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Branko Ivanković named new Persepolis head coach

Branko Ivanković, the new head coach of the Iranian football club Persepolis

Iranian football club Persepolis has named the Croatian manager Branko Ivanković as its new head coach as the club struggles to find a better place in the Iranian football league.

Ivanković was selected as the new coach of Persepolis on Monday, after a meeting with the club’s chief Mohammad Hossein Nejad Fallah in the Istanbul, Turkey, according to Mehr News Agency.

Ivanković, a former coach of the Iranian national team, replaces Hamid Derakhshan, a former club legend whose reign with the Reds saw a string of disappointing results.

Ivanković served as an assistant under Miroslav Blažević in Croatia’s dream team of the late 1990s, which finished third in the 1998 World Cup. Later in 2002, he replaced Blažević as Iran’s head coach.

Branko’s most successful stint with Iranian teams came in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, where he managed to win the title with Iran’s under-23 team. He also led Iran’s senior team to the 2004 AFC Asian Cup third place before reaching the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Persepolis currently sits at the ninth place of Iran’s Persian Gulf League, 20 points adrift of Naft Tehran at the top and six places behind their archrivals Esteqlal.

The most popular football team in Iran and one of the giants in Asia, Persepolis is struggling to retain its once glorious form amid speculations that the state-run club would be sold to private owners in the near future.

MS/HSN


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