In my humble opinion 'All time greatest ranking' lists pose no real value other than for sheer short term entertainment value. This is simply because sports of today is NOTHING like it was 10 years ago, let alone 40, 50 or even longer periods of time. We live in a world where players turn pro in their early teens. Literally play 1000's of official games in their careers and every step they make is well documented. Not to mention the advancements made in gear, training, diet, even the evolution of the grass and the pitch itself. These are crucial factors that need to be calculated when one is looking to compare the players from yester-years to today.
That was the rational portion of my argument and like everyone else I too am intrigued by such arguments. I use the following criteria to select the players and their ranking:
1) People that I have actually seen play
2) Accomplishments
3) Their Impact on our football
4) International Career
In my humble opinion the ONLY spot that is unquestionable is number 1 and that is Daei. Simply put he is the only Iranian player that has a World Record. One that may stand for a LONG LONG time to come. I am sick and tired of hearing idiotic arguments (if you want to call this BS babble argument) that he scored on Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Laos. We play these teams year and year out, and for some magical reason Daei seems to be the only man that was able to score on them. Using this stupid reasoning, every Iranian player should have massed similar scoring records against these teams. This matter is simply closed for me and those that tend to use their brains. Again my opinion so please don't get your panties in a knot if you disagree.
1) Ali Daei
2) Nasser Hejazi
3) Mehdi Mahdavikia
4) Ali Parvin
5) Ali Karimi
6) Parviz Ghlechkhani
7) Hassan Roshan
8) Karim Bagheri
9) Abedzadeh
10) Javad Nekunam