Moharram Navidkia ( fa, محرم نویدکیا, born 1 November 1982 in Isfahan,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

) is an Iranian retired

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 ...

, and was lately the head coach of

Sepahan Foolad Mobarakeh Sepahan Sport Club ( fa, باشگاه فرهنگی ورزشی فولاد مبارکه سپاهان اصفهان, ''Bâšgâh-è Varzeši-ye Fulâd-è Mobârake-ye Sepâhân''), commonly known as Sepahan S.C., are an Iranian spor ...

Persian Gulf Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League ( fa, لیگ برتر خلیج فارس, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Pro League ( fa, links=no, لیگ برتر ایران, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is the highest division of profe ...

from 2020 to 2022. He played for the club for 18 years and was its captain. He usually played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. During his career, he dealt with consecutive injuries, which made him unable to regain his top form. As an international player, he was the former captain of the Iran under-23 team and collected 25 caps for the senior team of

, before bidding his farewell in December 2009. His brother, Rasoul Navidkia is also a professional footballer who plays in

Early years

His original last name was Ghara Gozlu which he changed later to Navidkia. He is an ethnic

Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numer ...

originally from

Marand Marand ( fa, مرند; ; also Romanized as Morand) is a city and capital of Marand County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Marand is among major cities in the province. It is located in the north-west of capital of the province Tabriz. Marand ha ...

East Azerbaijan East Azerbaijan Province ( fa, استان آذربایجان شرقی ''Āzarbāijān-e Sharqi''; az-Arab, شرقی آذربایجان اوستانی) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is located in Iranian Azerbaijan, bordering Armenia, ...

Club career

He began his career at

football club in 1998. From 1998 to 2002 he played as the

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

, while from 2002 and by the suggestion of

Farhad Kazemi Farhad Kazemi ( fa, فرهاد کاظمی; born 1 July 1959 in Tehran) is an Iranian football coach With many professional clubs in his résumé, Kazemi has established himself as one of the top coaches in a country which has many enthusiastic f ...

his playing post has been changed to

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He managed to attract attention during the 2002–03 Iran Premier League season while playing for a team many at first thought to be average, but they won the championship title at the end. He was selected the best player of

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

for the 2003–04 season and was considered one of the best Iranian players despite his young age. Due to his potential talent, young age, and impressive performances, he was transferred to

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundeslig ...

even though he was injured at the time of the signing. He was not able to recover his old form, and went back to Sepahan in 2006 on loan. After the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Navidkia signed a contract with Sepahan again. He had difficulties with the injuries during his career in

and finally in the 2009–10 season he had his most stable season after a few years. He retired from football on 17 October 2016, after playing 16 years at

Club career statistics

*Last Update: 11 May 2019 * Assist Goals

International career

He was first selected to 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 ...

during the

West Asian Football Federation The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF; ar, اتحاد غرب آسيا لكرة القدم, Ittiḥād Gharb Āsiyā li-Kurat al-Qadam), founded in 2001, is an association of the football playing nations in Western Asia. Its founding members ...

tournament in 2002, which was held in Syria. He made his debut for Iran against

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in August 2002. His biggest achievement was winning the gold medal of the 2002 Asian Games with

Iran U-23 Iran national under-23 football team, also known as Iran U-23 or Iran Olympic Team; represents Iran in international football competitions in Olympic Games, Asian Games and AFC U-22 Asian Cup, as well as any other under-23 international footba ...

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

, where he continued his impressive display during the games. He played in the

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America) ...

for

Team Melli ) ''(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 ...

. Having been selected among Iran's reserve men for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, he was called up to join the team in Germany to replace injured

Sattar Zare Sattar Zare ( fa, ستار زارع, born 27 January 1982) is an Iranian football coach and former player who currently manages Bargh Shiraz. He played both the wing-back and midfield positions. Club career Zare started his youth career at ...

. He bid his farewell to national team in December 2009. In May 2011, he was called up to Iran national team by

Carlos Queiroz Carlos Manuel Brito Leal de Queiroz (; born 1 March 1953) is a Portuguese football coach who currently is the head coach of the Iran national team. He has served as the manager of his native Portugal's national team, the United Arab Emirat ...

, but he rejected the offer due to his "several injuries and surgeries" which makes him unable to play for both national team and club.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Iran's goal tally first.''

Managerial record

Awards and honours

Player

;Sepahan *

Iran Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League ( fa, لیگ برتر خلیج فارس, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Pro League ( fa, links=no, لیگ برتر ایران, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is the highest division of profe ...

(5): 2002–03, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2011–12, 2014–15 *

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 Ch ...

(4): 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* AFC Champions League Runner-up: 2007 ;Iran U-23 * Asian Games: 2002 ;Iran * WAFF Bronze medal: 2002 ;Individual * Football Iran News & Events Player of the season: 2002–03,

* Iranian Footballer of the Year: 2003, 2013

Manager

;Sepahan *

Runner-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Moharram Navidkia
a
TeamMelli.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Navidkia, Moharram 1982 births Living people Iranian footballers People from Marand Iran international footballers Association football midfielders Sepahan S.C. footballers VfL Bochum players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Persian Gulf Pro League players Azadegan League players 2. Bundesliga players Expatriate footballers in Germany Iranian expatriate footballers Sportspeople from Isfahan Asian Games gold medalists for Iran Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Persian Gulf Pro League managers