Post your Football Memories Here

[Karimi 8]

I grew up in Melbourne. Could speak Persian (fairly poorly), but wasn’t so connected to my Iranian heritage, trying to fit in Australia was hard. My dad worked as a taxi driver 18 hours a day so I barely saw him, except when he took me to football on weekends. I played football 4 or 5 times a week, and it is the main thing we connected on.

We started following TM during the 1997 WCQ. It was almost impossible to watch here, we would get in a car and end up at some random Iranian’s house watching with Arabic commentary. I remember all those matches, the loss against Qatar and Japan. Then, playing Australia was like a dream come true. We went to the game and then to the hotel for days after, met all the players and staff. Best memory of my life, and more importantly, made me connect way more to my Iranian culture. I became completely fluent in Persian, studied Iranian history at university, and have followed TM ever since. My dad is older now and can’t wake up for games, but we still watch highlights together. Without football and TM, there is no way I would be as Iranian as I am.

Gave me goosebumps reading this man, such a lovely story and so happy to hear it. And good on you for still keeping your dad up to date with the highlights I’m sure it means a lot to him.

[Karimi 8]

I have two memories that come to mind. I’ve only had the chance to see Iran play 3 times, 2 WAFF matches and 1 WCQ. The first tournament I went to the game when we beat Qatar 6-1 and then Jordan 2-1 in the finals, then a WCQ with a 0-0 tie with Qatar.

The third game (the WCQ) I went to I didn’t have any of my family to take me that took me the first time to the WAFF tournament games, and my uncle took me who is not into sports at all. Poor guy kept taking a wrong turn and we kept missing the stadium which he was taking me to without navigation and he was feeling embarrassed. We got there early still for the game, and I’m forever grateful that thanks to him I was able to see players like Nekounam, Teymourian, Dejagah and most importantly for me, Karimi play live. I would’ve never seen these players live if it wasn’t for him taking me, poor guy sat with back pain uncomfortable on the stadiums horrible chairs, then we got stuck in so much traffic getting out. But I will never forgot that day and what he did for me to go to see my favorite players in person.

The second memory was also during a summer visit to Iran, and this time at my lovely grandmothers house. I was trying to be quite and was stressed during the Iran vs Uzbekistan match, and then I believe Karim laid off a perfect last minute pass to khalatbari. I started screaming and running around the house and I scared my poor grandma haha. But she was happy for me that it was a good result. She’s passed away now but just thinking about the comfort of her home, her during the match constantly trying to calm me down and my erupt yelling and running after the goal I’ll never forget.

Family is everything friends, and when that gets combined with your passion of football really cherish those moments.

[Iran_19]

I had the chance of seeing many of our legends each time they were in visit with their team in Shahi(Qaemshahr) stadium or Sari(during ostaani competition) specially in Qaemshahr as my grandpa(RIP)mother side was from there and used to live by 5 min walk from Vatani stadium and i was lucky to see players right after the game
lots of stars in that time, Daei, Pious, Khakpour, Estili, Moharrami, Panjali, Bavi(RIP) , nasser mohammadkhani, etc also from Mazandaran, Dastneshan brothers( Nader RIP and Rahim) Jogtapor, Ghadir Ghafari, Mohammad Taghavi, Meagar saravi etc

most of them quite nice! Bi adabeshon moharami bod loool
i also never forget the night of Aussie match in Melbourne! Cold night in montreal, i was quite new in Canada, took subway at mid night and played billard with few friends in a place not far from bar we watched the game just to kill sometime
Billard place closed at 3 am and we were in street in cold november of canada back to 28 years a go until 4: 00 to get into the bar and at 4:30, the bar was full on two floors!
at 0-2 , i was so pissed o be zamin zaman fosh midadan lool and told my older friend lets go ! He replied to me: beshin hosele kon….
what a night!
i cheered for TM in last 36 years and will continue to do that even though most of the time is painful to watch them and we haven’t won jack ass since revolution!
Thanks Kamran jan for such thread
Cheers Rofagha!