2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League

Persian Gulf Pro League

Season	2020–21
Dates	6 November 2020 – April 2021
Top goalscorer	Sajjad Shahbazzadeh (10 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Mohammad Reza Akhbari (5 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Sepahan 4–0 Nassaji (11 December 2020)
Biggest away win	Aluminium Arak 0–3 Nassaji Mazandaran (6 November 2020)
Highest scoring	Machine Sazi 3–3 Sepahan (29 December 2020)
Longest winning run	Gol Gohar Sirjan (2 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Persepolis (9 matches)
Longest winless run	Machine Sazi (11 matches)
Longest losing run	Machine Sazi (4 matches)
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League (formerly known as Iran Pro League) are the 38th season of Iran's Football League and 20th as Persian Gulf Pro League since its establishment in 2001. Persepolis are the defending champions and won their record-extending 4th consecutive title and 13th title overall (6th in the Pro League era) previous season. The season features 14 teams from the 2019–20 Persian Gulf Pro League and two new teams promoted from the 2019–20 Azadegan League: Mes Rafsanjan and Aluminium Arak.

The 2020–21 season started on 6 November 2020.

Teams

Stadia and locations

Mes Rafsanjan

Gol Gohar

Foolad

Aluminium Arak

Sepahan
Zob Ahan

Shahr Khodro

Sanat Naft

Machine Sazi
Tractor

Naft MIS

Nassaji

Esteghlal
Paykan
Persepolis
Saipa

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Locations of clubs in 2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Aluminium Arak	Arak	Imam Khomeini	15,000
Esteghlal	Tehran	Azadi	78,116
Foolad	Ahvaz	Foolad Arena	30,655
Gol Gohar Sirjan	Sirjan	Imam Ali	8,000
Machine Sazi	Tabriz	Qasem Soleimani	12,000
Mes Rafsanjan	Rafsanjan	Shohadaye Mes	10,000
Naft Masjed Soleyman	Masjed Soleyman	Behnam Mohammadi	8,000
Nassaji Mazandaran	Qaem Shahr	Vatani	15,000
Paykan	Shahr-e Qods	Shahre Qods	25,000
Persepolis	Tehran	Azadi	78,116
Saipa	Tehran	Dastgerdi	8,250
Sanat Naft	Abadan	Takhti Abadan	8,000
Sepahan	Isfahan	Naghsh-e-Jahan	75,000
Shahr Khodro	Mashhad	Imam Reza	27,700
Tractor	Tabriz	Yadegar-e Emam	66,833
Zob Ahan	Fooladshahr	Fooladshahr	15,000

Number of teams by region

Region	Number of teams	Teams
Tehran	4	Esteghlal, Persepolis, Paykan, Saipa
Khuzestan	3	Foolad, Sanat Naft, Naft Masjed Soleyman
East Azarbaijan	2	Tractor, Machine Sazi
Isfahan	2	Sepahan, Zob Ahan
Kerman	2	Gol Gohar Sirjan, Mes Rafsanjan
Markazi	1	Aluminium
Mazandaran	1	Nassaji
Razavi Khorasan	1	Shahr Khodro

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer
Aluminium Arak	Rasoul Khatibi	Meysam Majidi	Uhlsport
Esteghlal	Mahmoud Fekri	Voria Ghafouri	Merooj
Foolad	Javad Nekounam	Ayoub Vali	Merooj
Gol Gohar	Amir Ghalenoei	Mehran Golzari	Merooj
Machine Sazi	Saeid Akhbari (interim)	Akbar Afaghi	Merooj
Mes Rafsanjan	Mohammad Rabiei	Hamed Noormohammadi	Merooj
Naft MIS	Mojtaba Hosseini	Abbas Asgari	Merooj
Nassaji	Majid Jalali	Hamed Shiri	Merooj
Paykan	Mehdi Tartar	Ali Hamoudi	Merooj
Persepolis	Yahya Golmohammadi	Jalal Hosseini	Uhlsport
Saipa	Ebrahim Sadeghi	Sadegh Barani	Start
Sanat Naft	Sirous Pourmousavi	Hossein Baghlani	Merooj
Sepahan	Moharram Navidkia	Rasoul Navidkia	Uhlsport
Shahr Khodro	Mehdi Rahmati	Reza Nasehi	Uhlsport
Tractor	Masoud Shojaei (interim)	Masoud Shojaei	Adidas
Zob Ahan	Rahman Rezaei	Ghasem Haddadifar	Talash

