What happened to Former TM players

[Dreamer]

What a stacked team we had.

It's almost criminal how poorly that team was managed.

[inarsenewetrust]

Rahman Rezaei was overrated, how this guy ended up in Italy is just beyond me, his main advantage was winning aerial battles and adding physical presence, other than that, his positioning was terrible sometime. Same as Zandi(as much as i like the person), not good CM or DM, didn't have enough speed to play as wingers(where he played a lot), his only advantage was being left footed and good enough on free-kicks.
I rate our wingers and forward core much better than 2006 even. The only issue is our defensive midfielders are no where close to Ando-Javad duo.

Rahman Rezaei couldnt have been overrated to be a top player in Serie A ( the country that especially that at the time produced the best defenders ) . The issue with his TM performances was the lack of performing as a collective defensive unit. Today we see even average defenders looking strong in TM because of the excellent team defending. Rahman rezaei was not at this best for TM because there was no collective defending principles.

[Iran_19]

Rahman Rezaei couldnt have been overrated to be a top player in Serie A ( the country that especially that at the time produced the best defenders ) . The issue with his TM performances was the lack of performing as a collective defensive unit. Today we see even average defenders looking strong in TM because of the excellent team defending. Rahman rezaei was not at this best for TM because there was no collective defending principles.

I don't rate him a top player in Serie A, he played most of his career in Serie A in bottom table struggling teams. Italian football rely a lot on physical presences, and he was good on that, i have seen him both in TM and Serie A and he put himself in an embarrassing situations many times.
I somehow can never get over the stupid penalty by him against Ireland in Dublin in 2001 which changed the whole momentum of the playoff.
Talking about Iran-Ireland, that was one of the most frustrating TM game i ever watched, Karimi could easy score 2. A natural striker would have scored that one one one situation. That Ireland was unbeatable in their last 14 matches. That was one of the best Iran's team, talent wise, Heyf Shod!!

[Roxanaz80]

What happened to Haghighi?

[Mr.Click]

Arash Afshin, so much potential.. just vanished

[KC McElroy]

The younger generation don't remember him but Javad Manafi, our LB during 1994 WCQ was an amazing player, he could have a long career: Great speed, passing ability, solid defending, sadly he had a terrible car accident which forced him to retire at the age of 24 only, he was Daei's assistant for while in PP few years a go.

He is no 9 in the picture below, the picture is from 1993 i believe:



and his recent picture:

The team picture is from the opening game in the 1994 Asian Games against Bahrain. Do you have a better quality picture of it?

[Iran_19]

I will look for it.

[KasraKhan]

The team picture is from the opening game in the 1994 Asian Games against Bahrain. Do you have a better quality picture of it?

Amazing that you know the year, competition, and exact match simply by looking at a team photo from ~30 years ago.

Must be that Sharif University education.

[KC McElroy]

Amazing that you know the year, competition, and exact match simply by looking at a team photo from ~30 years ago.

Must be that Sharif University education.

It's not by just looking at it. It's a mental comparison to the team pictures I already own (which this wasn't one of them). So then it narrowed it down to TM games for which their pictures I didn't own. Given that Pious is the captain it is circa 1994. Given that Daei is in the lineup and that he got injured in the first game against Bahrain and didn't play after that I assumed it was that game. When I checked the actual lineup for that game against the picture, it matched.
Also I went to Sharif University.

[Ghermez Agha]

I was at Eskandarian’s store yesterday buying some merch from him and he was telling me some really eye opening stories from his day. Anyone who is ever in the NY/NJ area make sure you stop by his store and say hi he’s a super friendly guy who loves to talk to ppl about his playing days. Iran was a real power house in the 70s with a lot of respect

[KC McElroy]

I was at Eskandarian’s store yesterday buying some merch from him and he was telling me some really eye opening stories from his day. Anyone who is ever in the NY/NJ area make sure you stop by his store and say hi he’s a super friendly guy who loves to talk to ppl about his playing days. Iran was a real power house in the 70s with a lot of respect

That was my impression of him too. He is very friendly and khaki.

[Ghermez Agha]

That was my impression of him too. He is very friendly and khaki.

He definitely is, he always gives discounts on stuff too which is so nice of him. He is so popular and well liked in the community the customers really love him. All these years I’ve been shopping there I almost always have to wait a bit to get into conversation with him bc everyone who’s there goes right to him. Absolute gentleman and legend.

Yesterday, one guy in front of me at the register asked him “hey you played for the cosmos back in the day with pele right”?

Eski reaponds “No, pele played with ME!”

We all started laughing and then I jumped in and said “not only did he play with pele, he played in a World Cup and olympics as well and is the best Iranian defender of all time” and the guy was so much more amazed than he initially was.

Then the conversation with the other gentleman in front of me took a sad turn bc then eski was saying how half the guys he played with on cosmos are now dead and then he started telling me about his Taji team mates that were no longer with us like hejazi, mazloumi, daneifard, etc. and how much fun they used to have back in the day and how everyone in Iran and outside Iran admired how Taj used to play bc it was very modern and exciting. Told him us persepolisi’s have always been ahead and always will be

[Nokhodi]

He definitely is, he always gives discounts on stuff too which is so nice of him. He is so popular and well liked in the community the customers really love him. All these years I’ve been shopping there I almost always have to wait a bit to get into conversation with him bc everyone who’s there goes right to him. Absolute gentleman and legend.

Yesterday, one guy in front of me at the register asked him “hey you played for the cosmos back in the day with pele right”?

Eski reaponds “No, pele played with ME!”

We all started laughing and then I jumped in and said “not only did he play with pele, he played in a World Cup and olympics as well and is the best Iranian defender of all time” and the guy was so much more amazed than he initially was.

Then the conversation with the other gentleman in front of me took a sad turn bc then eski was saying how half the guys he played with on cosmos are now dead and then he started telling me about his Taji team mates that were no longer with us like hejazi, mazloumi, daneifard, etc. and how much fun they used to have back in the day and how everyone in Iran and outside Iran admired how Taj used to play bc it was very modern and exciting. Told him us persepolisi’s have always been ahead and always will be

Most important part by far!

[roozan]

I was at Eskandarian’s store yesterday buying some merch from him and he was telling me some really eye opening stories from his day. Anyone who is ever in the NY/NJ area make sure you stop by his store and say hi he’s a super friendly guy who loves to talk to ppl about his playing days. Iran was a real power house in the 70s with a lot of respect

wheres the store? (or name)

[KC McElroy]

wheres the store? (or name)

Birkenmeier Sport Shop, 213 Main St, Hackensack, NJ 07601.