Jump to content

Saipa F.C.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saipa
سايپا
Full nameSaipa Football Club
Nickname(s)Carmakers
The Foxes
Oranges
Founded1 February 1989; 35 years ago (1989-02-01)
GroundShahid Dastgerdi Stadium
Capacity8,250
OwnerAihan Amerian
ChairmanKamran Amerian
ManagerEbrahim Sadeghi
LeagueAzadegan League
2023-24Azadegan League, 5th
Websitehttp://www.saipasport.com/
Current season

Saipa Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال سايپا, Bashgah-e Futbal-e Saipa) is a football club from Tehran, Iran. The team is owned by SAIPA, an Iranian automobile manufacturer. The team has never had a large fanbase. In the 2006–07 season, under the guidance of Ali Daei, Saipa won their only Persian Gulf Cup title. Saipa has also won the Azadegan League twice and the Hazfi Cup once. Saipa is the football club of the multisport Saipa Cultural and Athletic Corporation.

History

[edit]
Team training in February 2019

Early days

[edit]

In 1989, SAIPA Company decided to start its own football team. They purchased a team playing in the 4th division of Tehran's city league, and renamed it Saipa F.C. After back to back promotions starting in the first year, the Karaj based club was playing in the 2nd division by 1991. That same year they purchased the Shipping Department team's shares, and participated in the 1st division of Tehran's local league. In that year they won the Tehran city championship as well as the Tehran Super Cup, thus attaining the right to play in Iran's top league at the time, the Azadegan League.

Azadegan League

[edit]

In their first year in the Azadegan League they won the championship, as well as the Hazfi Cup. They also won the league championship again in 1994. The team was relegated into the second division in 1995, but were promoted again in the following year. Since their second promotion to the top tier, the club has remained in the middle of the league table.

Persian Gulf Pro League

[edit]

Ali Daei era

[edit]

By 2001, the club's on-field performance remained stable, occupying mid-table position most years. Shortly following Iranian goalkeeper Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh's retirement, he was linked with the head coaching job at Saipa. It never materialized, but the club signed another Iranian, Ali Daei in a move from Saba Battery. The club had finished third in the previous season and now, with Werner Lorant as a coach, the team aimed to work for the title. Shortly after the season began though, Littbarski was fired and Ali Daei took on the role of player/coach. Daei scored the winner in the title winning game. Daei extended his contract, this time as a full-time coach. He was appointed head coach of the national team but kept his role at Saipa until the end of the season.

Return to mid-table and relocation to Tehran

[edit]

Following the title winning year which saw the team play in the AFC Champions League, Saipa turned back into the mid-table places of the league again. Before the start of the 2015–16 Persian Gulf Pro League season Saipa announced they had moved their home city from Karaj to nearby Tehran.

Season-by-season

[edit]

The table below chronicles the achievements of Saipa in various competitions since 1993.

Season Pos. Hazfi Cup ACL
1993–94 Azadegan League 1st Winners did not qualify
1994–95 1st Second round
1995–96 16th 4th Place
1996–97 Second Division 2nd did not qualify
1997–98 Azadegan League 7th Not held
1998–99 4th
1999–2000 3rd Semifinal
2000–01 7th Semifinal
2001–02 Pro League 11th
2002–03 6th Quarterfinals
2003–04 13th Semifinal
2004–05 13th Quarterfinals
2005–06 3rd Round of 16
2006–07 1st Quarterfinals
2007–08 11th Round of 16 Quarterfinals
2008–09 10th Round of 16 did not qualify
2009–10 8th Third Round
2010–11 11th Fourth Round
2011–12 8th Round of 16
2012–13 9th Round of 16
2013–14 8th Round of 16
2014–15 7th Round of 16
2015–16 8th Semifinals
2016–17 13th Semifinals
2017–18 4th Round of 16
2018–19 7th Semifinals Play-off
2019–20 14th Quarterfinals did not qualify
2020–21 15th Round of 16
2021-22 Azadegan League 14th Third Round
2022-23

Honours

[edit]

