{"id":43909,"date":"2021-10-20T10:03:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T17:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=43909"},"modified":"2021-10-20T10:03:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T17:03:15","slug":"ali-daei-football-is-the-love-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2021\/10\/20\/ali-daei-football-is-the-love-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Ali Daei: \u2018Football is the Love of My Life\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GQ – DUBAI, For 15 and a half years, Iranian legend Ali Daei had scored more international goals than anybody… ever. Last month, Cristiano Ronaldo took that title from him, but that\u2019s ok. He\u2019s focussing on the bigger picture<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turned out, Ali Daei did not witness the passing of his torch. When\u00a0Cristiano Ronaldo\u00a0was wheeling away in celebration thousands of miles away in the Algarve,\u00a0Daei\u00a0was traveling from Tehran to the Caspian Sea for a well-timed vacation. But it didn\u2019t take him long to find out \u2013 the barrage of social media messages as inevitable as they were immediate. For 15 years, the Iranian\u00a0football\u00a0icon had held the men\u2019s international scoring record \u2013 his 109 goals setting a formidable football benchmark. But now that was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople may think I\u2019d be sick of being asked about Ronaldo but honestly I\u2019m not,\u201d says Daei, looking cool and collected in a navy shirt. \u201cHe is a great sporting personality and a gentleman off the pitch in my experience. He\u2019s a champion of the sport and it is an honor that it is now his record to carry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Ali Daei, who retired from playing in 2006, the record has been neither an albatross around his neck nor a cause for major celebration. It has certainly led to him receiving global acclaim and a higher profile, but life, he asserts, is more nuanced than a list of FIFA goalscorers. \u201cFootball and records are one part of my life but there is so much more to me. There are more valuable things that I have learned in my life and career. What I do now in society \u2013 to try and impact people and to speak for them \u2013 this means more to me than a goalscoring record. These are the things that won\u2019t be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daei\u2019s path to the top of football\u2019s scoring charts was markedly different to that of his usurper. Ronaldo was a prodigious teenager and Ballon d\u2019Or winner at 23. Daei was a metallurgic engineering student who only made his international debut at 24. \u201cMy father never wanted me to be a professional footballer,\u201d Ali Daei recalls. \u201cFor him, education came first. So, my mum had to sneak my kit to me for matches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But destiny finds a way, and it was his focus on education that ultimately led to Daei\u2019s sporting talent being discovered. He grew up admiring German icon Franz Beckenbauer \u2013 later emulating him by joining European heavyweights Bayern Munich \u2013 but as a teenager swapped the northern Iranian city of Ardabil for capital Tehran to pursue a BSc at the Sharif University of Technology. He initially played casual games to unwind outside of his studies but was soon snapped up, first by local club Esteghlal Ardabil and then later, in 1990, Bank Tejarat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Daei had fallen into professional football but the game welcomed him with open arms. It\u2019s little wonder. By 1994 he had struck an impressive 74 goals in 147 games \u2013 just shy of one goal every two matches. He had also made his debut for the Iranian national team one year earlier. On June 6, 2003, Daei pulled on the national shirt for the first of 149 appearances. Tehran\u2019s Azadi Stadium is one of the most intimidating arenas in world football, with 100,000 people regularly squeezing in to create a furnace-like atmosphere. For Daei, it became a second home. \u201cIt took a few games to get accustomed to the pressure,\u201d he admits. \u201cAfter that, all that remained was the magic \u2013 the will to play for each and every single one of our compatriots. We had to leave everything we had on the pitch to win for them.\u201d Ali Daei scored an astonishing 109 times in those 149 games, but it\u2019s not the goals that provide his lasting memories of international football, it\u2019s the moments \u2013 and one or two in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1997, Iran was 2-0 down to Australia, their hopes of qualifying for a first World Cup in 20 years seemingly in tatters. But they dug deep and it was Daei who provided a superb assist for Khoda- dad Azizi\u2019s crucial equalizer \u2013 a goal that silenced the 85,000-strong crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and sent Iran to the World Cup at France \u201998. \u201cThis moment was much more important than all of my goals,\u201d says Ali Daei. \u201cI will never forget. It was miraculous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the World Cup, Daei again played the role of creator in one of the most geopolitically charged matches seen in the history of international football. Iran faced the US in the group stage. The two countries