Several Iranian players are among those finding life abroad a test of skills and psyche
Jalal Talebi won’t be sympathetic to Bruce Arena’s lamentations about players with foreign clubs not receiving enough playing time.
Like Arena, the Iranian technical director has his own troubles with players languishing on the bench in Germany. A few members of the France ’98 team that beat the United States 2-1 have flourished in Europe, but for several others the road abroad may have reached a dead end.
Talebi took over as Iran’s coach shortly before the 1998 World Cup, and revived a foundering team sufficiently to defeat the U.S. and play Germany and Yugoslavia tough. He resigned as head coach after the tournament, but has come back aboard as technical director, and is fretting.
Arena has Frankie Hejduk stewing at Bayer Leverkusen and Tony Sanneh wasting away at Hertha Berlin; Talebi wonders what will be Karim Bagheri’s fate at Arminia Bielefeld and what’s to become of Khodadad Azizi now that he’s been released by FC Cologne.
And Talebi has not one, but two, players who can’t get a sniff at Leverkusen. Darius Yazdani and Mehdi Pashazadeh have not played a single minute in the Bundesliga since signing with Leverkusen more than a year ago.
Yasdani is rarely selected to the eligible squad for matches, and he has sent out feelers to Italian clubs. Pashazadeh has been sent on loan to Fortuna Cologne, where he joins Iranian international Ali Mousavi.
It was to Fortuna Cologne that Borussia Dortmund sent U.S. international Jovan Kiroski on loan last year. Kirovski balked at the move, railed at Coach Toni Schumacher, and eventually returned to Dortmund.
Kirovski’s objection to being loaned out again to a Second Division angered officials at Dortmund, and they refused to register Kirovski with the German soccer federation for the current season. He thus is ineligible to play, and this impasse has triggered talks with MLS.
Of the 11 Iranians playing in Europe, nine are with German clubs. Others have joined clubs in Singapore, Greece and China.
Mohammed Khakpour, the tough defender who joined the MetroStars last summer, has fared better than some of his teammates. Although mired on a terrible team, Khakpour played regularly, a status that could change this season with the arrival of Lothar Matthaeus.
“He’s [Khakpour] a strong, tough player,” said MetroStars defender Mark Semioli. “I don’t know what will happen with him when Matthaeus comes, but I don’t know what will happen with me, either. But Khakpour definitely helped our situation in the back.”
Khakpour’s wife recently had a baby, and he hoped to join the Iran team in the United States rather than travel to a training camp in Tehran. The federation insisted he report to Tehran, and after arranging for care of his wife and children he made the long jaunt.
Shades of Hejduk and Sanneh
Problems with players at German clubs have prompted Talebi to leave several of his veterans behind for its trip to the United States, so Iran will have different look than the team that faced the U.S. in a raucous atmosphere in Lyons.
Two vital members of the 1998 team are struggling in Germany. Like Hejduk and Sanneh, their foreign careers started well enough, but then turned sour.
Bagheri helped Arminia Bielefeld earn promotion to the Bundesliga last season, but a leg injury and Bielefeld’s rock-bottom placing so far this season has his career in a tailspin.
Talebi scheduled a training camp in Tehran to prepare for the games against Mexico, Ecuador and the U.S. With the Bundesliga engaged in its winter break, Bagheri traveled to Tehran, but was reportedly suffering from fatigue and depression.
He did not attend the camp, and was dropped by Talebi. Bagheri is hoping to change clubs during the winter break.
When Bielefeld was relegated prior to the 1998 World Cup, Bagheri stayed on, but teammate Ali Daei elected to move to powerhouse Bayern Munich. The tall striker scored seven goals in 25 games as Bayern rolled to the championship last season, but chafed at his reserve status, and moved yet again – and is now Sanneh’s teammate at Hertha Berlin, which paid $2.2 million for him.
He acknowledges that he is one of the fortunate Iranian players. “I think players from Iran look at the good things, they don’t look at the problems,” Daei was quoted in the Asian Football Confederation News.
Daei may have new problems of his own. For his transfer price, Hertha expects goals, and he has not been scoring consistently in league play, although he has netted several times in the Champions League.
But Daei and Bagheri are in better situations than former Asian player of the year Azizi. He scored the vital goal in the second leg of the playoff with Australia that earned the Iranians their place at France ’98 at about the same time he was finalizing his move to FC Cologne from Iranian club Bahman.
Cologne went straight down to the Second Division, and Azizi quickly fell out of favor with the new coach, former international Bernd Schuster. He languished on the bench last season as Cologne’s effort to return to the Bundesliga failed. Schuster was dismissed during the summer. The club released Azizi last month.
Azizi, who was hailed as a hero for the goal he scored in Melbourne, has not been selected for Iran in more than a year.
Mehdi Madhavikia has not suffered the misfortunes in Germany that some of his teammates have, although he too initially went to a team that was relegated. Unlike his teammates, though, he exercised a clause that permitted him to leave if Bochum went down, and Hamburg snapped him up.
Coach Frank Pagelsdorf has used his incisive dribbling and crisp passing as a vital cog in his freewheeling attack.
“There’s not a big difference between the first and second division,” Madhavikia said, “but I think it’s much more important to play in the first division than the second. … The coach is satisfied with me and I feel that I’m one of the best players on the club.”
Mahdavikia crashed home the second goal in Iran’s World Cup victory. He is on the Iranian roster for its U.S. tour, as is Hami Estili, whose header floated over Kasey Keller for the first goal in Lyon.
Estili is one of several Iranian players MLS officials may attempt to acquire. San Jose has expressed an interest in Estili, and Javad Zarincheh is also a prospect. Estili and Zarincheh currently play for clubs in Iran.
Like some of their counterparts in America, though, the Iranians might discover that a move abroad is no panacea. It’s the play, not just the pay, that matters.
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney