During Schäfer's second season as manager, he saw some of his top players leaving the club, Majid Hosseini moved to Trabzonspor, while Omid Ebrahimi joined Al Ahli, Server Djeparov signed for Zhetysu and Omid Noorafkan moved to Charleroi. Esteghlal signed players such as Morteza Aghakhan, Rouhollah Bagheri, Farshad Mohammadi Mehr, Meysam Teymouri, Ali Karimi and Morteza Tabrizi to replace the departed players and improve the squad depth. He also asked to sign Nigerian striker Alhaji Gero, his compatriot Markus Neumayr as well as Iraq international Humam Tariq.