had lost diplomatic ties in 1980 and had precariously negotiated rising tensions ever since. Hyperbolic headlines were stoked when the US Soccer Federation president described it as \u201cthe mother of all games\u201d. But while diplomatic fireworks sparked off the pitch, both teams promoted peace on it; Iran\u2019s players handed bouquets of white flowers to their US counterparts ahead of the game and both sides stood side-by-side for a pre-match photo that was steeped in symbolism. Daei set up the winning goal that day, as Iran secured their first-ever World Cup victory, but the striker remembers the occasion for very different reasons. \u201cYes it was special to win but we, as footballers, showed that sport can be larger than politics. It can bring people together,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe camaraderie shown by both sets of players before the game was genuine. I think this was a good day for football and for humanity. These are the moments that will remain with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years later, Ali Daei experienced his final significant World Cup moment, not that he perhaps knew it at the time. The curtain was coming down on the 37-year- old striker\u2019s career and he sat as a frustrated unused substitute as Iran lost 2-0 to Portugal. The scorer of the game\u2019s second goal was a promising 21-year-old by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo. They did not share a pitch but Daei had a front-row seat as Ronaldo, on the cusp of his breakout season with Manchester United, dazzled on the big stage. \u201cIt was apparent to me how talented he was, even then,\u201d says Daei. \u201cHis level, his quality, his hard work on the pitch \u2013 I felt sure that he would be a very special player. Is it sad I couldn\u2019t play? Generally in life, I don\u2019t look back and think how things could have been different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regret is not something Daei has any time for. He has ruffled plenty of feathers in Iran and is rarely afraid to speak his mind. A long-standing feud with ex-national team coach Mayeli Kohan has seen Daei sue his old manager for libel three times, while he is a vocal critic of Iranian football, which he feels is bogged down by twin scourges of bureaucracy and kleptocracy. \u201cIt would take days for me to explain the roots of the problem but in short, the biggest issue is the management of the sport in Iran,\u201d Daei claims. \u201cPeople involved in running football have no experience of football and do not understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Daei last coached in Iran two years ago with Saipa, the club with whom he started his post-playing career in 2006. In that spell, Saipa won a first, and thus far only, Iranian Pro League title. The return, however, was not such a happy time, with his relationship with the club\u2019s management strained by the end. \u201cYou can say football is the love of my life and I have loved coaching as I loved playing. But I don\u2019t have the personality and character to deal with just anyone in football. Football is a big part of my life but it is not my whole life. It is more important to be a free person and to be able to be myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Daei\u2019s willingness to call out those in authority has riled some but also added to his legend in Iran, where he is still widely hero-worshipped. However, the idea of following in Liberian President George Weah\u2019s footsteps and transforming himself from striker to statesman does not appeal. \u201cI will never, ever become involved with politics in Iran,\u201d Daei says firmly. \u201cNot a chance.\u201d Still, he feels a duty to use his prominence to highlight injustice when he sees it. \u201cI have always stayed outside of politics but will always stand with the people of my country. I am not just a sporting personality but a personality of society. If I see things are wrong, if people are suffering, if there are difficulties, I will speak out so their voices are heard. I consider this very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former striker\u2019s actions have often matched his words. Having amassed a substantial fortune over the years thanks to entrepreneurial exploits that began during his playing career, Daei has demonstrated his philanthropic side by investing in football infrastructure, schools and even building a 20,000-capacity sports complex in his hometown of Ardabil. Much of his wealth came from the eponymous Daei Sport, which manufactures equipment and apparel, supplying kits to many of Iran\u2019s professional clubs and national teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like anybody that has scaled peaks firmly on their own terms, Ali Daei still has plenty of detractors, but the divide between those who abhor and those who adore remains firmly in his favour. \u201cI will never forget the love that Iranian people have shown me \u2013 particularly in the many years after my football career finished,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd the love I have for them is just as strong. For me, it is important that people don\u2019t remember me just as Ali Daei the football player, I want them to remember me as Ali Daei the human being.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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