Karim Bagheri

Early years

Bagheri was born in Tabriz. He was discovered by Vasile Godja and began playing for his hometown club Tractor, where he impressed enough to land himself a contract with Keshavarz. On 1 August 1996, Bagheri was signed on a free transfer by the capital's club, Persepolis. There, Bagheri enjoyed much success winning numerous titles and became a fan favorite. Numerous impressive displays ended up in Bagheri attracting attention from many European clubs and on 1 August 1997, a year after he signed a contract with Persepolis, Bagheri signed with Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld along with his fellow Iranian international Ali Daei.

Germany

Bagheris first season in Germany was not a huge success as Bielefeld was relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. In his second season, he established himself as a starter playing in the libero position, helping the team make it back to the Bundesliga. His performances during the 1998–99 season earned him a place in Kicker magazine's team of the year. He remained in Bielefeld for one more season, though his time in Germany ended sourly when he bought out his contract and returned to Persepolis again, though Persepolis loaned him to Al-Nasr in the United Arab Emirates.

England

At that time English clubs were interested in Bagheri and Charlton Athletic of the Premiership quickly signed him for an initial fee of £400,000. His father's death, international call-ups and injuries restricted him from making appearances in…

Bagheri was first called up to the Iran national team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, making his debut versus Pakistan on 6 June 1993. He displayed great football and soon became a starter for Iran in the midfield. He played in 1996 AFC Asian Cup for Team Melli and finished third. He sparked Iran's comeback against Australia in the second leg of their 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier in 1997. He scored the first of two goals that took Iran from two goals down to tie the game 2–2 and eventually become the last team to qualify for the tournament. Overall, he scored 19 goals during the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, making him the top goalscorer from all six continental confederations. He played in 1998 Asian Games and won the competition. Bagheri also had one of the strongest right-footed shots and scored many fantastic goals against opponents, such as his game-tying goal against South Korea in the quarter finals of the 2000 Asian Cup in Lebanon.

Goal scoring record

On 2 June 1997, Bagheri scored seven times against the Maldives, and equalled the record for the most goals scored in a World Cup qualifying match, which was held by the Australian Gary Cole since 1981. Their joint record was broken on 11 April 2001 when another Australian, Archie Thompson scored 13 goals against American Samoa. Bagheri was named the world's second top goal scorer in official international matches by International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS),…

Two years after his retirement, he was offered a coaching role at Persepolis by newly appointed head coach Yahya Golmohammadi. He was promoted as the first-team coach in the coaching staff of Ali Daei. On 8 April 2015, Karim was named assistant manager of Persepolis again.

Managerial statistics

As of 30 October 2025

During the Mahsa Amini protests, Bagheri was removed from Persepolis for refusing to retract his support for the protests. On 9 February 2026, in the midst of the 2025–2026 Iranian protests, Bagheri publicly objected to being included on a list of supporters of the 1979 Islamic Revolution by the Ministry of Sport and Youth, ahead of the Revolution's anniversary.