After coaching around the world, Afshin Ghotbi ready for Vancouver FC's CPL debut

Vancouver FC coach Afshin Ghotbi. (Photo: Beau Chevalier / Vancouver FC)

There isn't much Afshin Ghotbi hasn't done when it comes to coaching soccer.

Now in charge of expansion Vancouver FC in the Canadian Premier League, the 59-year-old Iranian-American is working in his eighth country having already spent time coaching in China, Curacao, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the U.S.

“Every one of those experiences had their own challenges and at the same time great, great memories that I can draw from to be a better man, a better manager,” said Ghotbi.

Ghotbi and Vancouver kick off life in the CPL in Langford on Saturday when they take on B.C. rival Pacific FC in a battle of teams under the same ownership group.

Named head coach in early November, Ghotbi has spent the last five months assembling a roster from scratch.

“It's been a very exciting project from Day 1,” said Ghotbi. “Basically since Nov. 2, it's been long hours, long days, but I've enjoyed it thoroughly because I'm very creative and to create something from ground up is very intriguing and exciting.”

He has assembled a young roster “bubbling with enthusiasm, with talent and with hope and with, in my opinion, potential.”

Ghotbi went for experience with his first signing in goalkeeper Callum Irving, a Vancouver native who won the 2021 CPL title and posted 22 shutouts in 69 appearances in all competitions with Pacific over the last three seasons.

“I think he's one of the best goalkeepers if not the best goalkeeper in the league,” Ghotbi said.

Fullback Kadin Chung spent 2022 with Toronto FC, appearing in eight MLS matches before agreeing to end his contact by mutual agreement in February to return to B.C.

“A very complete and special player,” said Ghotbi.

Fellow defender Rocco Romeo was a TFC homegrown player who spent time on loan with Demark's HB Koge.

Midfielder Elliot Simmons has CPL experience with Halifax Wanderers and Cavalry FC. Romeo and Shaan Hundal were with Valour FC while Gabriel Bitar, Marcus Simmons and Mamadou Kane spent last season with FC Edmonton.

English centre back Ibrahim Bakare, 20, comes from Cardiff City where he captained the under-23 side. English-born Ghana youth international Nicky Gyimah is a 19-year-old winger who spent time with Sunderland's under-23 team in England.

Winger Min-jae Kwak is the second South Korean-born player to come to the CPL (after midfielder Son Yong-Chan, FC Edmonton 2019-2020).

Centre-back Anthony White (University of Toronto) and striker Ameer Kinani (Toronto Metropolitan University) were the first two picks in the December CPL-U Sports draft.

Ghotbi and Vancouver FC co-owner Rob Friend go back a ways. Ghotbi, then in charge of Japan's Shimizu S-Pulse, tried to buy Friend, then playing in Germany, more than a decade ago.

Ghotbi, who had just left his post as Iran national team coach, inherited a Japanese team in 2011 that had lost 11 of its best players. He wanted a target man for the 2012 season and Friend came recommended.

“I thought he's the perfect guy for us,” Ghotbi recalled. “It looked like we were going to get him. And at the last moment the coach of (Eintracht) Frankfurt didn't let him go.”

But the connection was made. Fast forward a decade and Ghotbi called Friend to talk CPL and the new Vancouver team.

“All of a sudden after about an hour conversation about this project and the CPL, he said 'I want to come work for you and I want to be part of this project.' I was like 'Afshin, I don't think we can afford you but I'm grateful for you throwing your hat in the mix but there's no way we can pay you what you deserve,”' Friend recalled.

“'And he says 'I'm not here for the money and I've been around the world and I want to be part of a project to build something like you're building.' And a week later he was hired.”

Ghotbi said one of the reasons he wanted to come to Canada was he believes it's about to “explode and become a top football country” with the 2026 World Cup looming.

“I feel I have a lot of experience and I can maybe help in the development of Canadian football,” he said.

Ghotbi has gone to three World Cups, starting in 1998 with U.S. head coach Steve Sampson, who was an assistant coach at UCLA when Ghotbi played there. Ghotbi was an early hand when it came to using scouting and analytical software and video.

His expertise with football tech drew a job offer from South Korean coach Guus Hiddink for the 2002 World Cup. He was also with the Korean team under Dick Advocaat at the 2006 World Cup.

Ghotbi was 13 when his family moved to the U.S. in 1977. He says he was 14 when he started coaching youth payers, eventually playing soccer at UCLA under Sigi Schmid and collecting an electrical engineering degree.

He coached the UCLA women while a senior and chose soccer over engineering, starting a football academy at age 24 with $100 in his bank account. He built up the AGSS (American Global Soccer School) Academy over the next 15 years, proudly noting that three starters from the 2000 Olympic U.S. team that finished fourth were his graduates.

Ghotbi won the MLS Cup in 2004 as an assistant with Los Angeles Galaxy and the Iranian league title in 2008 with Persepolis FC. He took Iran to the quarterfinals of the 2011 Asian Cup.

He was part of Curacao's 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign at the request of head coach Patrick Kluivert, a former Dutch star player.

His last team was China's Cangzhou Mighty Lions where his team payroll was “several zeros more” than the CPL salary cap of $1.025 million. He helped the team earn promotion in a Chinese football landscape where some foreign players were making net annual pay of three million to eight million euros ($4.42 million to $11.79 million).

“As long as there's a ball and players, I'm very motivated to work tirelessly to make the players better, make the team better,” he said, dismissing the difference in pay scale.

Ghotbi, who speaks English and Farsi as well as some Spanish, Korean and Japanese plus “some words in Chinese,” has his wife with him in Vancouver. She's finishing her doctorate in Asian studies.

One of his children is finishing a master's degree in Washington, D.C., while the other is a Pilates instructor. His 84-year-old father is cheering him on from Southern California.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2023