Ali Daei

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Ali Daei
Personal information
Full name Ali Daei
Date of birth March 21, 1969 (age 37)
Place of birth Ardabil, Iran
Nickname Shahriar
Position Forward
Club information
Current club Saipa FC
Youth clubs
Javanan Ardabil
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
1988-1989
1989-1990
1990-1994
1994-1996
1996-1997
1997-1998
1998-1999
1999-2002
2002-2003
2003-2004
2004-2006
2006-present		 Esteghlal Ardabil
Taxirani FC
Tejarat Bank FC
Persepolis FC
Al Sadd
Arminia Bielefeld
Bayern Munich
Hertha BSC Berlin
Al-Shabbab
Persepolis FC
Saba Battery
Saipa FC
(14)

38 (23)
(10)
25 (7)
23 (6)
59 (19)
25 (11)
24 (16)
51 (23)
11 (6)
National team**
1993-2006 Iran 149 (109)
Teams managed
2006-present Saipa FC (interim manager)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 2 December 2006.
** National team caps and goals correct
as of 22 June 2006.

Ali Daei (Persian: علی دایی‎ ​, born March 21, 1969 in Ardabil) is an Iranian footballer who is a striker and interim manager for Saipa FC. He is a former member of the Iran national football team, and is the world's all-time leading goalscorer in international matches.

Contents

[edit] Profile

[edit] Early years

He graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Materials Engineering (Metallurgical). Born in Ardabil, he played for his hometown club, Esteghlal Ardabil, when he was 19. His next club was Taxirani FC in Tehran, where he played for one season, before joining another Tehrani club, Bank Tejarat FC. He stayed four years with Bank Tejarat, missing out on a chance to play in the J. League due to military service. Daei's fame is attributed mostly to his renowned goal scoring ability. He managed to score frequently for his clubs, although due to the league schedule at the time he did not play many matches per season. His impressive performance at his club finally got results, and he was called up to join Team Melli in June 1993 in an Eco Cup tournament held in Tehran, where he made his debut for Iran against Pakistan. He continued his national team appearances and was named the top scorer of the final Asian round of 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifications with 4 goals in 5 matches.

Daei was named the world's top scorer in official international competitions by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), having scored 20 goals in competitive matches for Iran in 1996, including his famous 4 goal haul against South Korea in Asian Cup 1996. He is considered to be the finest striker in the history of the game in Asia. By the end of the 1996 Asian Cup, he had scored 29 goals in 38 appeances for Iran. In the 1998 World Cup qualifying campaign, he was again on top of the charts, scoring 9 goals in 17 matches for Iran, reaching his impressive record of 38 goals in 52 appearances for his country. He is one of the most prolific strikers in the history of football and is now ranked first in most goals in international matches. His experience with world-class football opened the way for other Asian players such as Hidetoshi Nakata and Mehdi Mahdavikia.

[edit] Club career

After playing for a couple of minor league teams, Taxirani and Bank Tejarat, in 1994 Daei joined one of country's premier squads, Persepolis FC. Following his impressive performance in Asian Cup in 1996 as Arminia Bielefeld joined the Bundesliga, they signed a contract with Daei and his felow Iranian national team-mate Karim Bagheri. Ali Daei spent one season in Bielefeld and proved to be a successful franchise. He was hand picked for the Bayern Munich club by legendary footballer Franz Beckenbauer, president of the club, who rated him as a world-class centre-forward. He made a famous four million deutschemark move from Arminia Bielefeld to the four-time European Cup winners, which was a record for Asian players at the time. Daei also opened the door for Vahid Hashemian and Ali Karimi who became the second and third Iranians to join the Bavarians (Bayern Munich).

Daei became the first Asian player to feature in a UEFA Champions League match. Yet with Bayern's 15 international players and the Iranian national team's scheduling, Daei had found very little time for playing. In Germany he was known to be a true gentleman, famous for the way he treated the fans. Daei would always sign autographs to Bayern fans and was often the centre of attention, as he was featured in OPEL car commercials. Amazingly, he usually did manage to score when given a chance to play. Still, Ali Daei was unhappy with his position in the club and decided to make a move to Hertha BSC Berlin before the end of his three year contract, when Bayern won the championship title in the 1999 Bundesliga. In 2000 he played in the Champions League with Hertha BSC Berlin, becoming the teams best scorer in the league with 3 goals. His famous match against Chelsea gained him a lot of recognition. Yet even at Hertha he was not the talk of the town, since he was only amongst one of the squad's many successful franchises, who were to fulfill Hertha's Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League dreams.

