Tag: Ali KArimi

22/07/2014

Sepahan and the FFIRI clash over release of Ali Karimi

Sepahan Esfahan reacted sharply to the threats of sanction by the football federation FFIRI on the release of Ali Karimi the promising young forward to Team Melli U-23.

Ali Karimi is among the players selected by Nelo Vengada for the Olympics team which is currently in a training programs which includes several camps and international friendly matches. The next match will be in Jordan. With the start of the Persian Gulf Football league only days away , Sepahan Esfahan club opted not to release their forward for the camp as the team needed to focus on the league with several difficult matches ahead.

The release of the players to the national teams’ non- official competition, which is completely up to the judgment of the club, has apparently created a wave of discontent in the FFIRI. In an internal memo from Mehdi Taj to Ayottlahei , both discussed the possibility of a sanctions against Sepahan calling the club a repeat offender following its refusal to release the player for Team Melli fo the South Africa camp while it was still engaged in the AFC Champions League.

Sepahan released an official statement sharply criticizing the federation personnel for lack of understanding of the law. The statement said that it will deal with the matter when Sepahan Management receives and official correspondence from the FFIRI regarding this matter. Sepahan is preparing the team under the Croat coach Kranjcar.

It is not clear why the FFIRI is so blatantly acting ignorant on FIFA’s regulations that governs the release of players , a law that has been discussed umpteen times before Iran’s participation in the World Cup. It could very well be just bullying tactics by the FFIRI to intimidate clubs to release their players despite the commitment of these clubs to play in domestic and/or continental leagues. In both cases of the scenario, it one conducts unbecoming from the very people who are supposed to uphold and abide by the rules.

21/07/2014

Javad Nekounam is on the brink of breaking the record.

The Captain of Team Melli , Javad Nekounsm is only 3 games short of equaling Ali Daei’s total match appearances for Team Melli. Ali Daei with 149 games, is the top Iranian players and also the highest scorer for Team Melli with 109 international goals. Daei , has in fact scored 112 goals , but 3 goals were removed from his records for various reasons.

With Nekounam still 34 and a year or so from hanging his boots , the Al Kuwait player will surpass Daei if he is included in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 campaign.

Nekounam has also done quite well in the scoring department with 37 goals sitting the the 4^th place 1 goal behind the recently retired Ali Karimi.

Season	Openin.	Subst.	Goals	Yellows	Reds
2000	1	5	0	0	0
2001	6	4	0	1	0
2002	11	1	0	1	0
2003	13	0	1	2	0
2004	18	0	7	3	0
2005	11	0	4	2	0
2006	11	0	2	2	0
2007	8	0	4	3	0
2008	8	0	4	1	0
2009	8	0	2	3	0
2010	6	0	1	1	1
2011	10	0	5	0	0
2012	8	1	1	1	0
2013	8	0	6	0	0
2014	7	1	0	2	0
Total	134	12	37	22	1
By season \| In opening squad \| Substituted in \| Goals \| Yellow cards \| Red cards

[divider]

Top Team Melli players appearances list

	Name	Openin.	Subst.	Goals	Yellows	Reds
1.	DAEI, Ali	144	5	112	9	2
2.	NEKOUNAM, Javad	134	12	37	22	1
3.	KARIMI, Ali	118	10	38	15	0
4.	MAHDAVIKIA, Mehdi	106	4	13	10	2
5.	HOSSEINI, Jalal	87	2	6	2	0
6.	BAGHERI, Karim	84	3	50	10	1
7.	KAEBI, Hossein	82	8	2	24	1
8.	ZARRINCHEH, Javad	79	1	1	2	1
9.	GOLMOHAMMADI, Yahya	78	2	5	11	0
10.	MIRZAPOUR, Ebrahim	76	0	0	0	0
11.	TEYMOURIAN, Andranik	75	7	9	21	1
12.	NOSRATI, Mohammad	74	8	5	13	0
	ABEDZADEH, Ahmadreza	74	3	0	3	0
	RAHMATI, Mehdi	74	2	0	3	0
15.	ESTILI, Hamidreza	72	9	12	4	0
16.	PARVIN, Ali	68	4	11	0	0
17.	VAHEDI-NIKBAKHT, Alireza	66	10	14	11	1
	AGHILI, Hadi	66	3	10	8	0
	GHLEECHKHANI, Parviz	66	0	14	0	0
20.	PEYROVANI, Afshin	65	2	0	3	0

[divider]

