TEHRAN (Iran News) – With 109 goals in 149 international matches for Iran, Ali Daei has held an all-time high since 2006. Now it wobbles. In an interview with kicker, the ex-Bundesliga player tells who he will allow him to succeed and what he is doing today in football and as a businessman.

It could be so far as early as March, in the next international match period. In games against football dwarfs like Azerbaijan or Luxembourg, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has the chance to decisively improve his proud record of 102 goals in 170 games for the national team – so far that Ali Daei’s seemingly eternal record of 109 goals, scored in “only” 149 games between 1993 and 2006 will be wiped out.

“No one deserves my record more than he does,” the Iranian pays homage to his potential successor in advance. “He is without a doubt the best footballer of all time. I am convinced that there is a reward for those who work hard and determined, so it would be a decent reward for him.”

In the kicker interview (next Monday’s edition), the former Bundesliga professional (19 goals in 107 appearances for Arminia Bielefeld, FC Bayern, and Hertha BSC from 1997 to 2002) speaks about his time as the first Iranian player in the first division, which he was in the 1997/98 season together with his compatriots Karim Bagheri and Khodadad Azizi. “I not only played in Germany, I also lived there. And as a young person, I learned every day, curious about what I was like.”

Daei, now 51 years old, also tells of strange stories: rumors about his death after a car accident and the reason why he once did not want to sit next to ex-president Ahmadinejad on a flight. After a few stations as a coach (including as a national coach in Iran), there was last contact to England, where a post may be waiting at Everton, the club of his compatriot and majority owner Farhad Moshiri there. Direct talks about this should take place when the pandemic situation allows again.

Daei, who studied metallurgy, had built up other professional pillars in Iran, for example a company for sportswear. “Then came the international sanctions against our country. Now I am a partner in an insurance company and in the steel industry.”