Sirous Ghayeghran ( fa, سيروس قايقران) (22 January 1962 – 7 April 1998) was an Iranian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and former captain of

Iran national football team ) ''(the national team)' other nicknames'' , Badge = Flag_of_Iran.svg , Badge_size = 190px , Association = Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran , FIFA Trigramme = IRN , FIFA Rank ...

Playing career

Club career

He played most of his club career for Malavan FC. In 1990, he signed for Ai-Ittihad of

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. He did not forget his roots and soon returned to Malavan, helping the club win the

Hazfi Cup Hazfi Cup (Jām-e Hazfi; ) is the Iranian football knockout cup competition, run by the Iranian Football Federation. The Iranian football league was not held during the 1980s, hence the winner of Hazfi Cup represented Iran in the Asian Club Cha ...

and participate in the

Asian Club Championship The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

. In 1993, he moved to the big spending team of the time Keshavarz FC, where he was also a coach. The team obtained respectable results but Ghayeghran moved to second division team ''Masoud Hormozgan'' where he coached once again. In 1997 and 1998 Ghayeghran stated numerous times that he would like to be involved with Malavan again, either as a coach or player.

International career

In February 1986 he made his debut for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. In 1987 Ghayeghran became the national team captain, after most of the already established national team members who had participated in the Asian tournaments from 1984 to 1986 resigned from playing (these included top stars such as Nasser Mohammadkhani, Hamid Alidoosti, Shahrokh Bayani, etc.) In 1988 thanks to Ghayeghran's leadership an underprepared and inexperienced Iran side finished third in the Asian Cup tournament. He and Mehdi Fonoonizadeh came out as the two players with their trademark long-range shots, which usually compensated for Iran's shortage in the area of teamwork. Two years later the team became the

1990 Asian Games The 1990 Asian Games also known as the XI Asiad and the 11th Asian Games ( zh, c=第十一届亚洲运动会, p=Dì shíyī jiè yàzhōu yùndònghuì), were held from September 22 to October 7, 1990, in Beijing, China. This was the first Asian Ga ...

champions, where Ghayeghran scored one of the most memorable goals in Iranian football history against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. He finished his international career with 43 caps and 6 goals.

Career statistics

International goals

Death

On 7 April 1998 as Ghayeghran and some family members were driving towards

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

during a holiday in

Norouz Nowruz ( fa, نوروز, ; ), zh, 诺鲁孜节, ug, نەۋروز, ka, ნოვრუზ, ku, Newroz, he, נורוז, kk, Наурыз, ky, Нооруз, mn, Наурыз, ur, نوروز, tg, Наврӯз, tr, Nevruz, tk, Nowruz, ...

, they collided with a truck, leaving Ghayeghran and his son dead.

Honors

Club

;Malavan *

: 1986, 1990 **Runner-up: 1987

National

;Iran *

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Third place In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place"). Examples of third places include churches, cafes, clubs, public ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Individual

* Asian Cup Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

*
Ghayeghran Biography

Ghayeghran Official Weblog

a
TeamMelli.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghayeghran, Sirous Iranian footballers Iran international footballers Association football midfielders Malavan players Iranian expatriate footballers People from Bandar-e Anzali Road incident deaths in Iran 1962 births 1998 deaths Al-Gharafa SC players Keshavarz players Asian Games gold medalists for Iran 1988 AFC Asian Cup players 1992 AFC Asian Cup players Sportspeople from Gilan province Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Qatar Stars League players Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games 20th-century Iranian people