Top Team Melli Goal Scorers

	Name	Openin.	Subst.	Goals	Yellows	Reds
1.	DAEI, Ali	144	5	112	9	2
2.	BAGHERI, Karim	84	3	50	10	1
3.	KARIMI, Ali	118	10	38	15	0
4.	NEKOUNAM, Javad	134	12	37	22	1
5.	MAZLOOMI, Gholamhossein	31	11	19	1	0
6.	PEYOUS, Farshad	30	4	18	1	1
7.	ALIDOUSTI, Hamid	25	2	15	0	0
8.	BEHZADI, Homayoun	32	3	14	0	0
	GHLEECHKHANI, Parviz	66	0	14	0	0
	HASHEMIAN, Vahid	39	10	14	6	0
	MOHAMMADKHANI, Nasser	22	5	14	0	0
	VAHEDI-NIKBAKHT, Alireza	66	10	14	11	1
13.	JABBARI, Ali	33	4	13	0	0
	MAHDAVIKIA, Mehdi	106	4	13	10	2
15.	ESTILI, Hamidreza	72	9	12	4	0
	FARIBA, Behtash	13	3	12	0	0
	ROWSHAN, Hassan	31	7	12	0	0
18.	AZIZI, Khodadad	41	6	11	7	0
	FARAKI, Hossein	12	10	11	0	0
	GHOOCHANNEJAD, Reza	16	1	11	1	0
	KALANI, Hossein	24	0	11	0	0
	MAJIDI, Farhad	24	23	11	5	0
	PARVIN, Ali	68	4	11	0	0
	REZAEI, Gholamreza	36	14	11	7	0

21/07/2014

Ali Karimi announces his retirement from football.

One of the stars of Iranian football, Mohammad Ali Karimi , has announced his retirement from football.

This is not the first time that Karimi (35years) has announced his retirement from club or/and National team activities, however Karimi in an emotional letter declared that his decisions this time is final and irreversible.

Ali Karimi Born in Shahryar on 08^th November 1978 , became one of the most skilful players of his generation. He came to fame with Persepolis , after recruiting him from Fath club where Karimi started playing regular football. Despite calling Persepolis his home club, Karimi spent most of his professional career outside his beloved team starting in 2001 with Al Ahli of Dubai, Bayern Munich (2005-2007), Qatar FC (2007-2008) , returning to Iran with Persepolis (on Loan) 2008-2009 , Esteel Azin (2009-2011) including a loan period with Schalke 04 in 2011, Persepolis (2011-2013) and finally Tractorsazi in Tabriz (2013-2014).

As famous as his dribbling skills, Karimi was well-known for his temperament. His career was in jeopardy early on when he was suspended from all football activities for one whole year by AFC for kicking a referee in Vietnam is some youth tournament. Karimi’s problems with authorities and coaches continued throughout and reached its peak with his now famous confrontation with Ali Daei.

Many critics believe that Karimi would have been one of the best in the world if he had the right temperament and balanced approach to the game.

After finishing the season with Tractorsazi in a disappointing fashion, Ali Karimi was hoping for a recall to Team Melli, that he already announced his retirement from. However, despite Carlos Querioz talking highly about his skills and calling him one of the best footballers, the Team Melli coach elected to ignore Karimi for the World Cup although the Tractorsazi midfielder played several games in the qualifying rounds of the 2014 World Cup to help the team.

With Karimi being out of contract with Tractorsazi , and the Tabriz team not showing clear interest in signing him for another term , Karimi looked for a suitable club and found none to his interest. Going back to Persepolis was very much out of question, not with Ali Daei at the helm. Between the disappointment of missing on the World Cup, not being able to return to Persepolis and not getting the attention of other clubs that Karimi thinks he still deserves, the “Wizard of Tehran” has finally announced his retirement.

Ali Karimi has played 128 times for Team Melli , scoring 38 goals. He is a holder of Asian Games Gold medal in 1998, was part of the World Cup 2006 squad and played in there AFC Asian Cups, 2000, 2004 and 2007. On personal level, he won the AFC player of the year award in 2004.

Karimi is the third highest Team Melli player in international appearances, after Daei (149) and Nekounam (146) . Ali Karimi is also the third highest goal scorer after Daei’s World Record 109 goals and Bagheri’s 50 goals.

Karimi will leave a legacy that is difficult to repeat in the near future.

28/06/2014

Mohajerani “Queiroz is currently the best option”

The legendary Heshamat Mohajerani , the first coach to lead Iran to the World Cup back in 1978 , believes that Carlos Queiroz contract should be extended with some conditions attached .

“Although the result in the FIFA World Cup 2014 was not very successful, the AFC Asian Cup is only months away and we require a big name coach to lead Team Melli in the competition” Mohajerani said

In an interview with ISNA , Mohajerani added “ The defense of the Team in Brazil was not bad but it had a serious problem up front , therefor we cannot categorize the team’s participation and result as successful. Although, if we push it and consider the overall situation, you may call that participation as satisfactory.”

