Winfried Schäfer Appointed as Head Coach of Esteghlal

Winfried Schäfer has been appointed as the new head coach of Esteghlal Tehran, confirmed by the club's technical committee. Following Alireza Mansourian and Mick McDermott, the 67-year-old German coach will now lead the blue-clad team. He was also a candidate for the head coach position of the Iranian national team ten years ago. Schäfer has extensive experience working across various continents. According to Vietnamese media, he was on the verge of becoming the head coach in that country but did not reach a financial agreement. He played for teams such as Borussia Mönchengladbach and Karlsruher SC, winning the Bundesliga and the UEFA Cup with Mönchengladbach. He entered coaching in 1986 and has now completed three decades in this field. He has coached in Mönchengladbach, Karlsruher SC, Stuttgart, and Borussia Berlin, and was later appointed as the head coach of Cameroon, leading the team to the 2002 World Cup. His subsequent teams included Al Ahli and Al Ain in the UAE, before moving to coach FK in Baku. In 2011, he became the head coach of the Thailand national team, remaining in that position for two years. He spent some time at a Thai club and has been on the bench for the Jamaica national team since 2013. His coaching experience spans three continents, with achievements including winning the Africa Cup of Nations and being the runner-up in the Confederations Cup with Cameroon, as well as winning the Caribbean Cup and being the runner-up in the Gold Cup with Jamaica. As a club coach, he experienced winning the Intertoto Cup with Karlsruher SC, the UAE League with Al Ahli, and the UAE Super Cup with Al Ain. Bijan Taheri, a member of Esteghlal's technical committee, stated that Schäfer was selected from a pool of seven coaches. His contract runs until the end of this year, and he will start training tomorrow. In an interview with ISNA, he emphasized that they chose Schäfer based on his resume, price, and experience. His salary is around $280,000, which is significantly less than Fatih Terim's. It is possible that someone from the technical committee may become Schäfer's assistant. In this context, Alireza Mansourian resigned from the head coach position of Esteghlal football team, and Esteghlal Tehran has not won again. Esteghlal's advancement in the Iranian football cup, changes in the playing field of 'proxy teams', the war against the people in the streets of Iran, and the responsibility of the opposition and the potential radicalization of Iranian society are also highlighted.