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Ali Daei (born March 21, 1969) is an Iran|Iranian
football (soccer)|football player who is a striker
for Saba Battery Tehran and the Iran national
football team. Daei, the captain of the Iranian
national team, is most noted for being the world's
all-time leading goal scorer in international
matches. He graduated from Sharif University of
Technology in Materials (Metallurgical)
Engineering.



Born in Ardabil, Iran, he played for his home team
Esteghlal Ardabil when he was 19, missing out an a
chance to play in the J. League due to military
service. Although tactically speaking, Daei is not
the greatest of all Iranian footballers, his fame
is attributed mostly to his goal scoring. Due to
Iran's tournament schedule, he has played very few
matches for his clubs, yet he has managed to score
frequently. He is one of the greatest strikers in
the history of football and is ranked first in
most goals in international matches. He is
considered to be the finest striker in the history
of the Asian game. In the 1998 World Cup
Qualifying round, he was top on the charts scoring
38 goals in 56 matches. Including his famous 4
goal haul against South Korea national football
team|South Korea and 8 goals against Maldives
national football team|Maldives. His experience
with world-class FC's opened the way for other
Asian players such as Hidetoshi Nakata and Mehdi
Mahdavikia. Daei was named the world's top scorer
in official international competitions by the
International Federation of Football History and
Statistics (IFFHS), having scored 20 goals in
competitive matches for Iran in 1996.

After playing for minor league teams: Taxirani and
Bank Tejarat, Daei joined one of the country's
premier squads, Persepolis (Pirouzi). As Arminia
Bielefeld joined the Bundesliga
(football)|Bundesliga they signed a contract with
Daei and his teammate Karim Bagheri. Many other
Persepolis players made contracts with several
different foreign clubs at the same time, yet Daei
proved to be a very successful franchise. Daei 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 (although he usually plays as
striker). He made a famous four million
deutschemark move from Arminia Bielefeld to the
four-time European Cup winners, which was a record
for Asian players at the time. 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 poor 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, 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|Hertha Berlin before the end of his
three year contract after Bayern won the 1999
Bundesliga. He played in the UEFA Champions
League|Champions League with Hertha Berlin
becoming the teams best scorer in the league with
3 goals. His famous match against Chelsea
F.C.|Chelsea gained him a lot of recognition, yet
even in Hertha he was not the talk of the town,
since he was only amongst one of the squad's many
successful franchises, who were to fulfill
Hertha's Bundesliga and Champions League dreams.

At the same time he was very successful in
international competition scoring in practically
every game and making new records. He played in
many World Teams in friendly continental games.
Yet Daei was still unable to maintain a stable
position in the squads starting line-up. In the
year 2001 he was not among the top scorers in the
Asian Qualifying round and he did not manage to
take the team into the World Cup as captain for
the first time. After receiving offers from SK
Rapid Wien|Rapid Vienna, Rangers F.C.|Glasgow
Rangers, the J. League and a few FA Premier
League|English Premiership teams, he decided that
he was no longer fit to play world-class football.
He joined the United Arab Emirates|UAE league at
34 years of age, signing a contract with Al-Shabab
as a free agent. In 2003 Daei quit the UAE team
and joined his old team in Tehran, Pirouzi. Daei
moved from Pirouzi to Saba Battery on a free
tranfer for a modest conract of around 300,000
American dollars.

Asides from his great sportsmanship on the pitch,
Daei ran many charitable organisations and used a
great deal of his money in support of the less
fortunate. In his native Iran, Daei has been seen
as a role model for a sport with a terrible
reputation, when many prominent footballers are
accused of criminal offences or are involved with
prostitutes, Daei has always brought about a good
image of himself. Today Daei owns his own football
jersey manufacturing company, making jerseys for
Iranian Premiership clubs, 2nd Division clubs
world-wide and for the national team. He has made
very significant charitable donations and has made
appearances in charitable football matches
world-wide (featuring in the World vs. Bosnia
match with Roberto Baggio and other football
legends). He also appeared in a UNICEF commercial
with superstar David Beckham and Madeline
Albright, and has regularly been seen working with
the organisation. 

Today Ali Daei has joined the exclusive circle of
players with a Century of Caps. In a November 28,
2003 Asian Cup qualifier in Tehran against Lebanon
national football team|Lebanon, he scored his 85th
international goal, elevating him past
Hungary|Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás to top the
all-time list of scorers in international matches
(among men; he trails women's leader Mia Hamm by
over 50 goals). On November 17, 2004, he scored
four goals against Laos national football
team|Laos in a Football World Cup 2006|World Cup
qualifier, giving him 102 goals and making him the
first male player to score 100 goals in
international play.

Other Honours (individual) : Most Valuable Player
and top scorer of the 1994 Asian World Cup
preliminary finals (4 goals, Doha/Qatar); top
scorer of the 1996 Asian Cup (8 goals, UAE); named
the world's top scorer in official international
competitions by the International Federation of
Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), having
scored 20 goals in competitive matches for Iran in
1996. Top goalscorer of the Iranian national
league in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995.

Teams (in order):
* Esteghlal Ardabil, Taxirani FC, Tejarat Bank FC,
Pirouzi|Persepolis (Iran)
* Arminia Bielefeld, Bayern Munich, Hertha BSC
Berlin|Hertha Berlin (Germany)
* Al-Shabbab (UAE)
* Pirouzi|Persepolis, Saba Battery (Iran)

Famous Daei Matches:

* Iran vs. Korea republic (In which he scored four
times)
* Iran vs. USA (World Cup 98 match where he played
below-average) 
* Hertha Berlin vs. Chelsea (UEFA Champions
League, 2000)
* Hertha Berlin vs. Milan (UEFA Champions League,
2000)
* Iran vs. Japan (1999)
* Iran vs. Germany (1998)
* Iran vs. Lebanon (2003) -- Daei passes Puskas
* Iran vs. Laos (2004) -- Daei's 100th
international goal