Football coach Jiří Saňák is currently waiting for another job after finishing in Pardubice. In his career, he has already been through several Czech clubs. Esteghlal, which is the oldest and second most successful Iranian team based in Tehran, can also be found in his biography, in which he worked as an assistant in the 2017/2018 season.
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Jiří Saňák, former coach of Olomouc | Photo: Filip Fojtík | Source: Mf Dnes + LN / Profimedia
“It was a big surprise from the very beginning. I flew to the training camp where the Esteghlal club was. I was driving there with a driver to a small stadium that was completely full. I asked if it was normal for so many people to be there for training. But he told me that they were there because of me,” described Jiří Saňák in the program Desítka Pavel Horváth on Radiožurnál Sport.
Listen to Jiří Saňák about a specific engagement in Iran
He had to get used to a lot of new things in Esteghlal, such as the size of the club. “One cannot imagine that Esteghlal has thirty million fans. I have experienced six sold-out stadiums with a capacity of 100,000. When there was a derby or when we played in the Asian Champions League to reach the top four. When we then advanced, it was probably the greatest experience. It’s a completely different energy when so many people are cheering,” Saňák recalled.
Personal zone and no alcohol
In the Radiožurnálu Sport program, he also recalled a completely different culture than the European one. “I have never received so many kisses from men. The personal zone is much closer. You don’t even realize that you go to the pool and you only see men there. In the gym, it’s also separate, the women have the morning, the men have the afternoon. Alcohol is prohibited, but when I was leaving, they were opening an anti-alcohol clinic there,” the Czech coach adds interesting observations.
Jiří Saňák spent less than one season in Esteghlal, although he extended his contract with the club by one year after winning the Iranian Cup. But the head coach, German Winfried Schäfer, wanted a longer contract and that made life difficult for Saňák.
“They don’t do it because it’s a government club. He made it through the fans. I flew in for training and they took my passport. You cannot get home without a passport and an exit visa. Then they drove me there as an immigrant through the authorities and told me that I was flying at night. They told me to take CIP, which is something like our VIP. I paid a hundred dollars at the airport, I’m waiting there, but the customs officer tells me I can’t fly home. At 3:15 in the morning, a guy arrived on a motorcycle, he had a crumpled piece of paper in his hand, he gave it to the customs officer, he wrote something in my passport. They took me to the airport and I flew to Vienna at three hours and fifty-five minutes, I remember it very well,” Saňák described.
Since the summer of 2018, football coach Jiří Saňák has not returned to Iran. In the Czech Republic, he subsequently replaced Olomouc, Sparta, Slovácko and most recently worked in Pardubice, where he quit at the end of October due to unsatisfactory results.
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