Sepahan S.C.

Shahin Isfahan Club

In 1953, with the help of Iran national football team player Mahmoud Hariri the Shahin Isfahan football club was created. This club was one of the teams attached to the more popular and successful Shahin F.C. of Tehran. In 1963 Shahin as the representative of Isfahan Province became champions of Iran after a 1–1 draw against Tehran XI. In 1967 due to the problems that arose in the Shahin F.C. organization in Tehran, the Isfahan branch was forced to cease operations. The club changed its name to Sepahan. The club participated in the Takht Jamshid Cup league from 1974 to 1978. In the club's first season in the Takht Jamshid Cup they finished in 10th place ahead of city rivals Zob Ahan.

After the Revolution, they played in the local Isfahan leagues for many years until 1993. That year the club was purchased by the Siman-e-Sepahan (Sepahan Cement) factory of Isfahan. It participated in the Azadegan League until the year 2000, when Foolad Mobarekeh (Steel Mill of Mobarekeh Isfahan) bought the team from the Siman factory. The team now plays under the name of Foolad Mobarakeh Sepahan, and enjoys very good support by the club board, and has been able to attain a respectable fan base in its hometown.

The club was able to demonstrate its worth when it captured the league title in the 2002–03 season of the IPL, and qualified for the AFC Champions League tournament with Farhad Kazemi. It also won the Hazfi Cup in 2004 and was able to qualify for another season of the ACL competition, though the club did not have much success in the continental tournaments of ACL 2004 and 2005.

Sepahan in a match against Homa during 1975–76 season

With Luka Bonačić, Sepahan was able to once again win the Hazfi Cup on 22 September 2006. With this win, they gained Iran's final and second spot in the AFC Champions League 2007. They were impressive in continental stage as they finished top of their group and defeated Kawasaki Frontale of Japan and Al Wahda of the UAE to reach the final of the newly established continental tournament for the first time. Although they lost the final to Urawa Red Diamonds on aggregate, by reaching the final, Sepahan became the first Iranian club to qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup.

In the opening match of the FIFA Club World Cup 2007, Sepahan defeated Waitakere United of New Zealand to reach the quarter-final where they met Urawa Red Diamonds for a spot in the semifinal match against AC Milan. Urawa Reds managed to defeat Sepahan for the second time in just one month, reaching the semifinals of the FIFA Club World Cup.

By winning the Hazfi Cup once again in 2007, Sepahan also qualified for the AFC Champions League 2008, but could not repeat their success of 2007.

Sepahan has qualified for the AFC Champions League for the third consecutive time in 2009, coming as the Runners-up in Persian Gulf Cup 2007-08. Sepahan lost the title by only one point to Persepolis F.C., who beat them 2–1 in the last match of the season with a winner six minutes into second half injury time. They tried to improve the team by sacking the Brazilian coach Viera and replacing him with the German coach Firat but they had a difficult season where they could not win anything in the 2008–09 season and changed the coach three times.

In the next season Sepahan hired Turkish and former Iran's assistant coach Engin Firat, but he was fired after getting poor result in the league, and Hossein Charkhabi who was Sepahan Novin head coach at that time replaced Firat. Despite getting good result with the team Charkahbi was replaced once again with Farhad Kazemi who won the league title with Sepahan in the 2002–03 season. Finally Sepahan finished 4th in the league and qualified for the 2010 AFC Champions League Group stage. In the next season the club hired former Iran and Esteghlal head coach Amir Ghalenoei, at the helm of Sepahan's 2010 Season, the club sealed a championship title two weeks before the end of the season with a 2–2 tie against F.C. Aboomoslem.[2]

In the 2010–11 Persian Gulf Cup, Sepahan dominated the league after a slow start and practically won the title two weeks before the season end. They also advanced to the knock out stage of the ACL competition, after finishing on top of the table in the group stage. Their group was arguably the group of death, consisting of Al-Hilal, Al Gharafa and Al-Jazira. They won their third championship and became the most successful team in Iran Pro League.

