'Life goes on'

By Nashwa Abdel-Tawab

Though time was short, Talebi was sure his players, mostly amateurs, would do well in the tournament. The draw that pitted them against the US made for one of the more intriguing match-ups. "The players wanted to beat the US and attract some attention to their country," Talebi told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I faced a lot of problems and stress as the coach, but I managed everything well," he added.

Talebi, 54, was an attacking midfielder for his national team in the 1960s. He was capped 27 times and scored 12 times before retiring with a knee injury in 1970. He demonstrated his skills against India during a qualifying match for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His performance at the Games was regarded as outstanding. In the 1970s, Talebi was appointed head coach of Daraie, an Iranian team which he pulled up out of the second division. He stayed there for seven years until the 1979 Revolution. In 1981, he coached in the United Arab Emirates and had two Egyptian assistants, Mohamed Imam and former goalkeeper Mohamed Khorshid.

Talebi would have stayed in the UAE had it not been for his children. "I had a chance to go to the US. I wanted my three sons to get a better education." He settled in California, opened a shop but never stopped thinking football, working as a part-time coach at Foothill College. Then he returned to the UAE for two more years, leaving his family in the US.

In 1990, Talebi wanted to study coaching further, this time in Brazil, where he attended training sessions conducted by Sebastiao Lazaroni, the former Brazilian national team coach.

He also learned a lot from Bora Milutinovic, the current Nigerian coach, who was working in Mexico, where Talebi attended his training sessions for two months. He also closely observed what he did with the US in the 1994 World Cup.

In 1996, Talebi's travels took him to Singapore to coach Gilong. Taking two Iranian players with him, Hamid Estili and Mohamed Khakpur, he led the team to the league and cup titles. Along the way, he was chosen coach of the year.

In 1997, Talebi trained the national Olympic team but left after only 10 months because of an economic crisis which meant no programme and no training. He then handled Bahman, a first division Iranian club, but that adventure lasted only three months.

In May of this year, Talebi was on the national team, chosen as a technical adviser to a Croatian coach. In a warm-up match to the World Cup, Iran was stomped by AC Roma 7-1. The Croatian coach was fired. "He tried out too many players, wasted time and did not understand the Iranian players' mentality," Talebi said.

Then the call came. Though Iran exited from the World Cup after the first round, its performance was commendable. It lost the opener to Yugoslavia 1-0, beat the US 2-1 and went down to the Germans 2-0.

The results might keep Talebi secure in his job. The Iranian Football Federation has always held him in high regard. Under its auspices he spent 15 years taking formal training sessions in England with illustrious clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. "I was there as an observer to learn how professional coaching goes on," Talebi said. "I felt that I really needed to gain experience as a coach. You shouldn't stand still. You must take steps towards the future, update your information and hand it to the players so that life goes on.''