national soccer team next February even if he takes the team to first place in next month’s Asian Cup.
Qotbi announced last week that after the Asian Cup in Qatar he will move to Japan take over as coach of Shimizu S-Pulse, which finished sixth this year in Japan’s premier league. Qotbi’s contract is for one year.
It isn’t known if Qotbi was told his contract in Iran would not be renewed or if he preferred to leave. Qotbi is an American citizen and his wife is Korean. His wife had frequently been described as not enjoying life in Iran, but Koreans are often not well received in Japan.
After Qotbi’s announcement, Abbas Torabian, spokesman for the Iranian Football Federation, said Sven-Goran Eriksson was the top candidate for the job, but that no contract had been signed yet with the Swede who currently coaches the English team Leicester City.
President Ahmadi-nejad recently sparked speculation that the former Argentine star Diego Maradona might take over Iran’s national team. Torabian said that Maradona would soon visit Iran but that he wasn’t being entertained as a coach.
Qotbi, 46, was born in Iran but grew up in the United States and served on the technical staff of the US national team for years, then became an assistant coach with the national team in South Korea, where he met his wife, then returned to Iran to coach Piroozi to the national title in the 2007-08 season before taking over as national team coach.
In the first round of the Asian Cup, Iran will face Iraq, North Korea and the UAE.