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Ali Karimi 127 caps · 38 goals · Persepolis, Shabab AlAhli Dubai ClubTehran called him the Magician, and on 30 July 2004 he showed why with a hat-trick against South Korea in an Asian Cup quarter-final Iran won 4-3. That tournament made him joint top scorer with five goals and Asian Footballer of the Year for 2004; he won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double with Bayern Munich in 2005-06, two Iranian titles with Persepolis, Asian Games gold in 1998, and played at the 2006 World Cup among 127 caps.
CM1998–2006
Ali Parvin 76 caps · 8 goals · Kian, PaykanA hundred thousand people were inside the Aryamehr Stadium in Tehran on 13 June 1976 when Parvin scored in the 73rd minute to beat Kuwait and keep the Asian Cup in Iran. Tournament MVP that summer, he had already won the 1972 Asian Cup and Asian Games gold in 1974, went to Iran's first World Cup in 1978, and made 341 appearances for Persepolis over 18 years, scoring 153 goals.
CM1972–78
Parviz Ghelichkhani 64 caps · 12 goals · Kian, EsteghlalCaptaining Iran in front of a hundred thousand at Tehran's Aryamehr Stadium, he lifted Asian Games gold in September 1974, a deep-lying midfielder trusted for his tackling, his range of pass and his authority. No other player has won three straight Asian Cups, which he did in 1968, 1972 and 1976, and his 66 caps ended with his removal from Iran's first World Cup squad in 1978, a decision widely read as political.
CM1962–1978
Karim Bagheri 87 caps · Tractor, KeshavarzOn 2 June 1997 he scored seven times against the Maldives in a World Cup qualifier, matching the record for a single qualifying match, and finished that campaign as the leading scorer across all six confederations with 19 goals. He ended with 50 goals in 87 caps, the most by any midfielder in international football, and won Asian Games gold in 1998 plus a run of league titles at Persepolis.
CDM1997–98
Mehdi Mahdavikia 110 caps · Persepolis, Hamburger SVLyon, 21 June 1998: his goal made it 2-0 against the United States and sealed Iran's first win at a World Cup. Hamburg then kept him for eight seasons and 211 Bundesliga appearances, and he was named Asian Footballer of the Year in 2003, having already taken Asian Games gold in 1998; he finished with 110 caps and three years as Iran's captain.
RB1998–2003
Mehdi Taremi 103 caps · 56 goals · Persepolis, Al-Gharafa SCApril 2021, deep into stoppage time against Chelsea, he scored the overhead kick that UEFA later voted the Champions League goal of the season. Porto brought him a Primeira Liga title, two Portuguese cups and the 2022-23 Bola de Prata for 22 league goals; before that came Persepolis league titles and back-to-back Iranian golden boots, and after it Inter Milan and 60 goals for Iran.
ST2021–22
Nasser Hejazi 62 caps · Esteghlal, ShahinScotland could not beat him in Córdoba on 7 June 1978; their only goal was an Iranian own goal, and the 1-1 draw stayed Iran's sole World Cup point for twenty years. The AFC named him the second-best Asian goalkeeper of the twentieth century in 2000, and his medals include the 1976 Asian Cup won in Tehran, Asian Games gold in 1974 and the 1970 Asian club title with Taj.
GK1970–2000
Hassan Rowshan 48 caps · 13 goals · Esteghlal, Shabab AlAhli Dubai ClubHe went to the 1978 World Cup on a knee that never came right, and still scored against Peru on 11 June, one of only two goals Iran managed in Argentina. The 1976 Asian Cup, won in front of a home crowd in Tehran, stands above Asian Games gold in 1974, a league title and Hazfi Cup at Taj, a UAE championship with Al-Ahli, and 13 goals in 48 caps for Iran.
ST1974–78
Sardar Azmoun 91 caps · 57 goals · FC Rostov, FC Zenit Saint PetersburgAt Rostov he became the first Iranian to score in a Champions League group stage since Ali Karimi in 2005, by which point the nickname Iranian Messi had already stuck. Zenit then brought four straight Russian titles, a shared golden boot in 2019-20 and the league's player of the season award for 2020-21, and he sits on 57 goals in 91 caps for Iran after spells at Leverkusen and Roma.
SS2005–20
Alireza Jahanbakhsh 96 caps · 17 goals · N.E.C., AZ AlkmaarA hat-trick on the final day of 2017-18 took him to 21 Eredivisie goals for AZ Alkmaar and made him the first Asian player to finish top scorer in a major European league. Two years later he turned an overhead kick past Chelsea for Brighton on New Year's Day, a strike voted the Premier League goal of the month, and he went on to win the 2022-23 Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup at Feyenoord, with 101 caps for Iran.
LM2017–22
Gholam Hossein Mazloumi 40 caps · 19 goals · Sanat Naft, EsteghlalFive goals and the tournament's best-player award in the 1970 Asian Champion Club Tournament, sealed when Taj Tehran beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-1 in extra time at the Amjadieh on 10 April, and Tehran called him Sar Talaei, the golden head. He won the Asian Cup in 1972 and again in 1976 as joint top scorer, took Asian Games gold in 1974, and added three Iranian league scoring titles before injury ended him at 28.
CAM1970–76
Jalal Hosseini Saipa, SepahanBelo Horizonte, 21 June 2014: he held the line for ninety minutes as Iran kept Argentina out, until Messi cut inside and curled one past Haghighi a minute into stoppage time. Nine Iranian league titles came his way at Saipa, Sepahan and Persepolis, alongside the 2018-19 Hazfi Cup, four Super Cups, 115 caps, Asian Champions League final defeats in 2018 and 2020, and six Defender of the Year awards.
