Dan Gaspar, a Connecticut Yankee in Carlos Queiroz’s Iranian court

Andy Mitten profiles Gaspar, the assistant manager of the Iran football team to Carlos Queiroz, a longtime confidant and curious American sight in Tehran.

Iran assistant coach Dan Gaspar works with goalies at the Corinthians football team training center in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 8, 2014. Julio Cortez / AP

It may come as a surprise to those familiar with international geopolitical relations, but the assistant manager of the Iranian national team was born in Connecticut, in the United States.
Friends and family advised Dan Gaspar, 58, not to go to Iran in 2011 and follow coach Carlos Queiroz to Tehran when he took the Iran job.
Such is his respect for his boss, you sense that he would have followed him to Mars.
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"I am who I am because of the mentoring of coach Queiroz," says Gaspar. "I have worked with him since 1983 in varying roles.
"He has a crystal-clear vision of how things work. He thinks deeply about everything. He's obsessive about what he does, he wants you there all the time.
"I've had many calls at 1am where he wants to meet to talk tactics. So I go to his apartment and we discuss ideas.
"Weak links frighten him. He's always looking for solutions to make Iran stronger.
"He's not a man of excuses.
"At times it's unpleasant working with someone who is multitasking every minute, but I know he's only trying to better everyone, including me."
Queiroz lives on four hours sleep a day. He also commands and receives unconditional loyalty.
"I'd jump off a bridge for him," Gaspar says. "I trust him, believe in him and know I can count on him."
Despite his admiration for his boss, life in Iran took some getting used to for a coach who has worked with Queiroz across the world. "The first time I heard the sunrise prayers I jumped out of bed and looked out my windows wondering what was going on," says the American, who also has Portuguese nationality.
"You cannot help not hearing it. It's broadcast throughout the nation via loudspeakers. But over time it became part of our day and now I sleep right through it."
Far away from home, the pair socialise off the field.
"Coach and I have cooking competitions," Gaspar says. "We go to the street in Tehran to buy fruit and the selections are awesome. All organic. Our cooking has really improved while in Iran. We argue who prepares the best dinners. But you can imagine who wins all the time."
Gaspar also has found Iranians to be hospitable.
"I've worked around the world and the people are among the most friendly, the cities the safest that I've experienced," he says. "There are a lot of misconceptions about Iran."
Some cultural difference take getting used to: no women in football stadiums, for instance. While Queiroz was used to the Muslim environment and respectful of other cultures and societies, Gaspar was intrigued.
"I've asked why they don't allow the women to attend," Gaspar says. "The response has been because of the language chanted during the football matches is not appropriate for women to hear. Women are allowed to attend volleyball and basketball games, where apparently the fans are more polite."
He says that when Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, visited Iran recently he suggested that Iran would need to allow women football fans into the stadiums if the country were to be accepted by world football.
"I believe Iran now is looking into to this possibility," Gaspar says.
Politics and sport are intrinsically fused in Iran. When the team qualified for the World Cup finals, thousands gathered at Tehran's international airport for their return. Even more were waiting at the national stadium. The team visited the new president, Hassan Rouhani, who congratulated them.
When they had met his predecessor, the former footballer Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he had analysed tactics and knew every player's name.
When Iran had been under pressure earlier in the campaign, the often bellicose Ahmadinejad had twice attended training, where he asked players to sit down on the pitch. Then he sat down with them, eyeball to eyeball, to talk football and give them a pep talk.
"It was quite inspiring to watch Ahmadinejad," Gaspar says, "and when he was replaced by Rouhani, the election and reaching the World Cup created so much optimism. Football was a bridge to happiness."
Visiting teams to Tehran do not always view the country with the same optimism and often struggle with the city's 1,200-metre altitude.
"We find that the output of visitors drops dramatically in the second half," Gaspar says. "Add in the curiosity and mystique of visiting Iran, and you sense that visitors want to get in and get out."
At 900 metres, Belo Horizonte is the highest of the Brazilian World Cup venues, but it is seldom associated with altitude. Iran play Argentina in Brazil's third-biggest city on Saturday.
Iran have never gone beyond the group stage in their three previous World Cup finals and, while their scoreless draw against Nigeria in their opening game was described as soporific by commentators versed in the drama and goals of the other World Cup games, Iran were satisfied.
They would certainly settle for the same result today.
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