Scientific studies and research in recent years have led to many world records in individual sports and higher levels of competition in team sports. But no branch of science has had a bigger impact on the Iranian national football team than that of metallurgy.

Ali Daei, a metallurgical engineer by trade, scored a record-breaking eight goals in only six games to capture the top goal scorer award at the XI Asian Cup last December in the United Arab Emirates. Daei scored four against Korea Republic to lead Iran's comeback from 1-2 down at half-time to win their quarter-final 6-2.

A dominant force in Asia in the 1970's, Iran's progress in international football came to a complete halt as a result of the eight-year war with Iraq. In recent years, however, Iran has re-emerged as one of the forces to be reckoned with at competitions throughout Asia. But the country's potential is still not fully exploited due to a lack of organized football at youth levels. Ali Daei's enormous talent would have been wasted, too, had he not moved to the Iranian capital to study metallurgy.

Mother's help

Born in Ardabil, on March 21, 1969, Daei's birth-place in the northern province of Azerbaijan is known for its cold, harsh winters, with the mercury falling to -30 C in the four long winter months. With Ardabil's Arctic-like climate, it is not surprising that the city had never had a national team player before Daei.

Ali grew up with four brothers and spent his summer holidays playing football with his brothers on a plot of vacant land, adjacent to their home in Ardabil. He has warm memories of his earlier days as a street footballer in Iran's coldest city : "My father was against my playing football during the school year. He didn't want me to play football until I finished high school," he recalls. "I remember I used to leave home without my football kit and my mother would smuggle it out for me so that I could play."
The five Daei brothers and a number of their cousins formed a local team in Ardabil and managed to impress local sides in street games. Ali soon joined a local youth side and became a feature on the Ardabil all-star team that played friendly matches against out-of-town teams. But he was still a long way away from Tehran and its big clubs.
Then in 1988 he was accepted to Tehran's University of Industrial Studies to study metallurgy. His father could no longer object to his move to the big city as Ali was on his way to becoming an engineer from Iran's best engineering university.

27 goals in 30 games

He became a prominent player at university and soon the top clubs were chasing him. His coach, Manoochehr Nazari, a former Iranian FIFA referee, introduced him to Taxirani, a second division club in Tehran. Daei led the second division scorers with 14 goals in his first season, and went on to capture the Iranian first division scoring awards three years in a row with Bank Tejarat, scoring a record 27 goals in 30 league games in 1992.

In 1993 he was called up to join the national team camp for World Cup qualifying matches, and found himself on the bench during Iran's opening match on 23 June that year at Tehran's Azadi Stadium, as Iran struggled against modest Oman in front of an increasingly dissatisfied 85,000 spectators. The coach, Ali Parvin, made a bold move and replaced striker Samad Marfavi with the 23 year-old Daei, and although Daei could not change the goalless score line in the 20 minutes of his international debut, he hit the crossbar twice with two brave headers.

Dream comes true

Those 20 minutes were enough to make Daei a regular feature in the national team. Within four months, he went on to win the Most Valuable Player award at the Asian World Cup preliminary competition in Qatar in October 1993, despite Iran's poor performance. He was also the tournament's top scorer with four goals.

Full Name: Ali Daei
Birth date: March 21, 1969
Birthplace: Ardabil, Iran
Height: 1,89 m
Weight: 82 kg
Position: Forward
Marital Status: Single
Profession: Metallurgical Engineer
Current club: Al Saad (Qatar)
Previous clubs: Esteghlal Ardabil,
Taxirani, Bank
Tejarat, Persepolis
International caps: 24 (27 goals)
National team debut: v. Oman (Tehran, June 23 1993, World Cup preliminary game)
Major honors: Most Valuable Player and top scorer of the 1994 Asian World Cup preliminary finals (4 goals, Doha/Qatar);
top scorer of the 1996 Asian Cup (8 goals, UAE); 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.
National honors: Top goal scorer of the Iranian national league in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995.
Best game: Against Korea Republic in 1996 Asian Cup quarter-final (scored four goals in Iran's 6-2 win).
Best goal scored: The second and Iran's fourth against Korea during the above match.
Best goal seen scored: Marco van Basten's goal against the USSR in the 1988 European Championship Final.
As of 28 February 1997.
A childhood dream came true when he joined Persepolis (now known as Pirouzi) in 1994 to play for the club he supported as a youngster. But his career suffered a serious setback in October that year when he was stretchered off the field against Bahrain during Iran's opening match in the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima with several broken ribs and three broken fingers following a mid-air collision with the Bahrain goalkeeper. The injury sidelined Daei for six months, but the immediate consequence for the defending Asian Games champions was an early exit in the first round. Iran had lost their scoring king and the rest of the side were not able to fill the enormous gap.
Persepolis won the Iranian league title last season to provide Daei with yet another international platform. Following a 3-0 defeat in the hands of Elimai of Kyrgyzstan, Persepolis made a comeback and thrashed their opponents 5-0 in the second leg, thanks to Daei's four-goal performance, to advance to the finals of the West Asian Club championship.
Then came the big break : Daei left Persepolis midway through their Asian Club Championship campaign last September at the age of 27 to join Al Saad of Qatar.

New heights

He said at the time, "Iranian football should turn fully professional so that its real potential can be exploited. A footballer should be able to make a decent living and therefore concentrate on improving his game."

Daei's career reached new heights last December when he topped the scorers' list at the Asian Cup, but ironically he missed the first kick as Iran lost the dreaded semi-final penalty shoot-out to Saudi Arabia.
The miss obliged him to readjust his sights. "Not winning the Asian Cup last year was a big disappointment," he says, "but my real dream is to reach the 1998 World Cup finals with Iran."