Dejagah, Ashkan

Ashkan Dejagah (اشکان دژاگه) is a former Iranian midfielder who played his club soccer in Germany, Qatar, England and Iran. Born in Tehran in 1986, he moved to Berlin, Germany, at the age of one. As such he was able to become a German citizen at the age of 16 and subsequently played for the German national youth teams from 2001 until 2009, winning the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. He played for the Iranian national team starting in 2011, helping them qualify for the 2014 World Cup, 2015 Asian Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Dejagah began his career in the late 90s with the youth teams of Reinickendorfer Füchse, Tennis Borussia Berlin and Hertha BSC in Germany. He would work his way up to Hertha BSC II in the fifth tier of the German football league system, helping them gain promotion to the Regionalliga Nord in his first year. The following season (2004-05) he would receive sporadic call ups to Hertha BSC in the Bundesliga while also representing Hertha BSC II. He would emerge as Hertha BSC II’s top scorer with 12 goals in the 2005-06 season while also suiting up for Hertha BSC 6 times. He would finally break into Hertha’s main roster for the 2006-07 season, appearing 25 times and scoring once.

In 2007 Dejagah joined VfL Wolfsburg and scored nine goals in all competitions as Wolfsburg finished fifth. In his second season he was instrumental in guiding his club through the first round and group stage of the UEFA Cup while ultimately getting eliminated in the round of 32 by Paris St. German. More importantly he was an integral part of Wolfsburg’s winning the 2008-09 Bundesliga, becoming a regular part of the Bundesliga winning team. He would reminisce about the championship celebration, “I had some friends and family visiting me at the time and I went out and celebrated with my friends and my brother all night. My apartment was right in the city center. It was already light when we got back and I was still shouting and singing as we walked through the door. My dad said: ‘What are you doing, boy?’ I replied: ‘We’re German champions. Look at all the people on the street!’ But in reality, there was nobody out there because the party had long since finished. My dad still tells that story to this day.”

In the 2009–10 season he temporarily lost his place in the starting lineup but would ultimately find his form under returning coach Magath. Dejagah would play a single Bundesliga game in the 2012-13 season before departing for Fulham of the English Premier League. All together he would line up 158 times for Wolfsburg and score 20 goals.

Dejagah would remain with Fulham for two seasons and play 49 times while netting 6 goals, all in his second season. At the conclusion of the 2013-14 season and with Fulham being relegated, he would be voted by fans as Fulham's player of the year. 

That summer he would join Qatari club Al-Arabi. In his first season he would score 5 goals in 24 appearances. Having scored 4 goals in 21 games, Dejagah would be named as Al-Arabi's player of the season for 2015–16. Despite this, the new board members of the club sought to remove him from the squad. Al Arabi could not loan out Dejagah, and in January of 2017, after not coming to an agreement with the club, Dejagah was released.

That same month Dejagah would re-sign with VfL Wolfsburg on a six-month deal. Shortly after joining Wolfsburg however, Dejagah suffered a hamstring injury which sidelined him for nearly four months. Dejagah made his return to the pitch in April of 2017 with VfL Wolfsburg II, playing 45 minutes. Dejagah would make his competitive first team debut in May of 2017 in the first leg of the relegation play-off against Eintracht Braunschweig. He would follow it up in the return leg as a second half substitute, a match that Wolfsburg won to ensure Bundesliga survival. In June of 2017, Wolfsburg announced that Dejagah would leave the club.

Dejagah would remain without a club until January of 2018 when he would sign with EFL Championship club Nottingham Forest on a short-term deal until the end of the 2017–18 season. He made his debut in February against his former club Fulham appearing as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 defeat. However, shortly afterwards he took a knock to his knee during training and would undergo surgery. He was released by Forest at the end of the 2017–18 season having played a single game.

He would play his first stint in Iran when he signed a three-year contract with Tractorsazi of Tabriz in the Iran Pro League. In his first season with Tractorsazi he would finish fifth in the league. The following season while they would improve their league standing by finishing fourth, they would win the 2019-20 Hazfi Cup and go on to compete in the following season’s AFC Champions League. Tractor would advance from its group with Dejagah scoring against Pakhtakor but in the first elimination round Tractorsazi would lose against Saudi side Al Nasr. After another fourth-place finish and round of 16 elimination in the Hazfi Cup and with his playing time diminishing, Dejagah would transfer to Foolad. In 3 seasons he would score 10 goals in 64 appearances for Tractorsazi.

Dejagah would once again venture abroad and join Al Shahaniya in the Qatari second division for the 2021-22 season. He would stay for a single season, scoring 7 goals in 14 matches before returning to Iran to join Foolad. After a mid-table finish in which he would score a solitary goal in 20 matches Dejagah would finally hang his boots and retire.

Dejagah attracted interest from the IFF since his teenage years to the point where there were discussions about recruiting him for the 2006 World Cup. However his international career would begin with Germany for which he was eligible for due to his German citizenship. He represented Germany at various youth levels and won the 2009 UEFA U21 Championship, scoring a goal against Finland in the process. In spite of suiting up for Germany internationally, FIFA rule changes that year made him eligible to represent Iran. In late December, Iran's coach Afshin Ghotbi approached Dejagah about playing for Iran at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, but he declined because he wanted to focus on playing first team football with his club.

In December of 2011 in with Carlos Queiroz as national team coach, he was invited to the national team in the midst of qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup. He would make his debut in the final game in the third round of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in February of 2012 against Qatar where he would score both goals in a 2-2 tie. He would participate in a number of matches in the fourth round of qualifiers and assist Iran in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. Prior to the start of the World Cup Iran would also take part in qualifiers for the 2015 Asian Championship. Dejagah would take part in all but the final game at which point Iran had already clinched qualification. Dejagah would provide two goals in the process.

At the World Cup Dejagah would feature in all 3 group games although his most memorable would be against Argentina. Running goal bound on a breakaway, Dejagah was chopped down in the box with a scissor tackle in what seemed to be worthy of a red card and penalty kick although the Argentine tackle went unpunished. Late in the game the Argentine keeper would tip Dejagah’s bullet header over the bar. Iran would ultimately lose the game 1-0 to a late Messi strike and go out in the group stage with a solitary tie and two losses.

Dejagah would start in all of Iran’s games during the 2015 Asian Championship except the final group game against the UAE (at which point Iran had already secured advancement) where he would come off the bench. During the course of the group games he would both threaten the opponent’s goal and create goal scoring opportunities, one of which was put away by Azmoun. In the quarterfinals he would start against Iraq although ultimately he would be subbed off late in the game as Iran would be eliminated after a shootout. Late that year, after captain Teymourian was suspended, Dejagah captained the national team.

Dejagah featured heavily in the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup, scoring two goals and providing multiple assists. His lack of club soccer games may have hurt his chances to play in the 2018 World Cup. He returned to the national fold shortly before the World Cup and even scored in a friendly against Turkey, but in spite of making the final roster, Dejagah would be a spectator from the bench during all 3 games of Iran and its group elimination.

In his last hurrah with the national team Dejagah would captain the side during the 2019 Asian Championship. He would start the first two games of the group stage, scoring against Yemen when his freekick trickled in after hitting both the woodwork and the keeper. With advancement achieved, he would come on as a late sub in the scoreless tie against Iraq in the final group game. He would score the second goal from the penalty spot in Iran’s 2-0 win over Oman in the round of 16. His final cap would be in the semifinals against Japan where he would be subbed off late in the game for Ghoddoos.

Following the end of Dejagah’s playing days he began his coaching career ahead of the 2025–26 season by becoming the assistant coach of Lusail SC in the Qatari second division.