Read for 5 minutesNew York22 Jun 2026 07:13 AM IST
The Belgium forward would hit the broken mat with two big gloved fists from Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. It was as if his fists were flexible, stretchable, bendable and reliable for his team.
The look of wonder on Kevin De Bruyne’s face when he saved Maxime De Cuper’s shot from close range and captured the amazing flexibility of his limbs. When De Kuper took the shot, from the deflection at his feet, he was moving in the opposite direction, the speed of the expected shot before the path of the ball. But Alireza somehow conspired to keep the ball out of danger by extending his left arm, his upper body being pushed into the air, left and towards the ball, while his lower body was being pulled to the right. Had he not been a footballer, he would have been a gymnast, tall with long and gray limbs, though a basket-baller.
Chances are he could have excelled in a game of hoops as well as flips on bars. He is not averse to taking odd jobs if it helps him become a footballer. Few have done as much work or effort as he did to fulfill his dream of playing football. The eldest son of a sheep-herding, nomadic family in Iran’s Lorestan province, he doesn’t remember settling permanently until he was a teenager. “We went from one village to another, herding our sheep, making sure they didn’t stray from the flock or get stolen,” he told Varzesh3.com.
In his free time, he played football and the game Dal Paran, which involved throwing stones at a distance. “That helped me with my distribution in football later on,” he would say. It was only after his family settled in Sarabias that his football dream ignited. Avoiding the attentions of his strict father, he joined a local club when he was 12 years old. He was a striker, but one day he was kept in the sticks as both regular goalkeepers were injured. But one day his father found out that he was playing football instead of cattle rearing. Harsh to younger siblings. “I was the eldest, so I had to take my father’s lineage, but I wanted to be a footballer,” he said. In anger, his father tore off his gloves. And he had no money to buy another pair.
There was only one solution: board a night bus to Tehran while his father was asleep. So he took some money from his cousin and ran away secretly. The 600 km journey was tough and he had little money. On the bus he met the coach of the local team. His name was Hussain Faiz. He explained his dream, but the coach demanded token money. “It’s not his fault, it was a small club BudgetAnd it can’t provide free training for everyone,” he reasoned. He paid the first month’s fee with money given to him by his relative.
He had no relative or shelter in Tehran. He would train in the evenings and sleep in mosques, sometimes on the streets. One day, he fell asleep near the club and when he woke up, he felt coins all over his body. “They thought I was a beggar! Well, I had a delicious breakfast for the first time in a long time,” he told The Guardian.
Moved, the coach asked the club owners to give him free training and a room with the senior player. But still, he had to make ends meet. His roommate introduced him to a car-washing firm. “The owner is happy because I am tall and I can wash the SUV without straining,” he said.
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From car-washer to pizza shop delivery boy. His coach stopped him from going and gave him a stipend, which dried up by the end of the month. He became a street sweeper at night so that no one would see him. But the night shifts took a toll on his body and reduced his playing time. But local powerhouse, Nafta took notice of him and asked him to train with the U-23 side. “My career took off, I started getting paid for appearances and I got into Iran’s U-23 team,” he told Varzesh3.com.
In 2015, he made his debut in Iran, just four years after he fled his hometown at night. Three years later, he would famously save Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty at the 2018 World Cup. In between he returned home and patched up with his father. “He told me I did him proud, and he was sorry he didn’t support me. It was an emotional moment, but in life, you have to make some tough decisions,” he would say. And on Sunday, he made all the right decisions. And he can scare Belgium’s forwards into their nightmares.