“When a team focuses on defense, it dilutes the function of the forwards making their job secondary to the defense. We have played a good defensive game and managed to certain extent to prevent the opposition from scoring. However, we also had a very difficult job scoring ourselves. I strongly believed that we could have arranged a better team balance. In any case, I think what we did to Argentine was a great achievement, despite the heartbreaking result. Saying that, I believe that in the other two matches, Nigeria and Bosnia, we could have done much better.”

Lack of a creative Midfield player.

“One of the obvious shortfalls of Team Melli was the lack of a creative midfield player. The work of the midfield players in the World Cup was not satisfactory because we really did not have a creative midfield player. Unfortunately, many of the experts and coaches in Iran have different opinions before and after the World Cup. When Khalatbary was omitted from the list, most people said that we have to respect the Coach wishes. That is fine, we will respect the coach, but the reality is something different.” Mohajerani commented.

“Because Team Melli was built of a defensive strategy, a creative player like Khalatbary had no place in the team. Khaltbary’s has many attributes including his ability to run with the ball with pace, we simply had no one like him in the team when it was needed. The official figures published by FIFA showed that we had the worst passing data. Our players passing were poor. They simply wasted many passes. Overall , we cannot say that the team was 100% bad nor can we praise them as a successful team.”

Velasco left a permanent legacy in Iran.

Asked by the reporter if he thinks that Queiroz should continue with Iran , Mohajerani said “Querioz has not managed to change our football to the better, but he managed to change Team Melli mentality. I expected that if Queiroz had problems with the Clubs coaches, and these are the people who really matter , he should have spent more time and effort to meet, discuss and communicate with them. In reality the opposite has happened. He had continual verbal war with the club coaches each accusing the other. When the great Velasco left Iran’s Volleyball team, our national team continued playing at the highest level because Velasco left a legacy within volleyball not just on the national team. I wish it was the same for football.”

Queiroz is currently the best option.

While analyzing all the circumstance as and the situation, the decision makers must respect the public opinion in their verdicts and should pursue extending the contract with Queiroz. The Football federation is to be blamed for failure to seriously act in the negotiation with the coach. Their attitude seems to be happy-go-lucky . At least they could have forcefully searched for an Iranian coach to replace him if there was no or little intention by FFIRI to continue with Queiroz. They also failed to have an Iranian assistance working with Queiroz (1)

“They (FFIRI) say that Queiroz demands is beyond acceptable. In that case they should have done their homework not to fall in such a situation. In any case , I believe there is little time to waste and Queiroz to me is the best option at the moment, but the federation must learn from their shortfall and mistakes.”

(1) FFIRI has actually nominate an Iranian coach Majid Saleh to work alongside with Queiroz who would not entertain any such appointment. When he was forced to accept Salih , Queiroz made life so difficult for Salih even sending him to the stands , instead of sitting ion the bench, which resulted in the Esteghlal coach resigning his post. Mohajerani is perhaps not aware of this point.

Note: The two other creative midfield footballers left in Iran are Ali Karimi and Mojtaba Jabbari. Karimi was not selected while Jabbari opted not to go to the World Cup.

14/06/2014

Ali Karimi attracts the interest of a foreign club.

Ali Karimi ex-Team Melli player has opted to pause his contract extension negotiation with Tractorsazi Tabriz for another season , pending the final outcome of talks with an unknown foreign club that is interested in Karimi’s services.

This news comes as a surprise as the 36 years old midfield player has recently announced his intention to wind down his football career and retire from Team Melli with the objective of hanging his boots soon. With a foreign club being a suitor, Karimi’s career seems to be revitalized and seems to want to extend his playing career outside Iran.

In a recent poll by TeamMelli.com , the majority of the voters (45%) named Ali Karimi as the top player that should have been included in Queiroz list for the FIFA World Cup 2014.

Karimi played many years of his football outside Iran. After leaving Persepolis in 2001 he played with Al Ahli of Dubai where he became a living legend for the locals, then for Bayern Munich, Qatar FC , Al Siliya and Schlake 04 , before returning back to the Iranian league.

Tractorsazi Tabriz club, is currently coached by , Rasoul Khatibi a former Team Melli teammate.

The popular club from Azerbaijan has failed to qualify for next season’s Asian Champions League and parted company with its Portuguese coach Toni Oliviera following that failure. Tractorsazi , is owned by a mixture of Military organizations and Pasdaran with a minority shareholding by car manufacturers Saipa. Tractorsazi has the third largest fan base in Iran after Perespolis and Esteghlal however , the attendance have dramatically fallen last season due to the poor results.

