Mehdi Mahdavikia

Mehdi Mahdavikia

Personal information
Date of birth	24 July 1977 (1977-07-24) (age 34)
Place of birth	Tehran, Iran
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Right Back / Midfielder / Winger
Club information
Current club	Damash Gilan
Number	2
Youth career
1991–1995	Bank Melli
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1995–1998	Persepolis	54	(18)
1998–1999	→ VfL Bochum (loan)	12	(3)
1999–2007	Hamburger SV	208	(26)
2007–2010	Eintracht Frankfurt	32	(0)
2010–2011	Steel Azin	34	(4)
2011–	Damash Gilan	8	(0)
National team‡
1994	Iran U-20	2	(0)
1994–1995	Iran U-23	9	(2)
1996–2009	Iran	111	(13)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 8 August 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 25 June 2009

Mehdi Mahdavikia (Persian: مهدی مهدوی‌کیا, born 24 July 1977 in Tehran) is an Iranian football player who plays for Damash Gilan in the Iranian Pro League. He has won Asian Young Footballer of the Year award in 1997, as well as Asian Footballer of the Year in 2003. He was the captain of the Iran national football team from 2006 to 2009, and currently is the third most capped Iranian International After Ali Daei and Ali Karimi. As a product of Bank Melli, He joined Persepolis and after his performance in FIFA World Cup 1998, he was transferred to Hamburger SV in Fußball-Bundesliga, where he played for eight seasons. He usually plays as a right winger or full-back. He is known for his crossing, speed and dribbling.

Club career

Mehdi first played for Persepolis club in his native Iran before moving to VfL Bochum in Germany. After Bochum's relegation, he signed for Bundesliga side Hamburg where he stayed for the next eight seasons.

His initial position for HSV was right fullback, from which he was known for his attacking runs, as he has previous experience as a right winger and at times has played as a striker. He also played some matches for PAS Tehran F.C. in Asian games as help for the club. Mahdavikia under coach Frank Pagelsdorf used to play wide striker. For the 2006–07 Bundesliga season he has moved back to his natural position of right wing, in support of Center Midfielder Rafael van der Vaart. He was awarded Hamburg Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004 by the fans, and also attained the envious title of the top assister of goals in the Bundesliga. However, compared to his previous season, he had a poor season in 2004–05 and was benched. In the 2005–06 season he has gained his old form back and was able to regain his spot as a starter, being influential in many of Hamburg's victories, such as scoring the winning goal against Bundesliga heavyweights Schalke.

Mehdi Mahdavikia's strongest points are his vision, passing skills, fast paced runs, and set-pieces such as corners, spotkicks and free kicks.^{[disambiguation needed ]} He is usually the right-footed alternative to Van der Vaart's well known left foot. Apart from being a total professional on the pitch, he is also known as a perfect gentleman off the pitch, always finding the time for fans and reporters to answer questions or sign autographs.

His nickname in Hamburg is The Carpet (der Teppich) for his ability to "magically glide past" his opponents like the enchanted carpet.

On 8 June 2007 he signed a 3-year contract with Eintracht Frankfurt.^[1]

In his first season he had two bad injuries that forced him to miss many matches.In the second season he was mostly benched and not used in many matches which showed that the club did not want him anymore. After 255 Games (26 goals, 55 assists) in the Fußball-Bundesliga for HSV, Bochum and Eintracht Frankfurt, left Germany to sign for Steel Azin in January 2010.^[2]

On 4 July 2011, Mahdavikia sign a contract with Amir Abedini, President of the Damash Gilan F.C. to join to the club for one year.^[3]