Players

[edit]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Iran IRN Nima Alipour
2 DF Iran IRN Moein Ghorbani
4 DF Iran IRN Seyed Jalal Abdi
5 DF Iran IRN Alireza Khoshkafa
6 MF Iran IRN Mahmoud Shafiei
7 MF Iran IRN Sadegh Barani
10 FW Iran IRN Seyed Peyman Miri
11 FW Iran IRN Milad Jahani
12 GK Iran IRN Erfan Bahri
13 DF Iran IRN Majid Ghashghaei
14 MF Iran IRN Mehrshad Seydi
15 DF Iran IRN Erfan Hassanpour
16 FW Iran IRN Mohammadhossein Alipour
18 FW Iran IRN Reza Galedar
19 FW Iran IRN Ali Sobhani
No. Pos. Nation Player
21 FW Iran IRN Amirhossein Yahyazadeh
22 GK Iran IRN Alireza Mokarram
23 DF Iran IRN Navid Baadab
24 GK Iran IRN Mohammadreza Bagheri
26 DF Iran IRN Mahyar Zahmatkesh
28 FW Iran IRN Amirhossein Amanipour
30 MF Iran IRN Mehdi Karbalaei
35 MF Iran IRN Abolfazl Karamollahi
37 MF Iran IRN Mehdi Khodayari
40 DF Iran IRN Ehsan Joudaki
41 DF Iran IRN Yasin Jorjani
66 MF Iran IRN Ali Dehghan
77 FW Iran IRN Ali Zare
98 GK Iran IRN Farzad Tayebipour
99 FW Iran IRN Alireza Maleki

Individual Records

[edit]

All Top Appearances

[edit]
# Name Nationality Apps
1 Ebrahim Sadeghi Iran Iran 452
2 Majid Ayoubi Iran Iran 338
3 Roozbeh Shahalidoost Iran Iran 254
4 Hamed Shiri Iran Iran 166
5 Mohsen Khalili Iran Iran 156
6 Ali Zeinali Iran Iran 150
7 Omid Sharifinasab Iran Iran 149
8 Javad Ashtiani Iran Iran 143
9 Hamed Fallahzadeh Iran Iran 138
10 Ebrahim Shakouri Iran Iran 133

All Top Scorers

[edit]
# Name Nationality Goals
1 Mohsen Khalili Iran Iran 62
2 Karim Ansarifard Iran Iran 56
3 Ebrahim Sadeghi Iran Iran 41
4 Amin Manouchehri Iran Iran 25
5 Hamed Shiri Iran Iran 22
6 Sajjad Shahbazzadeh Iran Iran 21
7 Mehdi Torabi Iran Iran 20
8 Javad Kazemian Iran Iran 16
9 Arman Ramezani Iran Iran 15
10 Omid Sharifinasab Iran Iran 14

Manager

[edit]

Coaching staff

[edit]
Staff[1] Name
Head coach Iran Faraz Kamalvand
First team coach Iran Asghar Maziar
Assistant coach Iran Mehdi Zarei
Iran Kazem Borjlou
Goalkeeping coach Iran Farshad Bakhtiarizadeh
Fitness coach Iran Ali Asghar GhorbanaliPour
Doctor Iran Mahyar Mortazavi
Analyzer Iran Mohammad Palizvan
Technical Manager Iran Asghar Hajiloo
B team Manager Iran Kianoush Rahmati

The following managers had managed Saipa since 1993:

Name Period Trophies
Iran Bijan Zolfagharnasab 1993–97 2 Azadegan League, Hazfi Cup
Iran Nasrollah Abdollahi 1997–00
Iran Behtash Fariba 2000–01
Iran Hamid Alidoosti 2001–02
Italy Giovanni Mei 2002–03
Iran Mohammad Mayeli Kohan 2003–04
Iran Bijan Zolfagharnasab 2004–06
Germany Werner Lorant 2006
Iran Ali Daei 2006–08 1 Persian Gulf Cup
Germany Pierre Littbarski 2008
Iran Mohammad Mayeli Kohan 2008–11
Iran Majid Saleh 2011–12
Iran Mojtaba Taghavi 2012–13
Turkey Engin Firat 2013–14
Iran Majid Jalali 2014–16
Iran Hossein Faraki 2016–17
Iran Ali Daei 2017–19
Iran Ebrahim Sadeghi 2019–21
Iran Faraz Kamalvand 2021

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "سازمان لیگ فوتبال ایران".
[edit]