Even though Amol was home to the prestigious volleyball club Kalleh, Ali did not show much of interest to the sport while he was growing up.

[11] Shafiei joined Ataei's side as one of the few well known players on the roster alongside Nico Ferrerics, Hamzeh Zarini and Reza Ghara.

He started the game on the bench but was substituted with Gholami and helped Sarmaye Bank make a comeback and win the first match 3-2.

Similar to the previous two seasons, Sarmaye Bank VC kept its "Galactic" status by renewing with the majority of its world-class stars, among whom : Farhad Ghaemi, Shahram Mahmoudi, Łukasz Żygadło and the famous middle block trio Adel Gholami, Mohammad "Seyed" Mousavi and Ali Shafiei.

With Milad Ebadipour and Farhad Zarif being the only two major players who left the club and were replaced respectively by Mojtaba Mirzajanpour[17] and Mehdi Marandi.

The underdog put on a fight, however it was not enough and after a 3-2 and a 3-1 victories Sarmaye successfully defended their title for another year with another impressive 6-0 playoffs run.

Despite qualifying for the AVC Club Championships, it was announced that Sarmaye Bank would no longer sponsor a team in the IVSL.

[20] Shafiei's efforts during this legendary Sarmaye IVSL run and his performance in the Club World Championships brought much attention to him and once again he was invited to national team.