CB2014–20
83
Andranik Teymourian 101 caps · Aboomoslem, Bolton WanderersOn 18 May 2014 he led Iran out against Belarus, the first Christian to captain the national team, a month before he played all 270 minutes of the group stage in Brazil. He reached 101 caps across two World Cups and three Asian Cups, won the Hazfi Cup with Esteghlal in 2012 and Naft Tehran in 2017, and was voted the Persian Gulf Pro League's best player in 2013-14.
CDM2012–17
83
Ashkan Dejagah Hertha BSC II, VfL WolfsburgTwo goals on his Iran debut, against Qatar on 29 February 2012, settled the question of which country the Wolfsburg winger would answer to, and he started the World Cup opener against Nigeria two years later. Bundesliga champion with Wolfsburg in 2008-09, European Under-21 winner with Germany the following summer, Hazfi Cup winner with Tractor in 2019-20, and eleven goals in fifty-nine Iran caps.
RM2008–19
83
Ehsan Hajsafi 144 caps · Sepahan, TractorEighteen years old on debut, Hajsafi laid on two goals against Zambia at Azadi on 25 May 2008, then held Iran's left flank for the next eighteen years. He has 148 caps, level with Ali Daei and one short of Javad Nekounam's record, and played at four World Cups between 2014 and 2026, captaining Iran in 2018 and 2022, with three Persian Gulf Pro League titles at Sepahan and the 2022-23 league and cup double at AEK Athens.
LB2008–26
83
Masoud Shojaei 90 caps · 8 goals · Saipa, Club Atlético OsasunaFive seasons at Osasuna gave him 112 competitive games in Spain, and in Russia in 2018 he became the first Iranian to travel to three World Cups, wearing the armband at the last of them. He won the Greek title with AEK Athens in 2018, the Hazfi Cup with Tractor in 2020 and Nassaji in 2022, took 90 caps across four Asian Cups, and made the Greek league's team of the season in 2016-17.
RM2016–22
82
Alireza Beiranvand Naft Tehran, PersepolisRonaldo stepped up in Saransk on 25 June 2018 and Beiranvand pushed the penalty away, preserving a 1-1 draw for a goalkeeper who had slept rough in Tehran and worked in a car wash and a pizzeria before football paid him. Six Persian Gulf Pro League titles with Persepolis, an AFC Champions League final in 2018, two Hazfi Cups, a place in the 2019 Asian Cup team of the tournament, and a world record throw of 61 metres.
GK2018–19
81
Andranik Eskandarian 29 caps · F.C. Ararat Tehran, New York CosmosThe first Iranian to put the ball in a World Cup net did it into his own goal, 43 minutes into the Scotland game in Córdoba on 7 June 1978, and Iran still drew 1-1 for their only point. His medals start with the 1976 Asian Cup, won in Tehran, and end with two NASL championships at the New York Cosmos in 1980 and 1982, over 142 league games and three straight first-team all-star selections.
CB1976–82
80
Fereydoun Zandi 5 goals · SV Meppen, VfB LübeckA free kick in first-half stoppage time against China in Kuala Lumpur on 15 July 2007 brought Iran level at the Asian Cup, and it was exactly the ball-striking Kaiserslautern had signed him for. A quarter-final run at that 2007 Asian Cup, a place in Iran's squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, two Bundesliga seasons with Kaiserslautern, and five goals in twenty-nine caps between 2005 and 2009.
CM2005–09
80
Hossein Kaebi 84 caps · Foolad, Steel AzinStanding 1.67 metres, Kaebi was the man sent to deal with Cristiano Ronaldo and Luís Figo in Frankfurt on 17 June 2006, the second of three World Cup group games he played at the age of twenty. Gold at the 2002 Asian Games came first, then third place at the 2004 Asian Cup, the WAFF Championship that same year, an Iranian league title with Persepolis in 2007-08, and 84 caps with one goal, against New Zealand in October 2003.
RB2002–07
80
Morteza Pouraliganji 44 caps · Naft Tehran, Tianjin Jinmen TigerIran had played a man down since the 42nd minute when Pouraliganji equalised in extra time of the Asian Cup quarter-final against Iraq in Canberra on 23 January 2015, a 3-3 night that Iraq took 7-6 on penalties. Two Persian Gulf Pro League titles followed with Persepolis in 2022-23 and 2023-24, along with the Hazfi Cup, the Iranian Super Cup, three cups with Al-Sadd in 2017, and 54 caps taking in the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
CB2015–23
80
Vahid Amiri Datis Lorestan, KowsarPersepolis took him from Naft Tehran in the summer of 2016 and he gave them eight seasons on the left across two spells, broken only by a single year at Trabzonspor in 2018-19. He won six Persian Gulf Pro League titles with Persepolis, reached the 2020 AFC Champions League final, played at the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, added the 2023 Hazfi Cup and three Iranian Super Cups, and was named Iranian Footballer of the Year in 2018.
LM2016–23
The three highest rated names in Iran's pool are Ali Daei, Ali Karimi and Ali Parvin. The 33 covers 3 goalkeepers, 10 defenders, 13 midfielders and 7 forwards. Ali Daei leads the pool at 87 overall. Pick a formation, drag your eleven onto the pitch, then settle the duels below. Your votes reorder the people's ranking of these 33 in real time.
A 33 is a set of decisions, and these are the players who lost their place in the last revision of Iran's list. Every one of them has a case.
Disagree? That is the point. Settle it in the duels above.