Parvin, Ali

Ali Parvin (علی پروین) is a former Iranian captain and attacking midfielder who spent the bulk of his career with Persepolis. Born in Tehran in 1947, he represented the national team for a full decade, participating in Asian Games, the Asian Championship, the Olympics and the World Cup. Following his retirement Parvin embarked on a club and country coaching career.

He was discovered whilst playing street football with the neighborhood club Aref. After being scouted, he joined Alborz FC, the reserve team of Kian FC, where he would eventually be called up to the main team in 1965. Following a three-year stint, he would transfer to Paykan F.C. and remain with them for two seasons, winning the Tehran Province League in 1969 and the Friendship Cup in early 1970 against local and foreign opposition. 

In 1970 following the dissolution of the club due to difficulties between the players and management, he moved to Persepolis FC (as many other Paykan players did). He would remain with them until his retirement in 1987.

With Persepolis Parvin would finish runner-up in the Tehran Province League in 1971 while early 1972 would yield a championship in the national championship. Persepolis would sit out the 1972 year and only played against foreign clubs. During a game against England’s Crystal Palace, Parvin caught the attention of the opposition coaches who expressed an interest in signing him for 25,000 pounds although ultimately he would stay put at Persepolis.

In 1973, the Takht’e Jamshid Cup was established and Parvin would win the inaugural season in early 1974. The next four seasons Parvin would not finish lower than second place in the Takht’e Jamshid Cup with another championship being won in 1976. In the league’s final season (1978-79), after 12 games Persepolis was once again in second place before the cancellation of the remainder of the season.

In 1979 Parvin would win the Espandi Cup, a tournament organized amongst 28 Tehrani teams. The subsequent Tehran league for that year, and the following season would once again go unfinished due to crowd violence and the Iran-Iraq war. In 1982 Parvin would begin his stint as player-coach for Persepolis. Soccer would continue in province leagues with Parvin winning the goal scoring title with 15 goals and a championship in the 1982-83 season while sandwiched between two runner-up spots in the 1981-82 and 1983-84 seasons. Furthermore Parvin would also collect a winners medals from the Tehran Cup in early 1983. Six games into the 1984-85 season and with Persepolis in first place and Parvin the top scorer with 9 goals, stadium availability, crowd trouble and constant national team camps ended the season prematurely. Parvin would win one more championship in the 1986-87 season with his last game coming against Daraei in mid summer.

While representing youth national teams starting in 1969, Parvin would make his national team debut in 1970 against Pakistan in the ECO Cup. He experienced his first competitive action late in that same year during the Asian Games in which Iran was eliminated in group play. The following year he led Iran to gold in the Cyrus International Tournament.

1972 would prove to be a busy year for Iran and Parvin as he first contributed a couple of goals to allow Iran to qualify for the 1972 Olympics. 

He would win gold with Iran in the Asian Championship as an unused substitute and as a result Iran would represent Asian in the Brazil Independence Cup where Pravin would play in all 4 games. Iran and Parvin would close out the year by playing in the 1972 Olympics which concluded with heavy losses against Hungary and Denmark and an upset win against Brazil.

Parvin would take part in Iran’s 1974 World Cup campaign and score against Kuwait, however, an injury in a friendly New Zealand prior to the crucial game against Australia would sideline him as Iran would suffer a 3-0 loss. He would take the field in the return match but the 2-0 win would not be enough and Iran would be eliminated from contention. Parvin would win the 1974 Iran International Tournament and score a handful of goals the following year as Iran won the 1974 Asian Games on home soil. In 1975 Parvin would participate and score in Iran’s successful campaign to qualify for the 1976 Olympics.

Parvin would win gold on home soil the following year in the 1976 Asian Championship while scoring the lone goal of a 1-0 win against Kuwait in the Final. He would also be voted as the tournament’s MVP. 

He would help Iran qualify to the quarterfinals of the 1976 Olympics by scoring against Poland in group play before being eliminated by the Soviet Union. During the 1978 World Cup qualifiers Parvin would finally inherit the captain’s armband which he would keep until the end of his international career. While he would score a lone goal in the qualifying campaign, but he would be more of a provider as Iran topped its first and final round groups and qualified for the World Cup in Argentina. 

Parvin would captain Iran in all 3 World Cup games before his national team career would be temporarily paused.

Following the volatile political situation of Iran in late 1978, Iran withdrew from participating in the 1978 Asian Games. While Parvin had effectively retired from the national team, however, he was recalled for the 1980 Olympic qualifiers. He captained Iran in all 6 games which ended with Iran topping the group and qualifying but only months after qualification had been secured, the IFF decided to pull out of the tournament in a sign of protest to the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan and Parvin’s international career finally came to a close.

Parvin would start his coaching reign with Persepolis while still a player and continue at after his retirement. As a coach Parvin would win 6 Tehran League championships (1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990), 2 Tehran Cup championships (1982, 1987), 3 Iranian League championships (1999. 2000, 2002) and 3 Iranian Cup championships (1987, 1992, 1999). Parvin would remain in his post until late 1993 where he would step down although not before winning a continental title in the form of the 1991 Asian Cup Winners Cup. However, following a series of poor results in 1998, Parvin once again took Persepolis’s reigns where he would remain until 2003 before becoming the team’s technical director. He would have one last fling as Persepolis coach in 2005 although he would leave by the end of the season.

In 2007 Parvin led the takeover of Azadegan League club Ekbatan, which was renamed Steel Azin. He also became one of the members of the board of directors. In 2008 the club was narrowly promoted to the Premier League. He was elected as Chairman of Steel Azin in December of 2010 but resigned after the team was relegated to the Azadegan League in June of 2011.

Following Iran’s elimination from the 1990 World Cup qualifiers, Parvin was appointed as the national team coach. He invited many of the players who had resigned following the 1986 Asian Games and the following year won gold in the 1990 Asian Games. With this championship Iran would face Algeria in the Afro-Asian Championship which Iran would narrowly lose on away goals following a 2-2 aggregate tie.

Under Parvin’s guidance Iran easily qualified for the 1992 Asian Championship, however, early elimination in the group stage (albeit under controversial circumstances) resulted in negative criticism of Parvin, particularly for his refusal to make any subs over the course of 3 games. The following year during the 1994 World Cup qualifiers, Iran topped its first round group on goal difference and advanced to the final round of qualification. While poor performances by players contributed to finishing 5^th out of 6 teams and subsequent failure to qualify for the World Cup, however, this second consecutive disastrous campaign ultimately cost Parvin his job as national team coach.