Club Career Statistics

• Last Update: 8 August 2011

Club performance			League		Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Iran			League		Hazfi Cup		Asia		Total
1995–96	Persepolis	Azadegan League	11	1	-		-		11	1
1996–97			28	9	2	2	7	1	37	12
1997–98			15	8	0	0	4	3	19	11
Total	Club		54	18	2	2	11	4	67	24
Germany			League		DFB-Pokal		Europe		Total
1998–99	Bochum	Bundesliga	12	3	0	0	-		12	3
Total	Club		12	3	0	0	0	0	12	3
1999–00	Hamburg	Bundesliga	29	4	1	0	0	0	30	4
2000–01			29	5	1	1	2	0	32	6
2001–02			10	1	0	0	-		10	1
2002–03			26	2	0	0	-		26	2
2003–04			30	5	0	0	2	0	32	5
2004–05			26	2	0	0	0	0	26	2
2005–06			31	5	0	0	9	0	40	5
2006–07			27	2	0	0	6	0	33	2
Total	Club		208	26	2	1	19	0	229	27
2007–08	Eintracht Frankfurt	Bundesliga	20	0	0	0	-		20	0
2008–09			12	0	2	0	-		14	0
2009–10			0	0	0	0	-		0	0
Total	Club		32	0	2	0	0	0	34	0
Iran			League		Hazfi Cup		Asia		Total
2009–10	Steel Azin	Pro League	8	2	3	2	-		11	4
2010–11			26	2	0	0	-		26	2
2011-12	Damash		8	0	0	0	-		8	0
Country	Iran		96	22	5	4	11	4	106	30
	Germany		252	29	4	1	19	0	275	30
Total			348	49	9	5	30	4	381	60

• Assist Goals

Season	Team	Assists
09–10	Steel Azin	2
10–11	Steel Azin	4
11-12	Damash|2

International career

Mahdavikia as Captain of Iran national football team, Azadi Stadium

Having been awarded the Asian Young Footballer of the Year award in 1997, Mahdavikia was considered Iran's best player in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and was named in the list from which the team of the tournament was chosen. In 2003, he was awarded Asian Player of the Year by the Asian Football Confederation. He was also the top assister in the 2004 Asian Cup, exhibiting stunning form to steer Iran's attack to superb attacking football. He played in four Asian Cups (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) and two World Cups (1998, 2006).

Mahdavikia was one of the influential players that played in Iran's crucial 1–0 victory over Bahrain to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany. Following the FIFA World Cup in Germany, 2006, Mahdavikia was expected to assume the role of Captain in the Iranian national side, replacing Ali Daei and Yahya Golmohammadi who had publicly announced their intention to retire after the tournament. Mahdavikia was given the captain's band on 16 August 2006 in an Asian Cup qualifier versus Syria.

Mahdavikia has reportedly been forced to "retire" from international football^[4] after wearing a green bracelet in the final World Cup 2010 qualification match against the Republic of Korea. The green bracelet was a sign of support for those protesting the highly contested Iranian presidential election.^[5] He was forced to retire from Team Melli after 13 years and playing in 2 World Cups (1998, 2006), 4 Asian Cups (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007), 1 Asian Games tournament (1998), 4 World Cup qualifying campaigns (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010), 3 Asian Cup qualifying campaigns (2000, 2004, 2007) and one AFC/OFC Cup.

^[6]

Iran national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1996	3	0
1997	21	5
1998	17	2
1999	2	0
2000	15	2
2001	11	1
2002	0	0
2003	3	0
2004	10	1
2005	7	1
2006	7	0
2007	6	0
2008	3	1
2009	6	0
Total	111	13

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	21 April 1997	Tabriz, Iran	Kenya	3–0	Win	Friendly
2	2 June 1997	Damascus, Syria	Maldives	17–0	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	11 June 1997	Tehran, Iran	Maldives	9–0	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
4	13 September 1997	Dalian, China	China PR	4–2	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
5	13 September 1997	Dalian, China	China PR	4–2	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
6	31 January 1998	Hong Kong, Hong Kong	Chile	1–1	Draw	Friendly
7	21 June 1998	Lyon, France	United States	2–1	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup
8	16 January 2000	Pasadena, USA	United States	1–1	Draw	Friendly
9	31 March 2000	Aleppo, Syria	Maldives	8–0	Win	2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification
10	12 October 2001	Tehran, Iran	Iraq	2–1	Win	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
11	18 February 2004	Tehran, Iran	Qatar	3–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
12	30 March 2005	Pyongyang, North Korea	North Korea	2–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
13	15 October 2009	Tehran, Iran	North Korea	2–1	Win	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Awards and honours