Despite the government organization ownership and control, the club supporters are notorious for their Azeri separatists chants during the matches.

20/05/201420/05/2014

Ali Karimi “It is the coach’s decision and we need to respect that”

Ali Karimi , the current Tractorsazi player expressed his desire to assist Team Melli and play in the World Cup once again. Perhaps it was a hint aimed at Queiroz, one that the Portuguese head coach of Team Melli did not take seriously. After the announcement of the 30 players list for the World Cup. Queiroz was asked about the exclusion of Karimi , amongst others, a player that many consider as one of most skilful in Iran’s football history, if not the most decorated. Carlos Queiroz described Karimi as a unique talented player. He admitted that he likes Karimi’s style and has a special place in his heart for the players, but Karimi himself resigned from Team Melli.

Queiroz response to the question fell quite short of giving a straight answer. Is it the form and standard of Ali Karimi that was the cause of his omission, or is it his demeanor and attitude that gave Queiroz a fright, especially since Karimi has a track record of being divisive in camps and as an outspoken person , has tendencies to create problems for the team bosses.

Rumors of Karimi’s imminent selection for Team Melli were quite strong in Tehran. Exchanges of congratulation spread amongst his supports on SMS, a day before the list was out! Someone within was confident that Ali Karimi will be on the list and spread that news. The end result was quite disappointing for those who wished to see the wizard of Tehran once again and perhaps for the last time, at the grandest theater of football.

The reaction of Karimi supports was quite novel in Iran. A group of them carried a large banner during Team Melli training sessions begging Queiroz to pick Karimi for the World Cup. The protest and the banner got a fair bit of exposure in the press but all to no avail. Mohammad Ali Karimi Pashaki , a player who has undoubtedly entertained the crowds with his wizardry , dribbling skills, a player whose vision in the game is exemplary , his assists a class on its own, will not be in Brazil with Team Melli as a player.

Fars News Agency interviewed Ali Karimi seeking his feeling on the subject matter.

Q: Mr. Karimi , we have not heard from you for some time.

A: I am carrying out some light personal training at the moment. The league is off and I like to regain my form hence I am focused on exercising to be in shape.

Q: We heard you have several offers from clubs on the table.

A: That is not the case. I thank all those who have shown interest in my services, but honestly speaking, I have not thought much about any offers at this stage. I like to take some time off to think and relax before making a decision.

Q: It seems that your supporters are still campaigning to include you in Team Melli for the World Cup.

A: I don’t know what are you insinuating, but this is not the right time to speak about the issue. At this stage we all need to fully support our Team Melli and this is not the time to discuss why this player was invited and why that player was not.

Q: I am referring to all those fans of yours who carried a large banner outside Team Melli training ground, urging Queiroz to include you in the squad.

A: I appreciate the fans sentiments but at the end of the day , it is the coach’s decision and we need to respect that, I wish Team Melli all the success.

Q: Queiroz referred to you as one of the best Iranian players and you, Karimi, have a special place in his heart!

A: I also want to thank Queiroz for his feelings and wish him success in his difficult task. As I said, this is not the time to indulge in such matters. Team Melli needs calm and our backing.

Q: What is your expectation of our team in the World Cup?

A: I have previously mentioned that playing in the World Cup is a very difficult task especially against top class teams. However, these players have not descended from space. It is true that Messi is the best player in the world and Argentine have many players in his class, but Messi has two feet, two hands and one head to do the thinking. We should not scare our players to such an extent. Nobody denies that marking Messi is not a simple task, however a defender who is playing in the World Cup must be well-prepared , ready and have the ability to carry out the task of marking him.

I believe all the three teams are strong in our group.

Q: You are right , but with such poor preparations and programming failures, that might not be a straight forward task.

A: I have no comment on this issue. I hope Team Melli plays some serious practice matches before the World Cup, so that at least the players rid themselves of their anxiety and do not feel overwhelmed when they meet the big boys. The World Cup is a difficult place to be , the players need self-confidence, support and assurance.

Q: Are you hopeful of Team Melli qualifying for the next round.

A: I don’t really know. We simply have to do our best. I wish them all the best. I hope that with a good ground work and preparation, they would make us all proud. For the sake of the fans, we all have to work hard and do our best each in his own capacity. Of course, it is easier said than done.

Q: With statements such as you have given here, no wonder that many fans think you should be there with the team.

A: I thank you for your kind sentiment, but it is the coach who decides that. I said my bit and he did his bit. Despite all the praises, admiration and respectful words that were uttered about me, the end result is clear for everyone to see. I can’t complain.