They also repeated their league title in 2011–12 season, this time with Croatian manager, Zlatko Kranjčar. Sepahan also made it to the quarter-finals of 2012 AFC Champions League after defeating the fellow Iranian club Esteghlal.

In 2013 however, Sepahan was placed in Group C of the 2013 AFC Champions League and was unable to get past the 2013 AFC Champions League group stage. Being placed in the same group as Al-Gharafa Sports Club of Qatar, Al-Ahli SC of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates' Al Nasr SC, they could not qualify as one of the top two teams of their group. Sepahan started the 2013 AFC Champions League with a great win at home against Al Nasr SC, however heading for an away game against Al-Gharafa Sports Club in Qatar, Sepahan only returned home humiliated by the Qatari team in a 3–1 lost game. That was not the end of Sepahan's poor performance in the AFC Champions League. About three weeks after their loss in Qatar, Sepahan hosted Al-Ahli SC at Foolad Shahr Stadium, losing poorly once again but this time with a score of 4–2. Sepahan still had a chance after those two losses, but all hopes were lost once they lost in front of the Saudi giants again, this time with a score of 4–1 thus having them bid farewell to the 2013 AFC Champions League.

Sepahan players celebrating their fifth league title in 2015

In the 2013–14 Iran Pro League season, Sepahan finished 4th, thus missing out on the AFC Champions League for the first time in five years. At the end of the season, Croatian manager Zlatko Kranjčar announced that he would not be returning for the 2014–2015 season. Sepahan also struggled in the Champions League as well, failing to make it past the group stage with a 1–0 loss to Al Hilal on the final match day. After originally announcing he was leaving the club, Sepahan announced that they had extended the contract of Kranjčar for another season.

Sepahan started the 2014–15 season with three wins in a row. However, Sepahan did not win their next four matches. Kranjčar resigned on 8 September 2014 and was replaced with former Foolad manager Hossein Faraki.

On 15 May 2015, with a 2–0 Sepahan victory over Saipa and Tractor drawing 3–3 with Naft Tehran, Sepahan won their fifth league title with a one-point margin over runner up Tractor. With the league victory, Sepahan returned to the AFC Champions League after a one-year absence.

On 12 November 2015 Hossein Faraki left Sepahan for personal problems. Faraki left by saying "Things just don’t seem to be working out for me and I decided to quit my job in the team, I have nothing more to say because I think Sepahan needs concentration at the moment since they will play in Iran’s Hazfi Cup on Thursday," [3][4]

After Hossein Faraki's resignation, the club signed former Croatian national team manager Igor Štimac. Igor Štimac won his first game against Naft Tehran, but after not winning a game in 10 weeks made the situations harder for Sepahan. Sepahan got knocked out of the Hazfi Cup by their rivals, Zob Ahan in penalties at the semi-final. Sepahan also went out of the AFC Champions League after losing five times in the first round. Igor Štimac resigned as Sepahan head coach on 20 April 2016, after a run of unsuccessful results which led the league champions Sepahan to end up in 11th place and out of both season's cups, Hazfi Cup and AFC Champions League.

Before the start of the 2016–17 season, Abdollah Veisi who had led Esteghlal Khuzestan to the league title, was announced as the new manager of Sepahan but sepahans poor results continued so they announced Zlatko Kranjčar as their new manager. Sepahan finished the season in the 5th place.

Main articles: Isfahan Derby

The Nagsh-e- Jahan derby is a football match played annually in of Isfahan, Iran, between the two rival professional teams of the city: Zob Ahan F.C. and Sepahan F.C.. Naqsh-e Jahan is an important square in old centrum of Isfahan.

According to Iranian football journalist Afshin Afshar, the competition is one of the most popular annual football events in Iran.[5] The Isfahan derby goes back to the 1970s, when Zob Ahan F.C. and Sepahan F.C. faced each other in Takht Jamshid Cup seasons (1974/75, 1975/76, 1976/77, 1977/78). Their rivalry resumed in the 1990s when they faced each other in Azadegan League seasons (1993/94, 1996/97, 1997/98) and from then on the two met each other twice a year.

