Ghasempour, Ebrahim

Ebrahim Ghasempour (ابراهیم قاسمبور) is an Iranian midfielder from Abadan. He maintains that he was born in 1956 even though many outlets report his birth date as 1957. He spent his playing career both inside and outside of Iran, being one of the few Iranians to play club soccer in Africa. While he had an extensive club reaching career into his 40s, his national team career lasted only 3 years, ending at age 22, yet still included the Asian Championship, the Olympics and the World Cup.

Ghasempour first picked up the game in the Ahmad Abad neighborhood before joining a more organized school competitions. He was playing in local team Javeed when he was spotted and asked to join the namesake team of Javeed of Abadan. His stay there would be short as at age 14 he would join Taj of Abadan. With employment opportunities in Abadan limited to the navy and the oil industry, Ghasempour would transfer to Sanat Naft to ensure a job by the team’s sponsor following retirement. Ghasempour would remain with Sanat Naft for 2 seasons until early 1977. He would make sporadic appearances in his first season while becoming more of a permanent feature in his second.

Financial need prompted Ghasempour to leave Abadan and Sanat Naft. In spite of having offers from both Taj and Persepolis, he would join Tehran’s Shahin, which now went by the name Shahbaz. While Shahbaz would finish midtable in the 1977-78 season, it would be topping the table in the 1978-79 season before the league was cancelled due to the ongoing political events. The team would tour East Asia in order to keep their form but ultimately the league and season were not resumed. 

Ghasempour would stay with Shahbaz but the chaotic state of soccer and the country in general would mean that he would suit up in one of just two games that Shahbaz, now being called Shahin again, played in the 1979-80 Tehran Club Championship. The league was cancelled in the third week after crowd trouble during a Taj (now Esteghlal) and Persepolis friendly match.

A phone call, allegedly from Al Nasr officials convinced Ghasempour to go to the UAE but once there no follow-up ensued. A chance meeting with former national team coach Mohajerani, who was now coaching Al Shaab, led to Ghasempour practicing with Al Shaab and eventually signing with Ras Al Kheimeh. He would stay with them for a season before joining Al Nasr. He would remain another year in the UAE until a ban on foreign players forced him to move. He would sign with Al Arabi of Qatar although a similar ban on foreigners ended his time there but not before a league title and Emir Cup in the 1982-83 season.

Ghasempour would then move to Egypt’s El Masry and remain with them for 2 seasons, picking up a runner up medal in his first. The foreigner ban would also follow him to Egypt and at the end of the 1984-85 season he would once again be on the move.

As luck would have it, Qatar would lift its foreigner ban rule and Ghasempour would have an extended stay in the country. He would sign with Al Rayan for 2 seasons before moving on to Al Saad with which he participated in the 1990-91 Asian Club Championship.   

He would end his career in Qatar after joining Al Arabi at which point he would return to Egypt and El Masry in 1992. He would remain with El Masry for one season before returning to Iran.

Ghasempour would sign with Pas of Tehran and it would take a half a season to break into the lineup. Throughout the 1993-94 season he would represent Pas in the Afro-Asian Club Championship against Wydad of Morocco, the Azadegan League and the Tehran Super League. 

In spite of nearing age 40, Ghasempour would play another two seasons for Pas albeit as a player-coach. Almost 44, he would bring his playing career to a close with Bahman of Karaj and Fajr Sepasi (with which he would win the Fars Province League and be promoted to Iranian second Division League and subsequently the Azadegan League), both as a player-coach.

Ghasempour would catch the eyes of the national team coach O’Farrell, however, an unauthorized departure back to Abadan resulted in him getting cut. Following this incident the 1975 Vali Ahd Tournament took place and while Iran’s youth national team would take part, Ghasempour would represent the Khuzestan selection. Ghasempour’s team would advance from its group (while the youth national team would fail to do so) and defeat Arsenal in the semifinals. They would then win gold by defeating South Korea 2-1 in the Final with Ghasempour netting the game winner.

Ghasempour would receive his first taste of international competition with the full national team in the 1975 Iran International Tournament. Iran would enter two teams and by all accounts Ghasempour’s team was considered the lesser of the two. While the A team would be eliminated in group play, Ghasempour’s B team would make it to the final where they would lose 1-0 in overtime to Czechoslovakia’s FK Teplice.

Following the tournament he would be called up to the youth national team for the 1975 AFC Youth Championship in Kuwait. Iran would make it to the final and win a shared title with Iraq following a 0-0 tie. He would then be utilized for the national team again in its quest to qualify for the 1976 Olympics. Ghasempour would play in 3 of the 4 qualifiers in Iran’s successful campaign.

Ghasempour would captain the youth team in the 1976 AFC Youth Championship and once again win a shared title after a 0-0 tie with North Korea in the Final. He would be rotated in and out of the lineup in the 1976 Asian Championship but get the full 90 minutes in the Final where Iran would defeat Kuwait 1-0.

Following the Asian Championship, Ghasempour would accompany the team to the 1976 Olympics where in a pre-tournament friendly he would score in a 4-3 defeat of France. He would also provide an assist in a final group 3-2 loss to Poland. The Olympic dream would end with a 2-1 defeat to the Soviet Union in the quarterfinals.

Ghasempour was a steady presence during the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, particularly in the final round of qualification. He would play every minute of the 1978 World Cup amid a first round exit. 

He would have 2 great chances to score against Scotland and Peru but he was stopped by the keeper on a breakaway against the Scots while he put his shot wide against Peru. Following the World Cup Ghasempour would play his lone game with the U23 selection in a 3-0 win gainst the Soviet Union U21s. He would play his final game for Iran in a friendly against the Soviet Union a few weeks later.

While Ghasempour had already dabbled into coaching during his playing days, following his retirement he would spend close to 20 years coaching both home and abroad (in the UAE) for a variety of club teams and also the Iranian U23 team.