Many points I'd like to bring up here about Daei.
1- Daei from 1994-2003 was the indisputable best forward Iran had. No one could compare to him. He started because he was the best and he scored against opponents big and small.
2- To those saying he scored against weak teams. SO WHAT?! Every team in Asia played against the same teams and no one (Iranian or Asian) showed the same level of performance against the same opponents. To fault a forward for doing his job (SCORING GOALS) is the kind of complaint that just shows a personal vendetta.
3- Again on the level of opponents, even if you took away his goals against the weaker teams, he probably has 50-70 goals which are against teams at the same level as TM, if not better (South Korea, Japan, Saudi, Iraq, Ecaudor, Ukraine...).
4- To those who say he got in the way of other forwards developing. That makes no sense. The national team is not about development. It is where players come from clubs and through a few days of training try to show some effectiveness and cohesiveness versus opponents. I'm sorry but what did Borhani, Enayati, Khatibi... and the like do to compared to Daei? The only legitimate competition Daei had was Vahid Hashemian, and up until 2003 I would say Daei was better than him.
5- To those saying he didn't score in the World Cup. Many great players didn't. And how often did TM even play in the World Cup? Every game TM has had in the World Cup (except against Angola) we have played a counter attacking style with very little service.
6- For his passes to Azizi in 97 (Aus) and Kia in 98 (USA)a nd Karimi in 2001 (Ireland) he made up plenty for not being able to score against those same opponents.
7- He made it in Europe when no European club gave a damn about Asian players. The only other decent Asian player in Europe at the same time as Daei was Nakata. Kia and co came a bit later.
8- Daei played in Europe when AFC would schedule their games on whatever dates they wanted. Daei would make it as a starter many many times and then go to play for TM and lose his spot. Maybe he should have cared about TM less, but can we fault him for that? There was a reason Bayern Munich purchased him. Look at his goals for Armenia Bielefeld. He was a complete player. Not just headers, he would charge at defenders, win tough physical battles and score even long range shots.
9- Daei's attitude definitely changed post 2004, but that doesn't take away from what he did. He is still the most well known and effective TM player Iran ever had. We are judging his player career at his peak, not his coaching, or relationship issues.
