Sport | Football

Ghalenoy eyes ACL glory as coach

Ardeshir Ghalenoy hopes to lead Iranian side Esteghlal to the Asian Champions League title. Only this time he hopes to achieve the feat in the capacity of a coach.

  • By Duane Fonseca, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:38 January 7, 2009
  • Gulf News

Ardeshir Ghalenoy hopes to lead Iranian side Esteghlal to the Asian Champions League title. Only this time he hopes to achieve the feat in the capacity of a coach.

Two-time champions and twice runners up, Esteghlal are one of the most successful clubs in the history of the competition and are among eight clubs that share that record, including Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal and Al Ittihad.

Their last title was won in the 1990/91 season when Ghalenoy played for the club. Esteghlal have been drawn in a tough Group C in this year's competition alongside, Emirati side Al Jazira, Umm Salal of Qatar and Al Ittihad of Saudi. Still Ghalenoy expects to inspire his squad to success.

And the 44-year-old said: "I was a player when we won the title in 1991 and I think it will be great if I can repeat that success as a coach. We have a good management team looking after the club and a good group of players who have a good amount of international experience.

"I think it is a tough group, but our preparation has been good and we want to do this for our fans, who are always behind us. We have some very good teams in our group, and we respect all of our opponents, but we'll definitely be looking to finish top of our group and take it from there."

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