In honor of Ali Karimi - your favorite moments

[dariush-44]

In honor of one of the best dribblers of Asian football, and one of the best in the world. What was your favorite moment/memory of Ali Karimi? Perhaps even a dribble or skill that will stick with you forever.

Mine will have to be the below :

The time he made Ronaldo look like a bitch

The time he schooled German defenders in front of 100,000 fans - leading him to join Bayern.

AND MY ALL TIME FAVORITE:

[EKBATAN]

ali karimi is nothing but a sad story to me. his highlights are precisely what people post about, some fancy moves but rarely a finisher or a player to take the game by the horns like messi. i will always remember him as a hero in the making who was too k00n goshad to take it to the next level. sadly he realized this and matured at an older age when it was too late.

[saeed_noro]

[Salar]

Too many to name, His run against Roma, His match against Korea, his double dummies against Seedorf, his crazy zidane turn/pass in Ahli, his unbelievable home debut for Bayern where he was MOM by just playing 45 minutes, his only CL goal against Sturm Graz (i think), amazing chest control & bicycle kick where they won 4-0 (looked everywhere for that but I cant find it), his match against Germany and his interview against Daei. He will forever be my hero

[branco]

Rapid Wien salar November 2005
I can add his MoM performance against Leverkusen in his second league game where he scored 1 and assisted 2, completely outplayed the whole leverkusen defense and was selected in Kicker team of the week with the grade 1.5
His magic goal against tracctorsazi in his first year in PP. His debut goal for PP against saipa after which he was called up to TM after only playing 4 games in Aazadegan league.
there are just too many memorable moments

[Hadi]

ali karimi is nothing but a sad story to me. his highlights are precisely what people post about, some fancy moves but rarely a finisher or a player to take the game by the horns like messi. i will always remember him as a hero in the making who was too k00n goshad to take it to the next level. sadly he realized this and matured at an older age when it was too late.

he was our third best ever goal scorer in TM and had the most influence on every single game he played for TM. what have you been watching?

[Kaveh11]

Lets not forget the moments he gave us outside the pitch,

[BacheLot]

Too many to name, His run against Roma, His match against Korea, his double dummies against Seedorf, his crazy zidane turn/pass in Ahli, his unbelievable home debut for Bayern where he was MOM by just playing 45 minutes, his only CL goal against Sturm Graz (i think), amazing chest control & bicycle kick where they won 4-0 (looked everywhere for that but I cant find it), his match against Germany and his interview against Daei. He will forever be my hero

[branco]

i would absolutely love to watch his first few games in TM (Asian Games 98) and Perspolis again. I remember his dribbling skills blew everyone's mind away. Maybe back then he was doing it excessively but no doubt it was a joy to watch him! Of course he matured with time and improved all aspects of his game but in terms individual brilliance and skills and how he was able to dribble past players, his first few years were just out of this world

[ehsan_REAL1]

In like WAFF 2000 championship were he dribbled the whole team then scored. lol

[CHaMiLLionaire]

No one remembers this...or even knows about this moment.
In his first season in Al Ahli.. he had the game of his life against Al Ain in the final of the Presidents Cup.. he dribbled 5 players with one ye pa do pa... passed the ball to the winger, who crossed it on the ground...Ali Karimi dummies, runs over the ball and takes the defender with him...while allowing the bulgarian striker to score the only goal of that match and Al Ahli wins the presidential cup for the first time in decades..
I remember being on the streets wearing my Ali Karimi jersey and everyone was just celebrating so loudly and having a huge victory parade.

[Ghermez Agha]

Hat trick against SK in 2004 AC.

His layyee against shevchenko in the CL.

His run through the entire Roma team in TMs friendly against them.

His goal against Hannover after dribbling their entire defense.

His goal against UAE in the 2010 WCQs when the team looked as flat and hopeless as ever before.

I can go for days......

[saeed_noro]

the moment, beeing a Dortmund Fan, sitting in the corner of the S-block, the big yellow wall in Dortmund Stadion, hoping only for Karimi starting the match, and than also get his present, the nice goal, and me being the only one in Dortmund block celebrating his goal with my dad next to me and everybody is watching to me this way:

[branco]

Hat trick against SK in 2004 AC.

His layyee against shevchenko in the CL.

His run through the entire Roma team in TMs friendly against them.

His goal against Hannover after dribbling their entire defense.

His goal against UAE in the 2010 WCQs when the team looked as flat and hopeless as ever before.

I can go for days......

The Hannover move actually hit the bar, he didn't score unfortunately! but i remember the English commentator of Bayern's website said if this had gone in it would have been the goal of the season

[EKBATAN]

he was our third best ever goal scorer in TM and had the most influence on every single game he played for TM. what have you been watching?

i'm not impressed by his few flashy stuff against weak asian teams. his short time at bayern, his first year was his best but he still failed to capitalize on becoming a great player.

at the end of the day, no one remembers a few flashy moves and nice passes when the end result isnt there. how many in the world will remember how pooladi and shojaei dribbled messi, higuain and them in the WC ? i bet you no one.


there's a big difference between having the POTENTIAL to be great and actually being great. Sure karimi was a great player, but sadly he didnt live up to it. trust me i was his biggest fan until i realized he's k00n goshaad.