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Ali Daei
Ali Daei, born March 21, 1969 in Ardabil,Iran is a retired Iranian football player who currently is head coach of thr Iran national team. He is a former captain of the Iran national team, and is the world's all-time leading goalscorer in international matches. Daei as of June 2007 is also a member of the FIFA Football Committee.
Daei graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Materials Engineering (Metallurgical) with a B.Sc. degree ., he played for his hometown club, Esteghlal Ardabil, when he was 19. His next club was Taxirani F.C. in Tehran , where he played for one season, before joining another Tehrani club, Bank Tejarat FC.
Move to Europe
After playing for a couple of minor league teams, Taxirani and Bank Tejarat, in 1994 Daei joined one of country's premier squads,persepolic F.C. Following his impressive performance in Asia Cup in 1996 as Arminia Bielefeld joined the Bundesliga , they signed a contract with Daei and his fellow Iranian national team-mate Karim Bagheri . Ali Daei spent one season in Bielefeld and proved to be a successful franchise. He was hand picked for the bayern munich club by legendary footballer Franz Beckenbauer, president of the club, who rated him as a world-class centre-forward. Daei also opened the door for Vahid Hashemian and Ali Karimi who became the second and third Iranians to join the Bavarians (Bayern Munich).Daei became the first Asian player to feature in a UEFA Champions League match. Yet with Bayern's 15 international players and the Iranian national team's scheduling, Daei had found very little time for playing. In Germany he was known to be a true gentleman, famous for the way he treated the fans. Daei would always sign autographs to Bayern fans and was often the centre of attention, as he was featured in OPEL car commercials. Amazingly, he usually did manage to score when given a chance to play. Still, Ali Daei was unhappy with his position in the club and decided to make a move to Hertha BSC Berlin before the end of his three year contract, when Bayern won the championship title in the 1999 Bundesliga. In 2000 he played in the Champions League with Hertha BSC Berlin, becoming the teams best scorer in the league with 3 goals. His famous match against Chelsea gained him a lot of recognition. Yet even at Hertha he was not the talk of the town, since he was only amongst one of the squad's many successful players, who were to fulfill Hertha's Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League dreams.
