Greatest Iranian footballer in history!

[Makaveli]

Irans always had a good team and always had great stars like ali parvin, hossein kalani, iraj daneifard, alidaei etc.

but i wonder if any of you guys would agree with Darioush Zahab when he said on his the other night that in all of his life following Irans football, Mehdi Mahdavikia is overall the best in Irans history.

Indeed Mahdavikia is known for his tremendous zeal(gheyrat), work ethic, excellent crossing, and off the field personality. And hes personally very inspirational to the players as well as the fans like me who admire him for all he's done.

...but would anyone here go as far to say he is Irans greatest ever? if not who would u pick instead and why?

[soniq]

thats a hard question,i have to think about it,ill be back

[Salar]

Well to be honest, i haven't seen much of our 70s 80s team so i cant really judge them, but in todays football, I can 100 % agree with that. Mehdi is by far our most professional and most successful player to date. If you guys go to AOL Arena, he is like a hero, last year when i was there, after Barbarez, i saw more Mehdi shirts than anyone else. Respect to him.

[BehzadB]

...but would anyone here go as far to say he is Irans greatest ever? if not who would u pick instead and why?

I would.

simply because he has sustained and continured to play at one of the highest level of football competition and for longer than any other Iranian player in the history.

Kia has been a Key player for a top EU club for a long time. that has not been done before by an Iranian player.

and I haven't even said anything about his imprtance to Iranian National team. he is the most accomplished, therefore the best ever.

did i mention he is good

[soniq]

well i thought about it,im only 17 so i only saw the likes of daei and mahdavikia play,between the two i'm gonna say mehdi is the better one,with his amazing speed,free kicks,goals,his goal in the world cup,his success in hamburg,his reputation in germany, his gheyrat against the bahrain team makes him one of iran best players.
i may be wrong because i never saw guys like hasan roshan,ali parvin ,dadkan,faraki play.

[KasraKhan]

I agree with Zahab

Kia is the only player that has been with his club for a long period of time. Kia is HSV's longest term player, and he has been with them for 7 years now. That shows that he is consistent and a true professional. Daei never did that. He has been one of TM's best players for 8 years now also.

[redlover]

if we r talking history by far soltan ali parvin but if u r talking about active players no doubt the other red soldier mehdi mahdavikia

[Nokhodi]

For TM Daei, outside of that though Kia is better then most other Iranian players by a mile.

[Mr.Click]

Daei of course

[Muradistan]

Best Player Ever-Karimi
Best Club player-Kia
Best TM player-Daei....I hate when people can't give a straight answer and disect the question, and I've done the same.

Personally I'd pick Karimi as the greatest because I believe he's the most talented footballer ever to come out of Iran, although lacks the European success of Kia and Daei. So Karimi, final answer.