Hamid Alidoosti

Hamid Alidoosti was an Iranian footballer and coach, an attacking midfielder who scored 15 goals in 27 appearances for the Iran national team between 1977 and 1986 and later managed several of the country's leading clubs and its youth national teams. He died on Sunday 1 November 2026, aged 70, after battling cancer in recent months.

He was born in Tehran on 12 March 1956 and came through the youth ranks at Tehran Javan before joining the Tehran club Homa in 1975. He spent most of his playing career at Homa, and in 1986 moved to West Germany to join FSV Salmrohr in the 2. Bundesliga, gaining experience of European football. Back in Iran he played for Daraei, Keshavarz and Saipa before retiring from playing in the mid 1990s, around 1995.

His season in Germany came in 1986 to 1987, when he made 30 league appearances for FSV Salmrohr and scored 10 goals in the second tier of West German football. For Iran he was a regular through a decade that included the upheaval of the 1979 revolution and the years of the war with Iraq, when international football was heavily disrupted, yet he still averaged more than a goal every two games for his country.

After his playing days he turned to coaching. He managed Paykan, Saipa, Homa, Tractor Sazi and Sorkhpooshan, and returned to Paykan in 2010. He also worked with Iran's national youth sides, coaching the under 20 team in 2004 and the under 17 team between 2014 and 2016.

Away from football he was known to many Iranians as the father of the actress Taraneh Alidoosti. The family suffered a deep loss in March 2005, when his son Pouyan died aged 16 in an accident during the Chaharshanbe Suri fire festival.

News of his death was reported on 1 November 2026 by Tehran Times and Mehr News Agency, which said he had been battling cancer in recent months. He is remembered as one of the gifted Iranian internationals of his generation and as a coach who gave years of service to the clubs and youth teams of Iranian football.