Ali Daei

Early years

Daei was born in Ardabil, Imperial Iran, to an Iranian Azerbaijani family. Daei graduated from Aryamehr University of Technology in Materials Engineering (Metallurgical) with a BSc. degree. He began his playing career at 19 with his hometown club Esteghlal Ardabil. His next club was Taxirani F.C. in Tehran, where he played for one season, before joining another Tehran-based club, Bank Tejarat. His tenure with Bank Tejarat lasted four years, scoring 49 goals in 75 games.

Move to Europe

After his success with Bank Tejarat FC, in 1994, Daei joined one of Tehran's leading clubs, Persepolis. He scored 23 goals in 38 games for the club from 1994 to 1996. Following his impressive performance in the Asian Cup in 1996, he moved to Al Sadd for the 1996–1997 season before joining Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld in 1997 alongside fellow Iranian national teammate Karim Bagheri. Yet at Bayern, he found himself low in the pecking order. This, coupled with the Iranian national team's scheduling, Daei had found very little time for playing. Daei was unhappy with his club position and decided to move to Hertha BSC before the end of his three-year contract when Bayern won the championship title in the 1999 Bundesliga. Daei became the first Asian player to feature in a UEFA Champions League match. He scored his first and second goal in the UEFA Champions League on 21 September 1999 in a group stage match against Chelsea, won by Hertha 2–1. He also scored in a 1–1…

Daei was named the World's top scorer in official international competitions by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), having scored 20 goals in competitive matches for Iran in 1996, including his famous four-goal haul against South Korea in Asian Cup 1996. By the end of the 1996 Asian Cup, he had scored 29 goals in 38 appearances for Iran. In the 1998 World Cup qualifying campaign, he was again on top of the charts, scoring nine goals in 17 matches for Iran, reaching at that time, 38 goals in 52 appearances for his country. Daei joined the exclusive circle of players with a century of caps. In a 28 November 2003 Asian Cup qualifier in Tehran against Lebanon, he scored his 85th international goal, elevating him past the Hungarian Ferenc Puskás to top the all-time list of scorers in international matches. On 17 November 2004, he scored four goals against Laos in a World Cup qualifier, giving him 102 goals and making him the first male player to score 100 goals in international play. He has 148 caps for Iran and, as of December 2025, is ranked joint 48th among the world's most capped players list. Daei made his debut for Team Melli at the 1993 ECO Cup tournament held in Tehran. He continued his national team appearances and was named the top scorer of the final Asian round of 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifications with four goals in 5 matches.

On 17 November 2004, Daei became the first male footballer with 100 international goals when he scored…

Daei captained Islamic Azad University football team in 2007 World Interuniversity Games, scoring a hat-trick in the final match against University of Osijek and winning the gold medal.

Coaching

In the 2007 Summer Universiade, Daei was in charge as the head coach of the Iran student's national team. He was technical manager of the Islamic Azad University team in the 2009 World Interuniversity Games.

Saipa

On 8 October 2006, upon the sudden leave of Saipa's German coach Werner Lorant, he was appointed as the interim manager of Saipa. He was later officially announced as the full-time manager. On 28 May, Saipa became the Persian Gulf Cup champions in Daei's first season at the helm. Going into his second season as manager, Daei relinquished his playing duties for the defending champions and found himself on the sidelines full-time. The results of Saipa's 2007–2008 campaign were not nearly as successful as his team finished 11th in the 18 teams Iran Pro League table. However, Daei did lead Saipa to an Asian Champions League quarterfinal berth before leaving to take over as the full-time manager of the Iranian national football team.

Iran national football team

On 2 March 2008, IRIFF officially appointed Ali Daei as Team Melli's new head coach. Despite admitting that his appointment as manager of the Iranian national team was a "surprise", Daei refused to leave his current coaching job at Saipa F.C., therefore taking on dual managerial careers until after Saipa had entered the Asian Champion League quarterfinals, after which Daei left Saipa by mutual consent. While Daei guided Iran to a respectable 16–6–3 mark, his third loss on 28 March 2009 to a Saudi Arabian team that was down 1–0 to Iran in Tehran proved to be the final straw. During his tenure as the National Team coach, the Iranian team managed the weakest World Cup Qualification results, with only…