Ali Karimi ex-Team Melli player has opted to pause his contract extension negotiation with Tractorsazi Tabriz for another season , pending the final outcome of talks with an unknown foreign club that is interested in Karimi’s services.

This news comes as a surprise as the 36 years old midfield player has recently announced his intention to wind down his football career and retire from Team Melli with the objective of hanging his boots soon. With a foreign club being a suitor, Karimi’s career seems to be revitalized and seems to want to extend his playing career outside Iran.

In a recent poll by TeamMelli.com , the majority of the voters (45%) named Ali Karimi as the top player that should have been included in Queiroz list for the FIFA World Cup 2014.

Karimi played many years of his football outside Iran. After leaving Persepolis in 2001 he played with Al Ahli of Dubai where he became a living legend for the locals, then for Bayern Munich, Qatar FC , Al Siliya  and Schlake 04 , before returning back to the Iranian league.

Tractorsazi Tabriz club, is currently coached by , Rasoul Khatibi  a former  Team Melli teammate.

The popular club from Azerbaijan has failed to qualify for next season’s Asian Champions League and parted company with its Portuguese coach Toni Oliviera following that failure. Tractorsazi , is owned by a mixture of Military organizations and Pasdaran with a minority shareholding by car manufacturers Saipa. Tractorsazi has the third largest fan base in Iran after Perespolis and Esteghlal however , the attendance have dramatically fallen last season due to the poor results.

Despite the government organization ownership and control, the club supporters are notorious for their Azeri separatists chants during the matches.