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing head coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Sepahan	Miguel Teixeira	End of Caretaker Spell	10 August 2020	Pre-season	Moharram Navidkia	5 September 2020
Machine Sazi	Human Afazeli	Resigned	18 August 2020		Vahid Bayatloo	26 August 2020
Naft MIS	Mehdi Tartar		13 August 2020		Mojtaba Hosseini	16 August 2020
Zob Ahan	Luka Bonačić	Sacked	15 August 2020		Rahman Rezaei	4 September 2020
Shahr Khodro	Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh		30 August 2020		Mehdi Rahmati	31 August 2020
Gol Gohar Sirjan	Majid Jalali		3 September 2020		Amir Ghalenoei	3 September 2020
Esteghlal	Farhad Majidi	Resigned	5 September 2020		Mahmoud Fekri	7 October 2020
Tractor	Saket Elhami		5 September 2020		Alireza Mansourian	17 September 2020
Sanat Naft	Behnam Seraj	Sacked	22 September 2020		Sirous Pourmousavi	22 September 2020
Nassaji	Mahmoud Fekri	Signed with Esteghlal	6 October 2020		Vahid Fazeli	8 October 2020
Paykan	Abdollah Veisi	Resigned	30 October 2020		Mehdi Tartar	4 November 2020

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per Persian Gulf Pro League team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team can use four foreign players on the field in each game, including at least one player from the AFC country.
In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player	Former Player
Aluminium Arak
Esteghlal	Hrvoje Milić	Cheick Diabaté
Foolad	Chimba	Moussa Coulibaly	Ayanda Patosi
Gol Gohar	Godwin Mensha
Machine Sazi
Mes Rafsanjan
Naft MIS
Nassaji
Paykan
Persepolis	Božidar Radošević				Bashar Resan
Saipa
Sanat Naft
Sepahan	Kiros	Giorgi Gvelesiani		Muhsen Al-Ghassani
Shahr Khodro
Tractor	Okacha Hamzaoui
Zob Ahan	Darko Bjedov	Ivan Marković

League table

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Esteghlal	12	6	4	2	16	8	+8	22	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage
2	Sepahan	12	6	4	2	19	14	+5	22	Qualification for AFC Champions League play-off round
3	Sanat Naft	12	6	3	3	14	10	+4	21
4	Tractor	12	5	4	3	12	10	+2	19
5	Foolad	12	4	6	2	13	9	+4	18
6	Naft Masjed Soleyman	12	4	4	4	9	9	0	16
7	Paykan	12	4	4	4	13	14	−1	16
8	Saipa	12	3	7	2	8	9	−1	16
9	Persepolis	10	3	6	1	11	7	+4	15
10	Gol Gohar	11	4	3	4	15	12	+3	15
11	Aluminium Arak	12	3	6	3	11	12	−1	15
12	Mes Rafsanjan	11	4	3	4	9	10	−1	15
13	Shahr Khodro	12	4	3	5	12	15	−3	15
14	Nassaji Mazandaran	12	2	3	7	8	14	−6	9
15	Zob Ahan	12	0	8	4	10	15	−5	8	Relegation to Azadegan League
16	Machine Sazi	12	0	4	8	6	18	−12	4

Updated to match(es) played on 25 January 2021. Source: IPL Table, IranLeague
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	ALU	EST	FOL	GOL	MST	MES	MIS	NSJ	PAY	PRS	SAP	SNA	SEP	SHK	TRC	ZOB
Aluminium Arak	—			0–0	4–1	0–0		0–3		2–1	5 Feb	1–0				2–2
Esteghlal	2–0	—			1–0	2–0		5 Feb		2–2	0–1	1–1	a		a
Foolad	0–0	2–1	—			1–1		1–0	30 Jan		3–0			13 Feb
Gol Gohar		1–2	1–1	—			5 Feb		1–2	19 Feb			3–1	3–1	1–2
Machine Sazi			0–1	0–1	—		0–1					13 Feb	3–3		0–1	1–1
Mes Rafsanjan				0–2	1–0	—	2–0					30 Jan	1–2		0–1	14 Feb
Naft MIS	13 Feb	29 Jan	1–0				—		0–1	0–0	1–1		3–1	3–1
Nassaji				13 Feb	1–1	0–1	1–0	—		1–1		0–1			1–1	29 Jan
Paykan	0–0	0–0			5 Feb	2–3		2–1	—		1–1			1–0
Persepolis		a	2–1		30 Jan	9 Feb			14 Feb	—		1–0	0–0	3–0	a	1–1
Saipa				29 Jan	0–0	0–0		1–0		0–0	—	1–1			14 Feb	2–1
Sanat Naft			5 Feb	2–1			2–0		2–1			—	1–2		2–1	1–0
Sepahan	1–0	13 Feb	1–1					4–0	2–1	a	1–1		—	30 Jan		a
Shahr Khodro	2–2	0–2			3–0	4 Feb		1–0			1–0	1–1		—
Tractor	30 Jan	1–3	0–0				0–0		3–1	4 Feb			0–1	0–0	—
Zob Ahan		0–0	2–2	1–1			0–0		1–1				4 Feb	0–2	1–2	—

