Ali Karimi

He was also recognized as Bayern Munich's best player by scoring 2.5 points from kicker magazine in the 22nd Bundesliga match, which ended with a 1–1 draw against Hannover.

Mohammad Ali Karimi (born 8 November 1978) is an Iranian football coach and former professional footballer.

During his professional football career, he has played as a playmaker in the Iran Pro League, UAE Pro League, Qatar Stars League and Bundesliga.

Karimi has scored 38 goals in 127 matches for the Iran national team.

Karimi's professional career began with Fath Tehran, where he made his first-team debut in 1996, aged 18.

He then played three seasons with Persepolis, winning the Iranian league twice and the Hazfi Cup once with the club.

Karimi started his professional career with second-division side Fath Football Club in 1997 where training was conducted on the streets with a plastic ball.

In international football, Karimi made his Iran debut on 13 October 1998 at the age of 19.

He made 127 career appearances in total, appearing at five major tournaments, including 1998 Asian Games, 2000, 2004, and 2007 Asian Cups and 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Renowned for his on-the-ball skill, dribbling runs and playmaking ability, he was often referred to as the Asian Maradona and The Magician.

In 1998, Karimi joined Persepolis football club, which won the domestic double in 1999 and the championship again in 2000.

He attended a trial with Perugia Calcio, but the transfer was aborted when Perugia deemed the transfer fee too high.

There was also reportedly an offer from Spain's Atlético Madrid who were willing to pay Karimi £4.3 million in a four-year contract.

Still, Karimi opted for United Arab Emirates side Al-Ahli because he wanted to stay close to home.

In July 2001, Karimi signed a two-year contract with UAE Pro League club Al-Ahli Dubai.

Karimi signed with Al Ahli in the United Arab Emirates in 2001 for a reported salary of $1.3 million for two years.

In that season, Al-Ahli managed to win its first trophy, when they became the Winners of the President Cup in 2001–02 season.

While an Al-Ahli player, Karimi won two cup titles, and was the top goalscorer in the 2003–04 season, an impressive feat for a midfielder.

In 2004, he was recognized as the best scorer of the AFC Asian Cup and received the Asian Footballer of the Year award in the same year.

He scored a league-high 14 goals for Al Ahli in 2004.

After the friendly match between Iran and Germany in October 2004, Karimi was noticed by the Bayern Munich club.

He received the best score in kicker magazine after Jens Lehmann.

Karimi entered the field in the second half of the first week of the Bundesliga against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

In the second week's 5–2 victory against Bayer Leverkusen, he was recognized as the second best player of the match by scoring a goal and providing an assist.

Six weeks into the league, Karimi scored his second goal assist in the Bundesliga, setting the stage for a 1–0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt and was recognized as the man of the match.

In week 16 of the Bundesliga, he provided his third assist against Kaiserslautern.

At the end of the half-season of the Bundesliga, which was accompanied by Bayern's 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund, Karimi scored again.

After leaving the club in 2005 aged 26, Karimi made a long-awaited move to Europe to play for Bayern Munich.

At the club, he had relative success, winning both the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal in 2005–06 season.

Later in his career, he rejoined former coach Felix Magath and won a second German Cup with Schalke 04.

Karimi ended his playing career in Iran with Persepolis and Tractor Sazi, and with the latter won the Hazfi Cup in the final season of his career.

On 3 May 2005, Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich's website announced that as its first new player for the 2005–06 season, it signed Karimi with a one-year contract, as the third Iranian player of this team, after Ali Daei (1998–99) and Vahid Hashemian (2004–05).

Karimi made his 25th appearance for Bayern on 4 March 2006 against Hamburg, which resulted in an automatic 12-month extension to his one-year contract that expired on 30 June 2007.

He announced his retirement at the end of the 2013–14 season and, on 11 April 2014, played the final game of his 18-year career.

In April 2015, he was recognized as Iran's most popular football player (from 1991 to 2015) in a poll by Navad television program.

In 2017, AFC named Karimi as "one of the icons of Asian football history".

Karimi is known as one of the most popular athletes in the history of Iran.

In the video introducing Iran's national football team in the 2018 World Cup, by FIFA, he was described as "One of the top 2 players of Iran's football history".

He is regarded as one of the greatest Asian footballers of all time.

In June 2020, he was named the best foreign player in the UAE League as well.