During the second week of October, millions of people around the world were glued to their televisions, computers, and smartphones as they watched Iran defeat Morocco 1-0 in the final minutes of stoppage time to advance to the 2018 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals. Many of those people were cheering on Iran’s first world cup appearance in years, but few knew about the journey that this underdog team had taken to get there. A key component of Iran’s run was the play of its goalkeeper, 23-year-old Alireza Beiranvand. Safar Beiranvand: From Iranian Refugee Camp to World Cup Hero
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Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. He has represented Iran internationally at the 2015 and 2019 AFC Asian Cups, and at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
He was born in Tehran but his family fled from Iran when he was still young during the 1980s. Safar Beiranvand: From Iranian Refugee Camp to World Cup Hero
Bio
Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. He represented Iran internationally at the 2015 and 2019 AFC Asian Cups, and at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Alireza was born in a refugee camp in Tehran, Iran, where his family had fled from their hometown of Baneh due to war.
Family
Alireza was born in 1990, the year after the Iran-Iraq War. He spent his early years in a refugee camp, in Khuzestan Province. His father was a soldier who had served during the war.
Alireza made his professional debut with Foolad Khuzestan on 18 May 2016 at age 23 and became the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in the Persian Gulf Pro League.
Physical info
Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. He was born in Ahvaz, Iran in 1990. Alireza grew up playing football with his friends in a refugee camp that he lived in for most of his childhood. His father abandoned the family when Alireza was just three years old, forcing them to live at the camp.
Career
Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. Beiranvand represented Iran internationally at the 2015 and 2019 AFC Asian Cups, and at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He was one of four players in Iran’s squad at the 2018 FIFA World Cup who were born outside Iran, but has since obtained citizenship through naturalization.
Awards
Beiranvand was named the Asian Football Confederation’s Goalkeeper of the Year in 2017. He is a two-time AFC Champions League runner-up and has earned four consecutive Iran Pro League titles with Persepolis.
He has been capped for Iran at the senior international level since 2015, winning two AFC Asian Cups in 2015 and 2019, as well as appearing at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Net worth
Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. He represented Iran internationally at the 2015 and 2019 AFC Asian Cups, and at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. As of June 2019, he has been capped 36 times for his country.
sweetest time
Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. Alireza is known for his agility, speed and athleticism that has been heavily praised by managers and pundits. He was recognized as the best goalkeeper of the 2017–18 Persian Gulf Pro League season with 17 clean sheets in 29 matches, also winning the Golden Glove award.
first love
The first love of Safar Beiranvand is football. It’s the game he grew up playing in Iran as a refugee, it’s the game that brought him to Australia as a teenager and it’s the game that has won him a new home back in Tehran with Persepolis after two years away.
first success
Alireza Safar Beiranvand is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis and the Iran national team. After being ranked as one of the best goalkeepers in Asia, he was called up to the Iran national football team by Carlos Queiroz and made his debut in the friendly match against Montenegro on 24 March 2012. In 2013, he won the Asian Footballer of The Year award.
Early life
Alireza Safar Beiranvand was born in a refugee camp in Ahwaz, Iran. His father, one of the many refugees who fled Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, worked as a nurse while his mother sold items on the black market. At just three years old, Safar became an orphan when both his parents died from illness and passed away before he could even remember their faces.
Career
Alireza Safar Beiranvand was born in 1987 in Hamadan, Iran. In his early childhood, he and his family were forced to flee their home because of the Iran-Iraq War. The family sought refuge in a refugee camp on the border with Iraq, where they lived for 8 years. Throughout the war, Alireza attended school while living at the refugee camp. After finishing school, Alireza enrolled at Azad University and graduated with a degree in Physical Education.
International career
As a teenager, Safar was part of the Iran national team that finished runners-up in the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship. He made his senior debut for Iran in 2015, and played in all three matches at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Personal life
Alireza Beiranvand was born in Tehran, Iran and is of Persian ethnicity. He grew up in a refugee camp with his family, who had fled the Iran-Iraq War. His father died when he was only three years old. Safar started playing football aged five at a refugee camp in Malaysia.
Q.&A.
Q. What is your favorite memory from the World Cup?
A. My favorite memory from the world cup was when I saved a penalty from Sergio Ramos in the Round of 16 against Spain.
Q. What are your post-World Cup plans?
A. After the tournament, I will go back to Persepolis and continue my work there as a professional footballer.
Q. How did you get into playing football?