Updated to match(es) played on 25 January 2021. Source: IPL Stats, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Esteghlal	4	6	2	5	5	1	2	4	1	1	1	1
Sanat Naft	5	8	10	4	4	2	6	3
Sepahan	13	9	3	6	8	6	5	2
Tractor	11	11	13	10	12	8	3	7
Paykan	12	7	9	9	6	7	11	10
Persepolis	9	4	6	2	2	4	4	6
Gol Gohar	3	1	1	1	1	5	1	1
Foolad	6	3	4	7	9	3	7	5
Naft MIS	10	13	12	13	11	13	9	8
Saipa	8	12	5	8	10	11	10	11
Aluminium Arak	15	15	15	14	13	12	8	9	11	12	11	11
Mes Rafsanjan	14	16	16	16	15	14	13	14	14	13	12	12
Shahr Khodro	2	5	8	11	7	10	14	13	12	11	13	13
Nassaji	1	2	7	3	3	9	12	12	13	14	14	14
Zob Ahan	7	10	11	12	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Machine Sazi	16	14	14	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

	Leader : 2022 AFC Champions League Group stage
	2022 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off round
	Relegation to 2021-22 Azadegan League

Source: Iran Football League Organization

Season statistics

As of 25 January 2021

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sajjad Shahbazzadeh	Sepahan	10
2	Godwin Mensha	Gol Gohar	9
3	Mohammad Abbaszadeh	Tractor	7
	Amin Ghaseminejad	Shahr Khodro
5	Hamed Pakdel	Aluminium Arak	6
	Taleb Reykani	Sanat Naft
7	Peyman Babaei	Machine Sazi	4
	Mehdi Ghayedi	Esteghlal
	Mohammad Reza Hosseini	Sepahan
	Sasan Hosseini	Naft MIS
11	Saeid Bagherpasand	Aluminium Arak	3
	Faraz Emamali	Mes Rafsanjan
	Darko Bjedov	Zob Ahan
	Voria Ghafouri	Esteghlal
	Reza Khaleghifar	Sanat Naft
	Amir Arsalan Motahari	Esteghlal
	Ahmad Nourollahi	Persepolis
	Ayanda Patosi	Foolad
	Luciano Pereira	Foolad

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Godwin Mensha	Gol Gohar	Shahr Khodro	3–1 (H)	18 December 2020
Peyman Babaei	Machine Sazi	Sepahan	3–3 (H)	29 December 2020

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Mostafa Ahmadi	Aluminium Arak	3
	Karim Eslami	Nassaji
	Soroush Rafiei	Sepahan
	Mehrdad Rezaei	Mes Rafsanjan
	Ahmad Reza Zendehrouh	Gol Gohar

Clean Sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean Sheets
1	Hossein Akbar Monadi	Saipa	5
	Mohammad Reza Akhbari	Tractor
	Mohsen Forouzan	Foolad
	Hamed Lak	Persepolis
	Rashid Mazaheri	Esteghlal
	Hossein Pour Hamidi	Aluminium Arak
7	Mohammad Deris	Paykan	4
	Ahmad Gohari	Naft MIS
	Payam Niazmand	Sepahan
	Nasser Salari	Mes Rafsanjan

See also

• 2020–21 Azadegan League
• 2020–21 League 2
• 2020–21 League 3
• 2020–21 Hazfi Cup
• 2020 Iranian Super Cup
• 2021 AFC Champions League