Main articles: Esteghlal–Sepahan rivalry

Main articles: Persepolis–Sepahan rivalry

Esteghlal–Sepahan and Persepolis–Sepahan rivalries are the two important Iran Football Rivalries played between Sepahan and two Tehran based football clubs: Esteghlal and Persepolis.

• Iran Pro League/Persian Gulf Pro League
  • Winners (5): 2002–03, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2014–15
  • Runners-up (2): 2007–08, 2018–19
• Hazfi Cup
  • Winners (4): 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2012–13

• AFC Champions League

Runners-up (1): 2007

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Payam Niazmand 2 DF Mohammad Iranpourian 5 DF Ezzatollah Pourghaz INJ 6 MF Mehdi Kiani (Vice Captain) 7 DF Saeid Aghaei U25 8 MF Rasoul Navidkia (Captain) 9 FW Sajjad Shahbazzadeh 10 MF Mohammad Reza Hosseini 11 MF Mohsen Mosalman 16 FW Muhsen Al-Ghassani U23 17 FW Reza Mirzaei 18 FW Ali Babaei U21 19 MF Omid Noorafkan U23 20 FW Mohammad Mohebi U23 21 MF Mohammad Karimi U25 22 DF Mohammad Tayyebi

No. Position Player 23 MF Ali Khosravi U23 24 MF Alireza Naghizadeh INJ 25 FW Ali Ghorbani 30 DF Giorgi Gvelesiani 36 GK Ali Keykhosravi U21 37 DF Morteza Mansouri 38 MF Yasin Salmani U21 50 GK Shahab Adeli U23 55 GK Amir Hossein Nikpour U21 66 DF Mohammadreza Mehdizadeh 67 DF Mehdi Torkaman 69 DF Shayan Mosleh 73 MF Soroush Rafiei 77 MF Vladimir Koman 88 FW Kiros Stanlley

• [U21 = Under 21 year player | U23 = Under 23 year player| U25 = Under 25 year player| INJ = Out of main squad due to injury]

For recent transfers, see List of Iranian football transfers summer 2019.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player DF Davoud Rajabi U23 (at Baadraan until June 2020) MF Reza Dehghani U23 (at Nassaji until June 2020) MF Mohammad Papi U23 (at Gol Reyhan until June 2020) MF Mohammad Zeynali U23 (at Navad Urmia until June 2020) FW Abolfazl Akasheh U21 (at Aluminium Arak until June 2020) MF Hamed Bahiraei U25 (at Nassaji until June 2020) DF Mehdi Rahimi U21 (at Nassaji until June 2020)

For details on former players, see Category:Sepahan players.

See: List of Sepahan players

Below is a list of Sepahan coaches from 1953 until the present day.[7][8][9]

Name	Nationality	Years
Mahmoud Hariri		1953–1960
Technical Commission		1960–1970
Mahmoud Yavari		1970–1978
Zdravko Rajkov		1978
Mahmoud Yavari		1978–1980
Masoud Tabesh		1980–1993
Firouz Karimi		1993–1994
Nasser Hejazi		1994–1995
Mahmoud Yavari		1995–1996
Rasoul Korbekandi		1996–1998
Mehdi Monajati		1998–1999
Hamid Nadimian		1999–2001
Stanko Poklepović		2001–2002
Farhad Kazemi		2002–2005
Stanko Poklepović		2005
Edson Tavares		2005–2006
Luka Bonačić		2006–2008
Jorvan Vieira		2008
Engin Firat		2008
Hossein Charkhabi		2008
Farhad Kazemi		2008–2009
Amir Ghalenoei		2009–2011
Luka Bonačić		2011
Zlatko Kranjčar		2011–2014
Hossein Faraki		2014–2015
Igor Štimac		2015–2016
Ghasem Zaghinejad*		2016
Abdollah Veisi		2016–2017
Zlatko Kranjčar		2017–2018
Mansour Ebrahimzadeh		2018
Amir Ghalenoei		2018–