Iran’s U20 team who won the Thanh Nien-sponsored U21 International Football Tournament in Hue city last year

Iranian footballers have had some big names on the world stage, especially with two appearances in the World Cup finals.

For more than a decade from about the mid-nineties, Iran was dominant in Western Asia and the Persian Gulf region, standing well above Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and Iraq. It was also a tough opponent for Eastern Asian teams like Japan, South Korea and China.

Ali Daei was the best of Iran footballers in its golden generation. He was considered ‘The King’ because of the 109 goals he scored in the 149 times he was capped for the national team.

Daei was also recognized by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics as a world leading striker in competitions organized by Fedération Internationale de Football Association. He scored 20 goals in these matches between 1996 and 2006.

He was also a well-known face in the German football league, Bundesliga I, playing for several top teams. In 2007, he was ranked 26th in the list of the 100 greatest players of all time by the Association of Football Statisticians, the only Asian player to be included in the list titled “Greatest Ever Footballers.”

Apart from Daei, Iran during those years had other excellent players like Ali Karimi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Vahid Hashemian, Rahman Rezaei, Karim Bagheri, Khodadad Azizi and Mohammed Khakpour.

These players took a glorious 2-1 victory over the US at the World Cup in France in 1998. That year, they won the ASIAD championship in Bangkok and the Western Asian championship.

The Iranians also won the ASIAD 2002 championship in Busan, South Korea and won the bronze medal in the ASIAD in Doha, Qatar in 2006.

International newspapers then described Iranian footballers as great fighters who left a lasting impression on fans and experts with their skills and attitude.

They maintained this image by earning a place in the World Cup in 2006 in Germany; but the team’s performance was not as impressive as before.

The failure to win a berth in World Cup 2010 in South Africa marked an end to the golden days of Iranian football. Even Ali Daei, the national coach, was fired after being in the post for less than a year.

‘The hope’

Iran now pins its resurgence on its U23 team called Omid, which, appropriately enough, means “the hope.”

There are several positive signs that the hope might not be misplaced. Iran’s U21 squad won the Thanh Niensponsored U21 International Football Tournament championship in Vietnam’s Hue Town; and its U17 team won the U16 Asian Championship last year and earned a berth in the U17 World Championship to be held in Nigeria later this year.

However, its U23 team has not posted many victories of note so far. There are only a few prominent players on the team - striker Arash Borhani; and midfielders Hossein Kaebi and Masoud Shojaei, who currently plays for the Spanish club Osasuna.

Iranian fans are now focusing on younger players.

On persianfootball.com, fans mention U20 players like Ahmad Amirkamdar, Rasoul Kar, Khalil Azad, Hossein Ebrahimi and Jalaledin Alimohammadi or U17 players including 16-year-old Kaveh Rezaei, who recently was the best scorer at the U16 Asian Championship and has attracted the attention of the English Premier League club Arsenal, as the country’s future hopes.

The U20 team coach Nenad Nikolic said, “I don’t set big goals for the U20s. I just need them to play creatively, skillfully and tough. They need to play together for a long time so they understand each other and combine well. Iranian football will be good again soon.”

Meanwhile, the Iranian press expects a mix of U20 and U17 talents to form a squad for the ASIAD in China next year and the London Olympics 2012; and for them to win a berth at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Reported by Giang Lao