Karim Bagheri
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Personal information | |||
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Full name | Karim Bagheri | ||
Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | Persepolis | ||
Number | 6 | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1992–1994 | Tractor Sazi | 28 | (2) |
1994–1996 | Keshavarz | 65 | (11) |
1996–1997 | Persepolis | 20 | (4) |
1997–2000 | Arminia Bielefeld | 51 | (6) |
2000 | → Al-Nasr (loan) | 8 | (4) |
2000–2001 | Charlton Athletic | 1 | (0) |
2001–2002 | Al-Sadd | 11 | (5) |
2002– | Persepolis | 170 | (29) |
International career‡ | |||
1993–2009 | Iran | 86 | (50) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16 April 2010 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 6 August 2009 |
Karim Bagheri (Persian: کريم باقری, born 20 February 1974 in Tabriz) is a professional football player, currently playing for Persepolis F.C. in the Iran Pro League. Bagheri is one of the most famous Iranian footballers in the world and is often referred to as "Iranian Eric Cantona".[by whom?] He is known as a two-footed midfielder and is famous for his powerful and thundering long range shots and free kicks.
Club career
Early years
Bagheri began his football playing for his hometown club Tractor Sazi where he impressed enough to land himself a contract with Keshavarz F.C. On 1 August 1996 Bagheri was signed on free transfer by the capital's club, Persepolis F.C.. Bagheri enjoyed there much success winning numerous titles and becoming a firm fan favorite. Numerous impressive displays ended up in Bagheri attracting attention from many European clubs and on 1 August 1997, a year after he signed a contract with Persepolis, Bagheri signed with German Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld along with his fellow Iranian international Ali Daei.
Move to Europe
Bagheri's first season in Germany was not a huge success and the club was relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga. In his second season, he established himself as a starter playing in the libero position, helping the team make it back to the Bundesliga. He remained in Arminia for one more season, but returned to Persepolis again after problems with the coaching staff at Bielefeld, though Persepolis loaned him to Al-Nasr in the UAE. At that time English clubs were interested in Bagheri and Charlton Athletic of the Premiership quickly signed him for an initial fee of £400,000. He had very little success there, only playing 15 minutes during the entire season. Despite the disappointing season he had the honour of being the first Iranian to play in the Premiership. He then moved to Al Sadd in Qatar.
Persepolis return
In 2002 he decided to return to Persepolis once again. In September 2006, many thought he had been released from the team after arguments with management and staff over the club's financial commitments and unpaid wages. Bagheri instead was disciplined but remained on the team. Bagheri has since then established himself as one of the greatest icons of Persepolis and many compare his popularity with Ali Parvin. In 2007–08 season he captained the team to glory in the IPL after a 6 year drought. For the season 2008-09 he was injured for many matches and missed many matches.He also missed matches because of the differences he had with the coach Nelo Vingada at the end of the season.
Persepolis Statistics
- As of 23 April 2010
Karim Bagheri Statistics in Persepolis | |||||||||||||||||
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League | Cup | Asian | Total | ||||||||||||||
Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||||||||
Club Career Stats
Club career statistics
Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1992–93||rowspan="2"|Tractor Sazi||rowspan="5"|Azadegan League||||||||||-||-|||| |- |1993–94||||||||||-||-|||| |- |1994–95||rowspan="2"|Keshavarz||||||||||-||-|||| |- |1995–96||||||||||-||-|||| |- |1996–97||Persepolis||20||4||0||0||4||3||24||7 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997–98||rowspan="3"|Arminia Bielefeld||rowspan="1"|Bundesliga||18||3||0||0||-||-||18||3 |- |1998–99||2. Bundesliga||22||2||3||1||-||-||25||3 |- |1999–00||rowspan="1"|Bundesliga||11||1||1||0||-||-||12||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999–00||Al-Sadd||Qatar Stars League||8||4||0||0||-||-||8||4 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000–01||Charlton||Premier League||1||0||0||0||-||-||1||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001–02||Al-Sadd||Qatar Stars League||11||5||0||0||4||0||15||5 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2002–03||rowspan="8"|Persepolis||rowspan="8"|Persian Gulf Cup||9||0||4||3||3||0||16||3 |- |2003–04||20||3||4||3||-||-||24||6 |- |2004–05||28||2||1||0||-||-||29||2 |- |2005–06||23||0||3||0||-||-||26||0 |- |2006–07||13||2||2||0||-||-||15||2 |- |2007–08||26||3||2||1||-||-||28||4 |- |2008–09||29||9||1||0||4||0||34||9 |- |2009–10||22||10||4||3||-||-||26||13 Template:Football player statistics 3190||33||21||8||11||3||222||44 Template:Football player statistics 451||6||4||1||-||-||55||7 Template:Football player statistics 419||9||0||0||4||0||23||9 Template:Football player statistics 41||0||0||0||-||-||1||0 Template:Football player statistics 5261||48||25||9||15||3||301||60 |}
- Assist Goals
Season | Team | Assists |
---|---|---|
05–06 | Persepolis | 0 |
06–07 | Persepolis | 0 |
07–08 | Persepolis | 5 |
08–09 | Persepolis | 4 |
09–10 | Persepolis | 2 |
International career
He was first invited to Iranian national team during the 1994 World Cup qualifers, making his debut versus Pakistan on 6 June 1993. He displayed great football and soon became a starter for Iran in the midfield. He played in 1996 AFC Asian Cup for Team Melli and finished third.
