Nearly twelve years ago , a 14 years old boy by the name of Alireza Haghighi had a dream. His dream was to become like his hero Ahmadreza Abedzadeh , Team Melli’s goalkeeper and one of the heroes of the 1998 Iran World Cup team that clinched the only victory of Iran in the World Cup so far.
The aspiring tall boy, with lots of dreams and not short of confidence either was part of the Iran boys team when he was interviewed by Jam ‘e Jam magazine. In one emphatic sentence Haghighi made his ambition quite clear, he said that he is planning to become like his hero Ahmad Abedzadeh and play for Team Melli in the World Cup. How prophetic this young by was.
Haghighi was not all talk either but quite a skillful goalkeeper with remarkable reflexes and towering presence over the players of his age. The Persepolis young keeper went on to represent the National Team at all ages levels. He went on from boys to youth to Olympic teams and finally the Full Team where he has made 8 appearances so far.
In December 2011, the Russian Club Rubin Kazan sent a transfer request to Persepolis for Haghighi. By 2012 Haghighi has signed a 4 years contract with the Russian Premier League club. For the whole season, however, Haghighi was not able to dislodge Kazan main keeper and eventually he was loaned back to Persepolis on July 2013 for a 5 moth contract. He marked his return by playing in Hazfi cup but that was about it. This was not a completely good move for the aspiring keeper who wanted to be the No. 1 goalkeeper for Persepolis but Daei preferred the Brazilian Nelson over Haghighi much to the annoyance of the Iranian. Relations between Daei and Persepolis on one side and Haghighi on the other deteriorated with the news taking the rounds that Daei has sacked Haghighi his reserve keeper and asked him not to attend training for being a disturbing element and unsettling influence on the rest of the team.
Haghighi returned back to his club Rubin Kazan. In an attempt to rescue his season , Rubin Kazan arranged another load deal with a struggling second division Portuguese club called Sporting Covilhã who were fighting for survival and drop to the obscurity of Portugal’s third division.
Haghighi had no choice but to agree to the deal in order to maintain his form and play regular competitive football. Of course it was a far cry from the chance of playing a role in a famous Russian club that has even defeated Barcelona in a Champions league match once or play with Persepolis against Esteghlal in front of 100,000 fans in Azadi. The obscurity of second division Sporting Covilhã has threatened to send Haghighi into Oblivion until Queiroz came calling!
Haghighi (26 years old) was named in the origin 30 players list that was sent to 2014 FIFA World Cup. Raised eyebrows were aplenty to this peculiar selection by Queiroz. In reality, Haghighi did not even play one single league match since January 2012 in Iran or Russia, to justify his selection. His only competitive in Iran while on loan was two Cup matches against unknown non-league teams.
While Queiroz was bemoaning the fact that none of Team Melli players have European Champions League experience, it was a bizarre act for him to select a player who had no league action at all in two seasons, expect for the 12 matches he played in Portugal lower division.
The icing on the cake was Alireza Haghighi’s inclusion in the final 23 players list to Brazil.
In the first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup , the selection of Haghighi against Nigeria, made many fans nervous, but that young boy’s dream has already been fulfilled and there was no turning back. Haghighi Kept a clean sheet. His performance was solid enough for Queiroz to pick him up again this time in a much more demanding task of defending his goal against the likes of Higuain , Aguero , Di Maria and the great Lionel Messi of Argentina.
In truth, Haghighi played magnificently well against one of the title contenders , made a great save against Higuain early on and was minutes away from keeping a memorable clean sheet except for that great Messi. Fate was not on his Iran’s side as the Barcelona hero Messi scored in the injury time and he made the difference. Haghighi could not be blamed for that goal either.
The story of the young boys coming good continues.
Alireza Haghighi Team Melli record
2002 Iran U-15 7
2004–2005 Iran U-17 5
2005–2006 Iran U-20 6
2006–2010 Iran U-23 4
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publico.pt
Tehran Tarantula.
In football, the nicknames go beyond the mere reflection of the physical aspect, and sometimes even replace the baptism names. The “Five Violins”, a name that Tavares da Silva created the famous advanced line of Sporting 1940s, refers to a total harmony between performers, the “Black Panther” of Eusebio’s evokes physical power and speed. These are the best known Portuguese football. In South American football, many goalkeepers are “el gato”, which gives an idea of agility, field players can be “cholo”, “flaco”, etc..Maradona Maradona and his name will always be synonymous with his own, but some people have created a religion around Maradona and you call God.
One of the most famous nicknames in the history of world football who won the Lev Yashin, the great Soviet goalkeeper. He was the “Black Spider”, not only because they always wore black (and dressed, from head to toe), but because it was an agile, athletic and seemed to have more than two arms outstretched keeper. Seeing the Argentina-Iran last Saturday, which ended with the Argentine 1-0 victory, another work of art by Lionel Messi, I felt like inventing a nickname for Alireza Haghighi, Iran goalkeeper who plays for Sporting da Covilhã and only failed to stop the big shot of the Argentine “Flea” of Barcelona. Here it is, with alliteration in “T”: the Tehran Tarantula.