Abdolreza Barzagari: "The black pearl of Iran"

[Hajik]

http://www.teammelli.com/2015/05/09/memory-lane-the-black-pearl-of-iran/

[KC McElroy]

He was a beast and one of the few black players in TM. He last played for TM in an unofficial match against Bulgaria's Etar Tornavo club in 1990.

[BacheLot]

leave it to KC
oo hame sia haro mishnase..!

[Unity]

I remember this unique talent really well. He was one of the best Iranian footballers ever even better than Karimi in my opinion. I watched him play in Kuwait during the Asian Cup where Iran lost to Kuwait 1-2 in semi finals. He could dribble an entire team. Extremely talented and entertaining. Unfortunately he just happened to be rising at a time when the country was going through crisis from revolution to war with stadiums shutting down etc.

[kia]

Abdolreza Barzegari & Abolali Changiz were 2 players that were playing at the worst time. Both of them could have gone to Europe. Nasle sookhteh. Changiz is the reason I have a soft spot for Taj.

[teammelli91]

When "Adamse Khoroosneshan" sponsored Esteghlal back in the late 80's and early 90's, my dad used to come and go to their football club and he said he used to see Pourheydari and Changiz all the time. He used to watch Changiz play and said he liked his style. He also told me that Pourheydari was a very sensitive guy and a true Esteghlali. Sort of how Khordbin is for Persepolis.

Anyways, thought I would share this little thing with you guys.

My dad is an Esteghlali too, unfortunately

[STYX]

I remember him an extremely shy and skinny black player with magical dribbling skills

[P.dente]

[xerexes]

Abdolreza Barzegari & Abolali Changiz were 2 players that were playing at the worst time. Both of them could have gone to Europe. Nasle sookhteh. Changiz is the reason I have a soft spot for Taj.

Don't forget Nasser Mohammadkhani and Hamid Alidoosti. That was truly the lost generation. These guys were the products of our investment in youth programs in the 1970s. They were the generation that was supposed to take Team Melli beyond Asia, and had it not been the for the revolution and war, I honestly think they would have shocked the world in the '82 and '86 world cups.

Such a damn shame...

[The Realist]

Along with Hossein Baharian, Zolfaghar Nezam Azadi, the list go on- they were indeed a golden generation and one very interesting thing about them was their honesty and sincerity as football was not their profession they all had a second job. Money in today's so call professional football has a lot today with underperformance! You would have thought not!?

[Unity]

Indeed... We produced some amazing talents as a result of investment in youth programs in the 70s. Most of these players could have played in Europe... vaghean ke nasle sokhteh :-(