He became famous though for sparking Iran's comeback against Australia in the second leg of their 1998 World Cup qualifier in 1997. He scored the first of two goals that brought new light on what seemed to be an already dark 2-0 defeat and sprung Iran back to tie the game 2-2 and eventually become the last team to qualify for the World Cup. He played in 1998 Asian Games and won the competition. Bagheri also had one of the strongest right-legged shots and scored many fantastic goals against opponents, such as his game-tying goal against South Korea in the quarter finals of the 2000 Asian Cup in Lebanon.
Goal scoring record
On 2 June 1997 he scored seven times against the Maldive Isles, and equalled the record for the most goals scored in a World Cup match, which was held by the Australian Gary Cole since 1981. Their joint record was broken on 11 April 2001 when another Australian, Archie Thompson scored 13 goals against American Samoa.[3] He was named the world's second top goal scorer in official international matches by International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), having scored 20 goals for Iran in 1997.[4]
Early retirement
He retired from the national team with 80 caps and 47 goals for Team Melli after Iran's unsuccessful FIFA World Cup 2002 qualification campaign which ended with an aggregate defeat to Republic of Ireland in November 2001. He was called up to the national team again soon after World Cup 2006, but said he would not participate as he is retired from international football and has no plans on returning to it.[5]
Return to national team
On 9 October 2008 Team Melli coach Ali Daei stated that because of Andranik Teymourian's injury Bagheri will be called up for the national team once again.[6] On 9 November 2008 in a friendly match against Qatar, he appeared for Team Melli once again after almost seven years. Bagheri captained Iran in the 2010 World Cup match against UAE on 19 November 2008, scoring for Iran. He has been given his favorite number 6 jersey back.He played few inmportant matches for Team Melli in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against UAE and South Korea. He was invited again by Afshin Ghotbi but he stated in Navad that he only returned to Team Melli because of Ali Daei and will not participate in any more matches for Team Melli.
International goals
- Scores and results list Iran's goal tally first.
Honours
Country
- FIFA World Cup
- 1998, Group Stage
- Appearances and Goals: (3 matches, 0 goals)
- 1998, Group Stage
- AFC Asian Cup
- Asian Games
- Military World Games
- 1995, Vice-Champions
- Appearances and goals: (8 matches, 3 goals)
- 1995, Vice-Champions
Club
- Iran's Azadegan Football League Winner: 1
- 1996–97 with Persepolis
- Iran Pro League Winner: 1
- 2007–08 with Persepolis
- Third Place:1
- 2006/07 with Persepolis F.C.
- 2. Fußball-Bundesliga Winner: 1
- 1998–99 with Arminia Bielefeld
- Arab Club Champions Cup Winner: 1
- Hazfi Cup:
- Runner up: 1
- 2006 with Persepolis
- Runner up: 1
Individual
- Football Iran News & Events
- Midfielder of the year (2007–08)
- Iran Football Federation Award
- Player of the year (2007–08)
Notes
- ^ "Karim Bagheri" (in German). fussballdaten.de. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
- ^ "Iranian Premier League Stats: 2009-2010 Season". iplstats.com. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
- ^ "Australia 31 - American Samoa 0". Ozfootball. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
- ^ "Top 10 International Goal Scorers - 1997". IFFHS. Retrieved 22 July 2006.
- ^ "کریم باقری برای همیشه از تیم ملی خداحافظی کرد/ باقری: می روم تا جابرای جوانان باز شود" (in Persian). Mehr News Agency. Retrieved 22 July 2006.
- ^ "علي دايي: کريم باقري را به تيم ملي دعوت مي کنم" (in Persian). ISNA. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
External links
- Expatriate footballers in England
- Expatriate footballers in Germany
- Iranian Azeris
- Iranian footballers
- Iranian expatriate footballers
- Iran international footballers
- Association football sweepers
- Persepolis F.C. players
- 1998 FIFA World Cup players
- Arminia Bielefeld players
- First Bundesliga footballers
- Charlton Athletic F.C. players
- Al-Nasr Sports Club players
- Premier League players
- People from Tabriz
- 1974 births
- Living people
- Tractor Sazi F.C. players