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Saipa
سايپا

Full name	Saipa Football Club
Nickname(s)	خودروسازان (car makers) نارنجی ها (oranges)
Founded	1 February 1989; 28 years ago
Ground	Takhti Stadium
Capacity	30,122
Owner	SAIPA
Chairman	Reza Darvish
Manager	Ali Daei
League	Persian Gulf Pro League
2017–18	Persian Gulf Pro League, 4th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours
Current season

For the automobile company, see SAIPA.

Saipa Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال سايپا‎) is a football club from Tehran, Iran which plays in Tehran, Iran. The team is owned by SAIPA, an Iranian automobile manufacturer. The team has never had a large fanbase, despite some success. It is known to have one of the best youth academies in Iranian football and regularly promotes academy players to the first team.

In the 2006–07 season, under the guidance of Ali Daei, Saipa won their only Persian Gulf Cup title. Saipa has also won the Azadegan League twice and the Hazfi Cup once.

Saipa is the football club of the multisport Saipa Cultural and Athletic Corporation.

History

Early days

In 1989, SAIPA Company decided to start its own football team. They purchased a team playing in the 4th division of Tehran's city league, and renamed it Saipa F.C. After back to back promotions starting in the first year, the Karaj based club was playing in the 2nd division by 1991. That same year they purchased the Shipping Department team's shares, and participated in the 1st division of Tehran's local league. In that year they won the Tehran city championship as well as the Tehran Super Cup, thus attaining the right to play in Iran's top league at the time, the Azadegan League.

Azadegan League

In their first year in the Azadegan League they won the championship, as well as the Hazfi Cup. They also won the league championship again in 1994 marking an unusually successful first five years for the club in Iranian football. The team was relegated into the second division in 1995, but were promoted again in the following year.

Since their second promotion to the top tier, the club has remained in the middle of the league table, and has often included some of the country's most well known players.

Persian Gulf Pro League

Ali Daei era

By 2001, the club's on-field performance remained stable, occupying mid-table position most years. Shortly following Iranian goalkeeper Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh's retirement, he was linked with the head coaching job at Saipa. It never materialized, but the club signed another Iranian, Ali Daei in a move from Saba Battery. The club had finished third in the previous season and now, with Daei on the field and Werner Lorant as a coach, the team aimed to work for the title. Shortly after the season began though, Littbarski was fired and Ali Daei took on the role of player/coach. Captaining and coaching the team to the title marked the end of a successful career. Daei also scored the winner in the title winning game.

Daei extended his contract, this time as a full-time coach. He was appointed head coach of the national team but kept his role at Saipa until the end of the season.

Return to mid-table and relocation to Tehran

Following the title winning year which saw the team play in the AFC Champions League, Saipa turned back into the mid-table places of the league again. Before the start of the 2015–16 Persian Gulf Pro League season Saipa announced they had moved their home city from Karaj to nearby Tehran. Saipa also made some significant transfers to attempt to return to the top of the league, namely Gholamreza Rezaei, Reza Norouzi and former CA Osasuna captain Javad Nekounam.

Season-by-season

The table below chronicles the achievements of Saipa in various competitions since 1993.

Honours

• 
  Iran Pro League/First Division:
  
  • 
    Winners (3): 1993–94, 1994–95, 2006–07
    
  
  


• 
  Hazfi Cup:
  
  • 
    Winners (1): 1993–94
    
  
  

Players

As of January 31, 2019.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Abdollah Nasseri 3 DF Reza Aliari 4 MF Roozbeh Shahalidoost (Captain) 5 DF Samuel Sarfo 6 MF Mehrdad Kafshgari 7 MF Arash Rezavand 11 MF Ali Dashti 12 GK Siavash Gholampour U23 14 MF Reza Asadi U23 16 MF Mohammad Soltani Mehr U21 17 MF Reza Jafari U23 19 MF Mohammadreza Baouj U23 20 DF Mostafa Naeijpour U23 21 DF Omid Khaledi 22 GK Hamed Fallahzadeh 23 MF Moein Abbasian

No. Position Player 24 MF Mohammad Yasini U23 25 DF Abolfazl Jalali U21 26 FW Arman Ramezani 27 FW Hossein Kamyab U25 28 MF Mohammad Alizadeh U23 29 DF Omid Dorreh U21 30 FW Hossein Nokhodkar U19 32 FW Mohammad Reza Soleimani U25 34 MF Ali Ghesmati U21 39 GK Meysam Hosseinpour U23 40 GK Mohammad Hossein Akbar Monadi U23 41 MF Omid Jahanbakhsh 45 MF Peyman Miri — FW Amin Manouchehri

Loan list

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player MF Mohammad Sharifi U19 (at Esteghlal Khuzestan)

Manager

Coaching staff

Staff[1]	Name
Head coach	Ali Daei
Assistant coach	Željko Mijač
Assistant coach	Mohammad Daei
Assistant coach	Ebrahim Sadeghi
Goalkeeping coach	Behzad Gholampour
Fitness coach	Nader Ghorbani
Doctor	Vajiollah Cheshmesari
Analyzer	Mohammad Palizvan
Technical Manager	Asghar Hajiloo
B team Manager	Kianoush Rahmati

The following managers had managed Saipa since 1993:

Name	Period	Trophies
Bijan Zolfagharnasab	1993–97	2 Azadegan League, Hazfi Cup
Nasrollah Abdollahi	1997–00
Behtash Fariba	2000–01
Hamid Alidoosti	2001–02
Giovanni Mei	2002–03
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan	2003–04
Bijan Zolfagharnasab	2004–06
Werner Lorant	2006
Ali Daei	2006–08	1 Persian Gulf Cup
Pierre Littbarski	2008
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan	2008–11
Majid Saleh	2011–12
Mojtaba Taghavi	2012–13
Engin Firat	2013–14
Majid Jalali	2014–16
Hossein Faraki	2016–17
Ali Daei	2017–

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saipa FC.

• Official website