Mansour Rashidi (منصور رشیدی) is a former Iranian goalkeeper whose career stretched throughout the 70s and 80s. Nicknamed “The Brave of Iran”, Rashidi spent the bulk of his club career domestically with a short stint in the United States. He represented the national team in 20 games, the majority of them coming in the 70s.
Born in Masjed Soleiman in 1947, his family moved to Khorramshar when he was 4. During his elementary school years, while initially playing as a forward, however, one day due to the absence of a goalkeeper on his side, he stood in goal and eventually embraced the position. He initially joined Shahin of Khorramshahr in 1966, winning a Khuzestan Province championship. After the dissolution of Shahin, he would move within the state to Taj of Abadan, winning another championship with them.
He would later move to Tehran with Bargh, however, upon learning of the coach’s decision to make him the backup keeper requested a transfer. He then briefly joined Persepolis of Tehran where once again playing time was scarce due to the presence of 3 other keepers on the roster. After less than a year at Persepolis he joined Deyhim but not before playing in the Tehran derby against Taj and coming on as a sub in a 3-2 defeat. Following his displays for the Iranian youth team in the 1970 Asian Youth Competition in Tokyo, Rashidi was scooped up by Taj of Tehran. In spite of competition from national goalkeeper Hejazi, Rashidi was able to ultimately unseat him from Taj’s starting lineup. He would start in goal in the infamous 1973 6-0 loss against Persepolis although would be replaced by Hejazi after conceding the 4th goal.
With Taj he would win India’s Mils Cup. In 1975 he would win a national title in the Takht’e Jamshid Cup. That year he would also have a tryout with German giants Bayern Munich and even line up for them in a friendly although he would reject their offer of having him play in the lower leagues for 1860 Munich for a year before joining Bayern. While he would end up training with FC Cologne and even signing a contract with them, however, his inability to receive a release from Taj and the IFF nixed the deal.
He would leave Taj in 1976. He would initially travel to New York to try out for the New York Cosmos although in his own words changed his mind after experiencing the -41 degrees Celsius temperature. After a stop in Texas he would have a stint with the Los Angeles Seahawks and a brief stay in Daraei, in 1978 he decided to join his hometown club Rastakhiz of Khorramshahr who participated in the last season of the Takht’e Jamshid Cup. He would then join Naft of Tehran and stay with them until his retirement in the late 80s.
Rashidi got his first taste of international competition just prior to moving to Tehran with the Iranian youth national team. He would make his full national team debut in 1972 and play all three of Iran’s games in the 1972 Olympics which resulted in 2 heavy defeats and an upset win against Brazil. At the conclusion of all 3 games Rashidi would be selected for drug testing.
For the 1974 World Cup qualifiers, Rasidi and Hejazi rotated on a regular basis. Rashidi would shine brightly against North Korea, repelling attack after attack and keeping a clean sheet away. In the home game Rashidi would start against the Koreans, save a penalty and earn the title “The Brave of Iran” before being subbed out for Hejazi. Prior to the crucial away game against Australia Iran played two friendly games in New Zealand. During one of the games Rashidi broke his ribs and had to watch the heavy 3-0 defeat against Australia from the sidelines and in a wheelchair. For the return match the team doctors convinced him to take injections to numb the pain and as such he stood in goal. In spite of keeping a clean sheet, however, the 2-0 win would not be enough and Iran would fail to advance.
A series of bizarre injuries plagued all 3 Iranian keepers in the buildup to the 1974 Asian Games on home soil which would dictate that based on the timing of their injury all 3 would get playing time. Mavaddat would mind the nets for the first two games while Rashidi stepped in for the next four. Hejazi would start the Final in a 1-0 win against Israel as he and his teammates would win gold.
Rashidi would not play a part in the 1976 Olympic qualifiers or the actual Olympics although he would travel with the team as Hejazi’s backup (According to Rashidi in a friendly with France prior to the games he fractured his ankle). He would be the team’s starting goalkeeper on home soil in the 1976 Asian Championship and enroute to another gold medal would not concede a single goal, a record that still stands today. Going back to the 1973 friendly against New Zealand and ultimately a 1978 World Cup qualifier against Hong Kong, Rashidi’s clean sheet record would stretch across 11 full international matches.
With Rashidi now playing in the US, the home game against Hong Kong would be his only participation in the 1978 World Cup qualifiers. In preparation for the 1978 World Cup, Iran travelled to France for a 3 matches for which Rashidi was also invited. After only being played in one of the matches, and not the main game against the French national team, Rashidi quit the team in frustration and declared he would not represent Iran again as long as Mohajerani was coach. As the team was departing Iran for the World Cup Mohajerani tried to change Rashidi’s mind to which he responded, “If I want to go to Argentina I’ll buy my own ticket.” Rashidi would not play again for Iran until a surprise call up 7 years later at age 38 against Yugoslavia in which he would play his last game in an Iran jersey.
Following his retirement and almost 10 years away from soccer, Rashidi began acting as a goalkeeping coach. He would join Esteghlal, Saipa, Naft of Abadan, and Mes of Kerman’s coaching staff, winning the national league with Saipa in 2007. He would then join the national team’s coaching staff for a couple of years before spending two more years with the U23 national team.
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