Ahad Sheykhlari

Ahad Sheykhlari (Persian: احد شیخ‌لاری‎, born 18 April 1960 in Tabriz, Iran) is an Iranian professional football player who was forced to leave the green field unexpectedly due to pressure from his team mates and club’s official whom believed his success foreshadowed his teammates’s popularity; he is currently a professional football manager. He started his football career as an amateur player in Tabriz dirt fields and neighborhood clubs. The very first football club he joined was Charandab’s neighborhood club Peykan. He played his professional career for Machine Sazi, Montakhabeh Tabriz, Idem F.C., Tractor and Esteghlal Rasht F.C.. He had scored 115 goals during his playing career for Tractor as an Striker. At the end of his playing career Vasile Godja manager of Tractor used him as a Defender and he shined well as a successful Sweeper. He also represented Iran at national level, playing for Iran's under-20 football team and the Iran national football team and has 20 national caps with five goals. Tractor's fans named him as Tabriz's Maradona due to his aggressive technique, speed and scoring, and he kicks the specific skills.[1]

Ahad Sheykhlari

Personal information
Full name	Ahad Sheykhlari
Date of birth	(1960-04-18) 18 April 1960
Place of birth	Tabriz, Iran
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Striker, Sweeper
Youth career
1976–1978	Machine Sazi
1978–1980	Tractor Sazi
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1980–1997	Tractor Sazi
National team
1979–1981	Iran U-20
1984–1992	Iran
Teams managed
2002–2003	Tractor
2002–2003	Tractor
2003–2005	Shahid Ghandi
2005–2006	Machine Sazi
2006	Shahrdari Tabriz
2007–2008	Tractor
2010–2013	Mes Soongoun
2016	Shahrdari Ardabil
2020	Machine Sazi
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

After being forced to leave his playing career unexpectedly, he became a football manager, although he had been a player-manager during his player career in Idem F.C., he started his first sole managerial career in Shahrdari Shot F.C. in 1996-1997, then he became U20 Shahrdari Tabriz F.C.’s manager and lead the team to Iran’s U20 champions league and earned the 1st place and the cup, later he became Tractor’s manager at difficult times when a few matches had already passed half season and the team suffered terribly from continuous losses, dead draws and no goals, for a brief period of about six months in 2002, he revived Tractor from what was known to Tractor‘s fans most darkest days, but all the heroic effort of Sheykhlari and the players went in vain due to lost intuitive the club had suffered under Mahmoud Yavari’s management, many fans today still believe that if he was the manager Tractor before season start Tractor never would have fallen to 2nd Division and might have even been one of the three tops. He later became manager of Shahid Ghandi and led the club to promotion to the Iran Pro League for the first time. He later managed other Tabriz based clubs, Machine Sazi which was in the verge of demotion to the 2nd division, and managed to save the club by 9 matches and an average of 2.3 points per game, and Shahrdari Tabriz. In July 2007, he returned to Tractor as a manager but due to the heavy fringe made by a band of disobedient players whom managed to provoke hooligans against the club the team failed from promotion to the first division, though he left the club at first rank in the table. He was also the manager of Mes Soongoun for four years which he took from the 3rd Division to the Azadegan League. He became the first Iranian manager to promote a team from 3rd Division to the 1st in succession every year.