A look at the career so far of Barnsley's new head coach
– Asbaghi was born in Iran but, after his family left that country due to political persecution when he was one, he grew up in Upsalla, Sweden. He did not play football at professional level and instead went into coaching, following time at college in the US.
– He began as a coach at boyhood club UNIK in the fifth tier then was assistant manager at third tier AFC Eskilstuna under Andreas Brannstrom.
– He moved on with Brannstrom in 2014 to Upsalla club Dalkurd FF which was set up in 2004 by the Kurdish community and would go from the ninth tier to the top flight. In March 2015, the squad was due to be on the German Wings flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf which crashed into the French Alps, killing everyone on board, but they changed plans late on.
He was assistant manager then manager at Dalkurd as the club gained promotion to the second tier.
– He left in 2017 and spent seven months at another second tier club Gefle, which is where he made his name – turning a defensively-minded side into a highly-rated team that played an attractive brand of football.
– That attracted the attention of one of Sweden’s biggest clubs IFK Gothenburg, who had twice won the UEFA Cup in the 1980s. He was their youngest coach for almost 40 years and was tasked with transforming their style of play. He took them to 11th in the top flight in his first season then seventh in the second which also saw them win the Swedish Cup, beating Malmo in the final with a 94th-minute goal.
He was nominated for Manager of the Year. But a 12-match winless run near the start of his third season led to his sacking. He won 24, drew 24 and lost 30 of 78 games with Gothenburg.
– On November 24 last year, he was put in charge of Sweden under 21s. He won six and drew two of his matches, before a last-minute defeat in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday.