At the same time he was very successful in international competition scoring in practically every game and making new records. He played in many World Teams in friendly continental games. Yet Daei was still unable to maintain a stable position in his club's starting line-up. In the year 2001 he was not among the top scorers in the Asian Qualifying round and he did not manage to take the team into the World Cup as captain for the first time. After receiving offers from Rapid Vienna, Rangers, the J. League and a few English Premiership teams, he decided that he was no longer fit to play world-class football. He joined the UAE league at 34 years of age, signing a contract with Al-Shabbab as a free agent. In 2003 Daei quit the UAE team and joined his old team in Tehran, Perspolis FC. Daei moved from Persepolis to Saba Battery on a free transfer for a modest contract of around 300,000 American dollars.

He spent two years at Saba Battery, scoring 23 goals, winning the Hazfi Cup and participating in the Asian Champions League. After World Cup 2006 and the arrival of Saba Battery's new manager, Farhad Kazemi, it was announced that he was no longer needed on the team and that his contract would not be renewed. Despite rumors of retirment he signed for another industry linked club from Tehran, Saipa FC, on August 1, 2006.[1].

[edit] Personal character

Asides from his great sportsmanship on the pitch, Daei ran many charitable organisations and used a great deal of his money in support of the less fortunate. In his native Iran, Daei has been seen as a role model for a sport with a terrible reputation, when many prominent footballers are accused of criminal offences or are involved with prostitutes, Daei has always brought about a good image of himself. Today Daei owns his own football jersey manufacturing company called Daei Sportswear Company, making jerseys for Iranian Premiership clubs, 2nd Division clubs world-wide and for the national team. He has made very significant charitable donations and has made appearances in charitable football matches world-wide (featuring in the World vs. Bosnia match with Roberto Baggio and other football legends). He also appeared in a UNICEF commercial with superstar David Beckham and Madeleine Albright, and has regularly been seen working with the organisation. He is also very famous for being a "gentleman", the name which was given to him even in Germany where he used to play, because of his moderate behaviour.

[edit] Personal life

Besides his footballing career, Ali Daei also owns a sporting clothes company named after himself. His company provides clothing for several Iranian football clubs and at one point even for the national team. In 2005 he married a former classmate of his from Sharif University in a lavish ceremony.

[edit] Honours

Ali Daei joined the exclusive circle of players with a century of caps. In a November 28, 2003 Asian Cup qualifier in Tehran against Lebanon, he scored his 85th international goal, elevating him past Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás to top the all-time list of scorers in international matches (among men; he trails women's leader Mia Hamm by almost 50 goals). On November 17, 2004, he scored four goals against Laos in a World Cup qualifier, giving him 102 goals and making him the first male player to score 100 goals in international play. As of June 2006, he has 149 caps for Iran, ranked among the top 10 of world's most capped players.

[edit] Criticism

Having played for Iran in World Cup 2006 at the age of 37, Daei continues to hold his place in Iran national team despite some criticism calling for his retirement. Critics[name a specific person/group] have questioned Daei's place in the national team by referring to World Cup's fast pace games and the shortcomings in appearance of older players in the national teams.[citation needed]

[edit] Coaching career

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

On October 8, 2006, upon sudden leave of Saipa's German coach Werner Lorant, he was appointed as the interim coach of Saipa.[2].

[edit] Other honours (individual)

[edit] Famous matches

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ (Persian) علي دايي با قراردادي يك ساله به تيم سايپا پيوست. ISNA. Retrieved on 2006-08-01.
  2. ^ (Persian) علي دايي : پس از مشورت با بزرگترها مربيگري تيم سايپا را قبول كردم. IRNA. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
  3. ^ Top 10 International Goal Scorers - 1996. IFFHS. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
  4. ^ Top 10 International Goal Scorers - 2000. IFFHS. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
  5. ^ Top 10 International Goal Scorers - 2004. IFFHS. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Japan Hidetoshi Nakata		 Asian Footballer of the Year
1999		 Succeeded by:
Saudi Arabia Nawaf Al Temyat
Iran Iran squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Iran

1 Abedzadeh | 2 Mahdavikia | 3 Saadavi | 4 Khakpour | 5 Peyrovani | 6 Bagheri | 7 Mansourian | 8 Dinmohammadi | 9 Estili | 10 Daei | 11 Azizi | 12 Nakisa | 13 Latifi | 14 Mohammadkhani | 15 Ostad‑Asadi | 16 Shahroudi | 17 Zarincheh | 18 Hamedani | 19 Seraj | 20 Pashazadeh | 21 Minavand | 22 Boromand | Coach: Talebi
Iran Iran squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Iran

1 Mirzapour | 2 Mahdavikia | 3 Bakhtiarizadeh | 4 Golmohammadi | 5 Rezaei | 6 Nekounam | 7 Zandi | 8 Karimi | 9 Hashemian | 10 Daei | 11 Khatibi | 12 Roudbarian | 13 Ka'abi | 14 Teymourian | 15 Borhani | 16 Enayati | 17 Kazemian | 18 Navidkia | 19 Sadeqi | 20 Nosrati | 21 Madanchi | 22 Talebloo | 23 Shojaei | Coach: Ivanković
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