Ex-Iran Coach Ghotbi Named Vancouver Coach

The 58-year-old comes to the team with an incredible wealth of coaching experience, having worked in the game at all sorts of levels from youth football to the very pinnacle of the sport, including coaching at three FIFA World Cups.

Ghotbi was born in Iran but moved to the United States as a teenager, and he had a brief stint as a player at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He began coaching in the 1980s, beginning with the UCLA women's team and going on to found his own academy - American Global Soccer School - in California.

He joined the US Soccer organization in the late 1990s, working on the technical staff for the men's national team in 1997 and 1998 during the side's appearance at World Cup '98 in France.

Ghotbi went on to work as an assistant coach with the South Korean national team, helping that side at both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as appearances in the Confederations Cup, Asian Cup, and Gold Cup.

In 2009, Ghotbi was named head coach of the Iranian national team, helping lead it to the quarterfinals of the 2011 Asian Cup.

“I want to thank Vancouver FC for trusting me with this exciting project,” said Ghotbi. “Now is an exciting moment for Canadian soccer, and the ever-growing passion for the game on the Lower Mainland and from coast to coast is evident. I look forward to building a club that will make our fans proud on and off the field.”