Persepolis captain Hadi Norouzi passed away on the early hours of Thursday after suffering a heart attack in his sleep. He was taken to hospital immediately but died afterwards.

Persepolis manager Branko Ivankovic describes the news as a big shock for him and his team. Persepolis players and legends like Ali Parvin, Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, Karim Bagheri, and Iran coach Carlos Queiroz and former managers Afshin Ghotbi and Ali Daei paid tributes to late Norouzi and his family in their messages.
Iran Professional League (IPL) clubs also paid tributes to Persepolis football club and fans in Twitter. Many fans also immediately flocked to Persepolis' training ground, Derafshifar Stadium, to lay flowers and light candles in memory of Norouzi.
He had participated in a training session on Wednesday without any problem.
A memorial was held in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on 2 October in front of about 20,000 fans.
His funeral will be held on Saturday and he will be buried in his hometown, Kapoorchall village at Babol, North of Iran.
Norouzi joined Persepolis in summer 2000 from Persepolis U-19. He had loan spells at Fajr Sepasi, Damash Iranian and Naft Tehran but spent majority of his career playing for Persepolis scoring 26 goals in 150 appearances.
His last appearance for the club was a 2-1 home loss to Saipa in IPL on September 16.
Norouzi also made nine appearances for Iran national football team.
Persepolis club has announced they will wear the black jerseys until the end of the season in memory of their captain.
SG