{"id":36989,"date":"2019-07-13T07:52:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T14:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=36989"},"modified":"2019-07-13T07:52:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T14:52:18","slug":"turkish-coach-denzili-eyes-iran-league-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2019\/07\/13\/turkish-coach-denzili-eyes-iran-league-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish coach Denzili eyes Iran league title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AA.com – TABRIZ, Coach Denizli, Tractor FC, club’s hometown Tabriz thrilled with club’s goal of winning first-ever league title<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkish coach Mustafa Denizli is targeting Iran’s top-tier Persian Gulf Pro League title this season with his new team, Tractor Football Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I hope we will break new ground for this club,” Denizli, 69, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday as he eyes Tractor FC’s first-ever league title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denizli said that he wanted “a new challenge” so he chose Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Iran is a country that I love. I wanted a new challenge. So I came to a new club with high expectations,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tractor FC appointed Denizli in June 2019 for a year as his contract with another Iranian club, Tabriz, will end in June 2020.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the club currently needs new signings due to departures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have to sign new players. Four or five players left the club,” he said, adding that the club could take on as many as three foreign players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only three foreign players can play per Iranian club, he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabid fans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also praised Tractor FC fans’ great interest and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denizli said both he and Tabriz, the club’s hometown, are thrilled over this season, as they want to take the club’s first-ever league title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tractor FC was founded in 1970, taking its name from a tractor plant in Tabriz, a northwestern city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They won the Iranian Cup in 2014, the only trophy in the club’s history.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fans — calling themselves the Red Wolves — are very loyal to the team, as the average home attendance is 60,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tractor FC play their home games at Yadegar-e Emam Stadium, which has a spectator capacity of nearly 67,000, including 50,000 seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season Tractor FC finished the league in fifth place. Persepolis won the Iranian championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Denizli’s third spell in Iran, as he previously coached Proozi FC and Pas Teheran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He last managed a Turkish Spor Toto Super Lig team, Kasimpasa, but stepped down in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his career, Denizli scored Super Lig titles with the “big three” Istanbul teams: Galatasaray (1988), Fenerbahce (2001), and Besiktas (2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denizli also managed Turkey’s national team during the UEFA Euro 2000 co-hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that tournament, Turkey reached the quarterfinals but were eliminated by Portugal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AA.com – TABRIZ, Coach Denizli, Tractor FC, club’s hometown Tabriz thrilled with club’s goal of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":36990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,164,136,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-ipl","category-iran-first-division","category-persian-gulf-pro-league"],"views":496,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36991,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36989\/revisions\/36991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}