{"id":35115,"date":"2019-01-19T20:15:50","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T04:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=35115"},"modified":"2019-01-19T20:17:49","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T04:17:49","slug":"melody-maker-viral-hit-beiranvand-irans-asian-cup-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2019\/01\/19\/melody-maker-viral-hit-beiranvand-irans-asian-cup-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Melody maker: Viral hit Beiranvand Iran’s Asian Cup rock [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daily Nation – ABU DHABI, He’s the safe hands behind Iran’s Asian Cup quest whose rags-to-riches story turned him into a national hero – now giant goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand has become an internet smash.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Videos of the 26-year-old shot-stopper throwing the ball over 70 metres to a striker during Iran’s clash with Iraq in Dubai went viral, while national coach Carlos Queiroz calls him the heartbeat of his title-chasing side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ali is fantastic,” Queiroz told AFP before Iran face Oman in the last 16 of the Asian Cup on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not only his size, it’s his big heart.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beiranvand shot to fame at last year’s World Cup when he saved a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty in Iran’s 1-1 draw with Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Iran goalkeeper melted the hearts of football fans around the world by revealing that he had run away from his nomad family and worked in a car wash and as a street cleaner before making it as a footballer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beiranvand even slept on the streets of Tehran as he hustled for a chance to show clubs he was made of the right stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He has something inside him,” said Queiroz, set to step down after eight years as Iran coach following the Asian Cup and take the Colombia job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It always gives him the right motivation and the right ambition to be better and better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sometimes you have great players with great talent but they lack that inner desire to be a champion, to be a winner,” added the former Real Madrid boss, who has also been impressed by Beiranvand’s ability to carry a tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ali has this amazing spirit, we love him. He’s also a wonderful boy and a great personality – apart from being a good goalkeeper with a great throw, he can also sing!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Melli have emerged as front-runners to capture the Asian Cup for the first time since 1976 with striker Sardar Azmoun – dubbed the “Iranian Messi” – in sparkling form, scoring three goals in three group-stage matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Queiroz sought to play down expectations that will reach fever pitch as his side progresser deeper into the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From the technical point of view, no doubt Japan and South Korea are one step ahead of all the other teams in Asia,” he insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But at the Asian Cup it can come down to inspiration, character, bravery – and you always have a chance and can always have a say in these competitions when you respect those fundamentals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queiroz would love to sign off by delivering silverware but believes he has already helped changed the mentality of Iran’s players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A trophy stands forever, but the most important thing is that whichever coach comes after me finds the team in a better position to keep going and challenging for success,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After eight years there is a foundation behind me. We now have Iranian players who are strong believers – they know they can succeed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oman, meanwhile, have nothing to lose, having reached the knockout stage for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re not sitting in our hotel thinking we’ve achieved everything we wanted to achieve,” said Oman coach Pim Verbeek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This can be a historic game to get to the final eight so that’s our target.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Vf0kR8XhQt0\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daily Nation – ABU DHABI, He’s the safe hands behind Iran’s Asian Cup quest whose…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":35116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,175,84,172,93,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-asian-cup","category-c47-featured-news","category-persepolis","category-c22-players-spotlight","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":2701,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35115"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35120,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35115\/revisions\/35120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}