The 2020–21 Persian Gulf Pro League (formerly known as Iran Pro League) were the 38th season of Iran's Football League and 20th as Persian Gulf Pro League since its establishment in 2001. Persepolis were the defending champions. The season featured 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 and was ended on 30 July 2021. Persepolis won their record-extending 5th consecutive title and 14th title overall (7th in the Pro League era)
Teams
Stadia and locations
TeamLocationStadiumCapacity Aluminium Arak ArakImam Khomeini15,000 EsteghlalTehranAzadi78,116 FooladAhvazFoolad Arena30,655 Gol Gohar SirjanSirjanImam AliQasem Soleimani8,0009,000 Machine SaziTabrizQasem Soleimani12,000 Mes RafsanjanRafsanjanShohadaye Mes2,000 Naft Masjed SoleymanMasjed SoleymanBehnam Mohammadi8,000 Nassaji MazandaranQaem ShahrVatani15,000 PaykanShahr-e QodsShahr-e Qods25,000 PersepolisTehranAzadi78,116 SaipaTehranDastgerdi8,250 Sanat NaftAbadanTakhti Abadan10,000 SepahanIsfahanNaghsh-e-Jahan75,000 PadidehMashhadImam Reza27,700 TractorTabrizYadegar-e Emam66,833 Zob AhanFooladshahrFooladshahr15,000
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. TeamManagerCaptainAluminium Arak Alireza Mansourian Meysam MajidiEsteghlal Farhad Majidi Voria GhafouriFoolad Javad Nekounam Ayoub ValiGol Gohar Amir Ghalenoei Mehran GolzariMachine Sazi Alireza Akbarpour Habib GordaniMes Rafsanjan Mohammad Rabiei Hamed NoormohammadiNaft MIS Mahmoud Fekri Abbas AsgariNassaji Saket Elhami Hamed ShiriPaykan Mehdi Tartar Ali HamoudiPersepolis Yahya Golmohammadi Jalal HosseiniSaipa Faraz Kamalvand Sadegh BaraniSanat Naft Sirous Pourmousavi Hossein BaghlaniSepahan Moharram Navidkia Ehsan HajsafiShahr Khodro Mehdi Rahmati Reza NasehiTractor Firouz Karimi Mohammad Reza AkhbariZob Ahan Mojtaba Hosseini Ghasem Haddadifar
Managerial changes TeamOutgoing head coachManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming head coachDate of appointmentSepahan Miguel Teixeira End of Caretaker SpellPre-season Moharram NavidkiaMachine Sazi Human AfazeliResigned Vahid BayatlooNaft MIS Mehdi Tartar Mojtaba HosseiniZob Ahan Luka BonačićSacked Rahman RezaeiShahr Khodro Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh Mehdi RahmatiGol Gohar Sirjan Majid Jalali Amir GhalenoeiEsteghlal Farhad MajidiResigned Mahmoud Fekri Tractor Saket Elhami Alireza MansourianSanat Naft Behnam SerajSacked Sirous PourmousaviNassaji Mahmoud FekriSigned with Esteghlal Vahid FazeliPaykan Abdollah VeisiResigned Mehdi Tartar
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 PlayerAluminium 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 Shahr Khodro Tractor Okacha Hamzaoui Zob Ahan Darko Bjedov Ivan Marković
League table Standings
Results
Positions by round
Season statistics
Top scorers
RankPlayerClubGoals1 Sajjad Shahbazzadeh Sepahan202 Godwin Mensha Gol Gohar143 Mohammad Abbaszadeh Tractor124 Amin Ghaseminejad Padideh115 Hamed Pakdel Aluminium Arak10 Ahmad Nourollahi Persepolis7 Mehdi Abdi Persepolis9 Taleb Reykani Sanat Naft9 Younes Shakeri Gol Gohar810 Sasan Hosseini Naft MIS7 Amir Arsalan MotahariEsteghlal
Hat-tricks PlayerForAgainstResultDate Godwin Mensha Gol Gohar Shahr Khodro 3–1 (H) Peyman Babaei Machine Sazi Sepahan 3–3 (H) Younes Shakeri Gol Gohar Machine Sazi 3–1 (H)
Clean sheets
RankPlayerClubClean sheets1 Hamed Lak Persepolis172 Payam Niazmand Sepahan143 Hossein Pour Hamidi Aluminium Arak114 Rashid Mazaheri Esteghlal105 Mohsen Forouzan Foolad96 Mohammad Reza Akhbari Tractor87 Hossein Akbar Monadi Saipa6 Milad Farahani Padideh Alireza Haghighi Gol Gohar Farhad Kermanshahi Naft Masjed Soleyman Davoud Noushi Soufiani 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
References