Amir Ghalenoei is one of the most popular and richest Association Football Player who was born on November 21, 1963 in Tehran, Iran. He signed a one and a half year deal for one-and-a half years with Al-Sadd at the age of 1987. He was instrumental in helping his team win two league titles in the domestic league and also an Emir of Qatar (FA Cup) title. Al-Sadd also won the 1988-89 edition of the AFC Champions League in spring of 1989 following a win over Al-Rasheed at the end of the competition. However, Ghalenoei had left the club and had returned to Iran so did not make it into the Asian champions team.
He joined Esteghlal in July 1989 and played for the club until his retirement. He made his debut in a game against Persepolis in a quarter final Hazfi Cup match where he lost his penalty kick.
Ghalenoei lost most of the next season (1991–92) due to a heavy injury. At that season, Esteghlal could not obtain an entry to the next season (1992–93) of Azadegan league and thus was asked to play in the 3rd Division for one season. This meant the departure of many players like Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, Shahrokh Bayani, Majid Namjoo-Motlagh, Samad Marfavi and Reza Ahadi but Ghalenoei remained at the team and was chosen as the club’s new captain. Esteghlal again rose to the top level of Iranian football in 1994–95 and was ranked second on their first season back to the competition. Ghalenoei also scored twice in the final game of the following season (1995–96) Hazfi Cup. In his last season in Esteghlal, they started off successfully both in the Iranian and Asian Cup Winners’ Cup, but could not sustain the good performance. Their head coach, Mansour Pourheidari – who had the club to the Asian glory – resigned mid season and Nasser Hejazi was appointed as the head coach and finished the league with sixth position. He retired at the end of this season after missing many matches due to injury.
He was first invited to the Iran the national football team B during 1985, by Nasser Ebrahimi, the coach with whom he began his career with. He displayed a strong performance. He was then invited the next year’s National team in the year 2000 by Parviz Dehdari. He made his debut in the match against China PR. But, he was not able to participate in many international tournaments despite his impressive performance. For instance the time he played for Al-Sadd in the 1988 AFC Asian Cup, he wasn’t selected for the national team for the 1998 AFC Asian Cup because he was part of the foreign club. In for the 1990 Asian Games held in Beijing He was not selected because of many talented players at the positions he played. He also was injured prior to that 1992 AFC Asian Cup and missed it.
When Ebrahimi became Shahin’s coach Ghalenoei relocated to Shahin together with his assistant. Shahin had several national players such as Nasrollah Abdollahi, Mehdi Dinvarzadeh, Hamid Majd Teymouri. Ebrahimi was dismissed from his club at the age of 34 in 1984. replaced by Mehrab Shahrokhi, who served as the coach for a brief period , before replacing him by Nasrollah Abdollahi. Ghalenoei was named captain of the club following the departure of Dinvarzadeh. While in Shahin Ghalenoei, he guided the team be runners-up at the two Tehran championships, in 1986 and 1985.
He won the Iran league title in his first full season (1989–90) at the club in spring 1990. Esteghlal also won the AFC Champions League on the following season (1990–91) after nearly twenty years.
