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Ali Daei was named as the coach of Team Melli with the job of guiding his country to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. On 2 March 2008 IRIFF officially appointed Ali Daei as Team Melli‘s new head coach. Daei, whose playing career included spells at Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin, has not been in contention for the head coach job as he was still holding Saipa Club coaching job.
Spanish trainer Javier Clemente had been on the verge of agreeing to terms with Iran last month but talks collapsed when he refused to live full time in the country, leaving officials to search for a homegrown coach.
Daei, the leading international scorer in football history, had been mooted as an outside choice, but the focus had been on the candidacy of Iranian-American Afshin Ghotbi. “After examining Ali Daei’s plans, he was officially named as head coach of the national team,” ISNA quoted the Iranian football federation’s head Ali Kafashian as saying “Initial talks were held with Ali Daei over the past days and today we held a meeting with him where he submitted his plans to the federation,” he added.
Iran made a poor start to their World Cup campaign last month by only drawing with minnows Syria.
Prior to Team Melli job, Daei was the coach of Saipa Daei where he was appointed on 8th October 2006 following the departure of the German, Werner Lorant. By the end of that season, Daei managed to lift the Championship title for his club. In Team Melli, his start was not as promising as he began his coaching career with an away loss in Bahrain in preparation for the World Cup qualifiers at Kuwait.
Daei, whose career included spells at Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin, only retired fully from playing in 2007 and until now has coached Tehran club side Saipa.
Despite some initial difficulties, Daei managed to qualify for the next round of World Cup 2010 qualification, where Iran was grouped with South Korea, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and UAE. The difficulties, however, continued in the next round. A series of draws meant bleeding of points which put Iran behind their main rivals. A loss to Saudi Arabia at home in Azadi where Iran needed to win to assure themselves of qualification forced the federation to sack Ali Daei after one year in charge.
A strong believer in youthful talents, Daei introduced many new players such as Gholamreza Rezaei, and Ehsan Hajysafi, Daei’s squad was often in flux as to who would be invited to a fixture.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Matches” tab_id=”1610297310287-b9971fe9-7765″][vc_column_text]
| 1 | 21-Mar-08 | Friendly | Bahrain | 0-1 |
| 2 | 26-Mar-08 | WCQ | Kuwait | 2-2 |
| 3 | 25-May-08 | Friendly | Zambia | 3-2 |
| 4 | 02-Jun-08 | WCQ | UAE | 0-0 |
| 5 | 07-Jun-08 | WCQ | UAE | 1-0 |
| 6 | 14-Jun-08 | WCQ | Syria | 2-0 |
| 7 | 22-Jun-08 | WCQ | Kuwait | 2-0 |
| 8 | 07-Aug-08 | WAFF | Palestine | 3-0 |
| 9 | 11-Aug-08 | WAFF | Qatar | 6-1 |
| 10 | 13-Aug-08 | WAFF | Syria | 2-0 |
| 11 | 15-Aug-08 | WAFF | Jordan | 2-1 |
| 12 | 27-Aug-08 | Friendly | Azerbaijan | 1-0 |
| 13 | 06-Sep-08 | WCQ | Saudi Arabia | 1-1 |
| 14 | 15-Oct-08 | WCQ | Korea DPR | 2-1 |
| 15 | 09-Nov-08 | Friendly | Qatar | 1-0 |
| 16 | 19-Nov-08 | WCQ | UAE | 1-1 |
| 17 | 17-Dec-08 | Friendly | Ecuador | 0-1 |
| 18 | 19-Dec-08 | Friendly | China | 2-0 |
| 19 | 09-Jan-09 | Friendly | China | 3-1 |
| 20 | 14-Jan-09 | ACQ | Singapore | 6-0 |
| 21 | 28-Jan-09 | ACQ | Thailand | 0-0 |
| 22 | 11-Feb-09 | WCQ | Korea Rep | 1-1 |
| 23 | 14-Mar-09 | Friendly | Kenya | 1-0 |
| 24 | 23-Mar-09 | Friendly | Kuwait | 1-0 |
| 25 | 28-Mar-09 | WCQ | Saudi Arabia | 1-2 |
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| From | To | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | W% | |
| Team Melli | 1 March 2008 | 30 March 2009 | 25 | 16 | 6 | 3 | 42 | 15 | +27 | 64.00 |
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