhtakor Tashkent[4] on 1 January 2008, Ghalenoei signed a contract until the end of the 2007–08 season with Iran Pro League side Mes Kerman.[5] where he led the club to finish among the top teams of the second half-season, even though it was at the bottom of the table when he accepted the job.
Sepahan
He signed for Sepahan in summer 2009. Where he won the Persian Gulf Cup for the second time in a row, but failed to qualify for last 16 in the AFC Champions League for the second time in the row.
Ghalenoei renewed his contract with Sepahan for the upcoming season, where he won the league for the third time in the row and second time with Sepahan. Sepahan had excellent performance in AFC Champions League as well and qualified for quarter final with five wins in seven matches. However, after that he left Sepahan on 4 June 2011 due to conflict with the new board director[6] though he had led the club to the quarter finals of the AFC Champions League as the best team of the west Asian division.
On 13 June 2011, he was named as new Tractor head coach.[7]
Club statistics
These statistics include all formal club-level games since Ghalenoei started coaching at the highest division of Iran football in 2002: Iran Pro League, Hazfi Cup, and AFC Champions League.
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