Hassan Habibi (footballer)


Hassan Habibi is a retired Iranian association football player and manager.

Playing career

Habibi was born in Kerman, but at the age of four his family moved to Tehran, where his father found a job as a clerk for the Ministry of Health. He started his football career with Shahin F.C. and was selected to play for the national team in 1958. In 1960, he joined Taj S.C. where he played for a few seasons. In 1964, he joined PAS Tehran and played there until 1971, when he retired. He was the captain of the national teams that competed at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games, and won the silver medal at the 1966 Asian Games and the gold medal at the 1968 Asian Cup.

Coaching career

After retiring from competitions Habibi coached PAS Tehran. In 1979, he joined the Iran national football team, which then qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics. However the Iran Football Federation boycotted the event due to occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. He then guided the national team to a bronze medal at the 1980 Asian Cup. He left from his position after the resignation of Nasser Noamooz, who was the Iranian Football Federation's General Secretary.
Then Habibi coached Ararat and help the club revive in the Tehran Provincial League and promote to Azadegan league. He returned to national team coaching 11 years later, this time managing the Iran national under-23 football team for qualification for the 1992 Summer Olympics. He introduced many talented players to Iran national teams such as Karim Bagheri, Mehrdad Minavand, Khodadad Azizi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Yahya Golmohammadi, Reza Shahroudi, Afshin Peyrovani, Nima Nakisa and Javad Manafi.

Achievements