Persepolis Football Club is an Iranian professional football club based in Tehran, that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League.
Persepolis was founded in 1963 by Ali Abdo and has been in the first division of Iranian football since 1968. Persepolis also had three teams in bowling, basketball and volleyball in its first years of establishment. Persepolis F.C. is the football club of the multisport Persepolis Athletic and Cultural Club. The club is owned by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. There have been many attempts to privatize the club with no success due to the large debt the club has accumulated.
The club has played at its home ground, Azadi Stadium, since 1973. They contest the Tehran derby, which is regarded as one of the biggest in Asia, with archrivals Esteghlal, a match that is always closely followed by Iranian football fans. According to the Asian Football Confederation, Persepolis is the most popular football club in Asia. At the AFC Champions League, Persepolis has the records of the most attendances (11 matches among 20 matches with the most attendances) and five matches with the most attendances. Persepolis has also broken the record of 100,000 attendances in four matches at AFC Champions League. Persepolis has won a record fifteen Iranian league titles, as well as seven Hazfi Cups, five Super Cups and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup. Many notable players have played for the club, including former Bundesliga players Ali Karimi, Ali Daei, Vahid Hashemian and Mehdi Mahdavikia. However, Ali Parvin is widely regarded as the club's greatest ever player. Parvin spent 18 years with the club from 1970 to 1988.<\/P>","94A63A88C13097EB":"Tehran","406113B88EA1E6CB":"","64A2290C09C50CF35B7DBD9C8F3A2F5E":"78kg","5BAF7C8A60756B5496BBA4CBC6C0BED8DD63717CA1BB6492":"1","0192D11C6FFC52B1FA5A279107C4769C":"Vahid Hashemian","5B70C105C09228B419825F9D2D3BB765":"In Asia, Iran are widely regarded as a ‘European’ team because of their playing style. If this is the case then one of their most ‘European’ players is Vahid Hashemian, the Bundesliga-based striker who goes by the nickname Der Hubschrauber<\/I>, or ‘The Helicopter’.
Hashemian left Iran for Europe in 1999, joining Hamburg from Pas Club. He had limited opportunities to impress in his two years there and so, ahead of the 2001\/02 campaign, moved on to Bochum. After a solid first season, he became something of a super-sub in 2002\/03 as he scored ten goals in 34 appearances to help his team survive in Germany’s top flight.
Entrusted with a starting role the next season, he did even better by recording an impressive 16-goal total. Those sparkling performances convinced Bayern Munich to take him to Bavaria for the start of the 2004\/05 season and he became the second Iranian player behind Ali Daei to play for the Bundesliga giants. However, after just nine appearances (six of them as a substitute), he joined Hanover 96, where he has rediscovered his form.
While his success in Germany appeared to come easy, his time with the national side has been less straightforward. Hashemian burst onto international scene with Iran in a friendly against Kazakhstan in December 1998 and was part of the team that beat Kuwait in the final of 1998 Asian Games later that month.
When Iran’s qualifying campaign for Korea\/Japan 2002 began, he held a regular starting place in Miroslav Blazevic’s squad. However, Iran stumbled on the road to the Far East and the striker was relegated to the substitutes’ bench. In fact, he dropped out of the squad completely following a scoreless draw against Thailand in September 2001, which contributed to the team's failure to win their qualifying group.
Hashemian left for Germany soon afterwards and refused to return to the national set-up. His self-imposed exile ended when the new coach, Branko Ivankovic, persuaded him to come back to the fold. The game after his return, Hashemian netted a vital goal to help Iran defeat Qatar 3-2 in October 2004. As if determined to make up for lost time, Hashemian then struck two magnificent goals to secure a 2-1 qualifying win over Japan in Tehran in March 2005.
A key player for his country once again, ‘The Helicopter’ is now aiming to fly high in Germany in June.
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