[3][6] Prior to coaching at the professional level, Ghotbi founded one of the best youth football academies named AGSS in Southern California, responsible for the discovery and development of players such as Peter Vagenas and John O'Brien and many more.

[7] Ghotbi worked for Korea Republic national team under Dutchman Guus Hiddink from December 2000 till July 2002 as a football analyst.

In 2007, Ghotbi was Head-Coach of Persepolis F.C., an Iran Pro League club, in compliance with the new contract he signed in August 2007.

[11] A week later, Ghotbi agreed to succeed Mayeli Kohan as head coach of the Iranian national team, becoming the first American to take the job.

[12] After this appointment, Ghotbi said in an interview "A life dream, a longtime ambition and a journey written in the stars is about to be realized I have to thank all the people around the world who have cheered, supported and inspired me to have this opportunity",[13] Despite taking only one goal and five points in three matches in 11 days, Iran fell short to qualify for the World Cup 2010.

Iran was the only team in the Asian Cup 2010 competition to win all three group matches beating Iraq, North Korea and United Emirates with scoring six goals and conceding one.

On 28 May, Ghotbi made his managerial debut for Buriram United in a domestic league game against Nakhon Ratchasima and collected the win with 1–0 result.

[19] In November 2022, Ghotbi was named the first head coach of Canadian Premier League expansion side Vancouver FC.

[20] Note: Penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws Persepolis Shimizu S-Pulse Shijiazhuang Ever Bright Individual