Individual

• HSV Player of the Year: 2002–03 and 2003–04
• Asian Footballer of the Year: 2003
• Chosen as the best offensive winger of the Bundesliga in the 2002–03 season by Kicker
• Asian Young Footballer of the Year: 1997
• Bank Melli F.C Golden Boot award: 1995

Team

With the Iran national football team

• FIFA World Cup
  • Appearances and Goals: 1998 (1), 2006

• AFC Asian Cup
  • Appearances: 1996 (Third place), 2000 (Quarter Finals), 2004 (Third Place), 2007 (Quarter Finals)

• AFC/OFC Cup Challenge:1
  • 2003

With Hamburger SV

• German League Cup: 2003
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2005

With Persepolis F.C.

• Iranian Premier League champion: 1995–1996, 1996–1997, 1998–1999

Personal life

Mahdavikia is married to Sepideh and has a daughter, Asal.

In April 2006, Mahdavikia caused a stir when it came out he married a second wife named Samira while being in his native Iran, thus practising bigamy. He himself has stated that he made a "big mistake", was "lured into a trap" and ended the affair after a short while. As of May 2006, Mahdavikia plans to prosecute Samira for slander.^[7]

Mahdavikia's brother, Hadi currently plays for Homa F.C. and his nephew, Mostafa plays for Foolad Natanz.

Famous matches

Mahdavikia's most prolific club match was Hamburger SV's match against Juventus in the Champions League. He was the impetus that rallied Hamburg back after being down 3–1 by scoring once, assisting one and winning a penalty for Hamburg that saw Hamburg take a 4–3 lead; Juve managed to equalise with an Inzaghi penalty.

Another famous game in the HSV shirt came in week 30 of the 2002–03 season. Mahdavikia scored one and assisted another two goals in Hamburg's 4–0 win over 1. FC Nuremberg. Kicker gave him a much rare perfect note of 1.0.

Mehdi's greatest national team match, arguably, was against South Korea in the 2004 Asia Cup where he assisted three goals in Iran's 4–3 win. Many also point to his dynamic game against the United States in World Cup 1998 that saw him score Iran's second and winning goal, as his best ever. Another excellent match where he scored two great goals was against China in the qualification round for the 1998 World Cup when he was just 20 years old.

See also

Football for Hope

References

1. ^ "Eintracht denkt an Mahdavikia [Eintracht thinks about Mahdavikia]" (in German). kicker.de. 8 June 2007. http://kicker.de/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/artikel/366658/. Retrieved 9 December 2007. 
2. ^ "Mehdi Mahdavikia verlässt Eintracht Frankfurt [Mehdi Mahdavikia leaves Eintracht Frankfurt]" (in German). eintracht.de. http://www.eintracht.de/aktuell/29590/. Retrieved 26 January 2010. 
3. ^ Mahdavikia sign his contract with Damash
4. ^ Robert Tait (23 June 2009). "Iran bans election protest footballers". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/23/iran-football-protest-ban. Retrieved 24 June 2009. 
5. ^ "Reports: Iranian Soccer Stars Forced to 'Retire' Over Wristband Protest". foxnews.com. 23 June 2009. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528629,00.html. Retrieved 26 January 2010. 
6. ^ http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/mahdavikia-intl.html
7. ^ "Bigamie in Bundesliga?" (in German). n-tv.de. 12 April 2007. http://www.n-tv.de/656757.html. Retrieved 22 February 2007. 

External links

• Official website (German)
• RSSSF archive of Mehdi Mahdavikia's international appearances
• Mehdi Mahdavikia at TeamMelli.com
• Mehdi Mahdavikia at Football Database

Sporting positions
Preceded by Yahya Golmohammadi	Iran captain 2006–2009	Succeeded by Javad Nekounam

Persondata
Name	Mahdavikia, Mehdi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 July 1977
Place of birth	Tehran, Iran
Date of death
Place of death