I said no to Iran: former Arsenal footballer

Former Arsenal footballer Danny Karbassiyoon, who is of Iranian descent, said he refused to play for Iran.

Karbassiyoon was born from an Iranian father and Italian mother in the U.S. and played for Arsenal in the 2004-05 season.

One of his accomplishments is that he scored a goal against Manchester City in the Carling Cup.

“The Iranian Football Federation asked me if I were interested in playing for Iran national team and I politely refrained from the offer. That upset some people who thought bashing me on various Internet sites was the best thing to do,” Karbassiyonn was quoted as saying by “bleacherreport”.

“I follow the Iranian national team’s results, but I am not interested in the players’ news as much as I used to be. Before I started my work with Arsenal I had to use half of my brain as a database for players in my region. I used to know all the players quite well. I especially enjoyed watching [Ali] Karimi and [Mehdi] Mahdavikia when they were in their prime. I was actually able to watch Mahdavikia at a game in Hamburg when I was there for several months. I must have taken about 1000 pictures of him, none of which really came out,” the 26-year old player added.