Mehdi Mahdavikia
: The most successful Iranian player overseas. Although Mahdavikia
wad dogged by several injuries during the last couple of years, he
bounced back this season with full strength to help his Club Hamburg SV
in a place in UEFA Cuo competition , with a record of highest number of
assists in the Bundesliga.
Kia is a player with multiple talents. His speed and acceleration is
superb. His crosses are accurate and timely and lastly his shooting
ability is a delight to watch. During the Asian Qualifying rounds of
!998 World Cup, Mahdavikia scored two superb goals against China to turn
around a match that ran was loosing. A long range shoot and then a
superb individual play ensured Iran the full points in a 4-2 win against
the host nation China.
Mahdavikia ensured that his name will remain in the Football history
books by scoring the second goal against USA in Lyon during the World
Cup 1998.
Speed, acceleration, and a nose for goal rank prominently among
Mahdavikia’s many talents, and it is these attributes which have helped
him carve out a highly successful career in the Bundesliga. It was
following the1998 FIFA World Cup that Mahdavikia first moved to Germany,
initially with Bochum and then, after an impressive debut season, to
Hamburg in the summer of 1999.
Respected in Germany, Mahdavikia became positively idolized in Iran, all
the more so when he became only the second Iranian winner of the Asian
Player of the Year award in 2003, after Ali Daei. The man affectionately
nicknamed Kia remains among Iran’s most influential players and he
enjoyed an outstanding qualifying campaign for Germany 2006, his
foraging, penetrating runs and timely crosses from the right wing
proving vital in ensuring his national team progressed to a third FIFA
World Cup finals.
The apple of Iranian fans’ eyes, Mahdavikia has already established
himself among the greatest footballers his country has ever produced,
though he remains modest about his achievements and retains a lower
profile than one might expect.
At the end of 2006/07 season , Mahdavikia parted company with Hamburg
and transferred to Eintracht Frankfurt.
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WORLD CUP Statistics
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World Cup Qualification Matches = 38
World Cup Matches = 6
World Cup Qualification Matches goals = 3
World Cup Matches goals= 1
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A member of Iran's squad for
FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany
