“Mehdi Magic”: Exclusive Interview with Football Star Mehdi Mahdavikia

FIFA, the international football association, has recognized Iranian football star Mehdi Mahdavikia as one of the most unforgettable figures of the sport by including him in its pre-competition YouTube teaser "100 Days to Go until the World Cup". Highlighting the player’s #MehdiMagic clip on its site, the recognition comes shortly after the former Persepolis player launched a new academy to promote football in the Islamic Republic.

FIFA called for footballers around the world to send in video clips to coincide with the countdown to the international competition, and Mahdavikia responded by filming himself heading a football into a basketball hoop. Just 24 hours later, FIFA published the video on Instagram and asked followers to send in their own videos of themselves heading a ball into a hoop using the hashtag “#MehdiMagic.”

“This was FIFA’s own idea,” Mahdavikia told IranWire. “In its plans for ‘100 Days to Go until the World Cup,’ FIFA asked football stars around the world to send it such videos and we did. It was an interesting idea. The videos that I made had several parts — showing moves with the ball, keepie uppie, and hitting the ball into basketball hoop with my head. Then I noticed that they made a separate video, and that is how the challenge started.”

The challenge is open to women and men around the world, building excitement for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, as well as acquainting (and re-acquainting) fans with some of the world’s most accomplished football players and former players.

“They will choose the best performance from among the videos and present it on FIFA’s website,” Mahdavikia said. “I think we will have to wait a little to see when FIFA will end the challenge. Perhaps later they will announce their decision and, for example, award a gift to the top choice.”

He admitted to not knowing a great deal more about the challenge, since he frequently travels between Germany and Iran to fulfil various engagements, leaving him with little time to follow developments on the FIFA pre-competition challenge. He said he had heard that that FIFA planned to add new challenges beyond #MehdiMagic, but that this hadn’t been confirmed. “I don’t know if FIFA will use other stars who appeared in the video ‘100 Days to Go until the World Cup’ or not,” he said.

FIFA also invited Mehdi Mahdavikia, who has an impressive career on both Iran’s national team and as part of the celebrated Persepolis Football Club, to take part in the lottery ceremonies for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in December 2017, alongside Ali Daei, one of the all-time top scorers in international matches. The fact that FIFA asked Mahdavikia to take part in the event further confirmed his prominence and standing in international football.

Some people have commented that FIFA has paid Mahdavikia so much attention because they see him as a good representative for Asian football, but Mahdavikia has dismissed this. “I do not believe in such demarcation lines. The truth is that FIFA has a complete list of footballers who have played for national teams and have been relatively successful. Once in a while they invite a few players on the list to participate in ceremonies like lotteries or to stand in front of the camera for FIFA. This is what has happened to me. I only try to be on my best behavior as an Iranian whenever I am invited. This way, at least my host will not have to worry what will happen if another Iranian is invited.”

FIFA has been highlighting Makdavikia’s accomplishments in other ways. On March 8, the federation published an interview with the Iranian football star Alireza Jahanbakhsh. In the article, entitled “Jahanbakhsh: Mahdavikia is my idol and mentor,” the footballer talked about everything from the forthcoming World Cup in Russia and how Iran made it into the competition to playing for Dutch football clubs — as well as how Mahdavikia was an inspiration to him. The video of Mahdavikia hitting the football into the basketball hoop appears again next to the interview on FIFA’s site.

Mahdavikia says he is grateful to Alireza Jahanbakhsh for his kind words. “What can I say about Alireza? I am proud of him, both because of his ethics and demeanor and his performance in the national team and in Dutch football. I am proud that he has said these things about me and I’ll pray for him.” Mahdavikia has also always stood by Jahanbaksh as an advisor. “We are in contact a lot,” he says. “I told Alireza that ‘whenever and for whatever you need me, rest assured that I will stand by you like a brother.’”

Prior to this attention from FIFA, other international sporting organizations have also acknowledged Mahdavikia’s contribution to football. In 2013, the Asian Football Confederation announced that FIFA had chosen him as the AFC Grassroots Ambassador.

How Jersey Number 2 Got his Start

Mehdi Mahdavikia’s story started in the mid-1990s, when head coach Mohammad Mayeli Kohan invited him to play for Iran’s national football team. The sports paper Kayhan Varzeshi described the invitation as a “touch of color,” a reference to the color of Tehran’s Persepolis Football Club, the team Mayeli Kohan played for for 14 years and for which Mahdavikia played. Mehdi Mahdavikia had just blown out the candles for his 18th birthday when he had his first experience on the international stage, accompanying the national football team to the United Arab Emirates for the 1996 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup. (Iran lost to Iraq in the tournament.)

The Asian Football Federation affected not only Mahdavikia’s life, but also Iranian football in general. In 1996, defenders Naeim Saadavi and Farshad Falahatzadeh were banned from playing for one year on doping charges. The simplest choice for Mayeli Kohan at the time was to replace Saadavi, who played right midfield, with either Javad Zarincheh or Mohammad Taghavi. But Mayeli Kohan made the most unlikely choice: He moved Mehdi Mahdavikia from forward striker to right midfielder. It signaled the birth of “jersey No. 2.”

After only a year of playing midfield for Iran, Mahdavikia won the “Asian Young Footballer of the Year” award in 1997. Then Persepolis loaned him to the German football team VfL Bochum. The next year, he started the first of eight years with Hamburger SV football team, a dream job in many ways.

Throughout his career, Mahdavikia achieved almost everything that an Iranian footballer could wish for, starting out as Tehran’s top teen and young goal scorer and then finding his way onto the celebrated Persepolis football team. 

Speaking out About the Future of Football

When Mahdavikia joined Hamburger SV, at first the people of the German port city did not show much enthusiasm for him. But then for two years in a row — the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons — he was honored as Hamburg’s favorite footballer. He became so popular that for eight years, Hamburg fans shouted out “Mehdi!” during matches.

Just glancing at the list of Mahdavikia’s achievements is enough to demonstrate why FIFA has turned its attention to him: Asian Young Footballer of the Year award in 1997, Asian Footballer of the Year in 2003, best Asian scorer of 1997. He also scored the winning goal against the United States in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. And to this day he has been the most successful legionnaire playing outside the country in the history of Iranian football.

When he retired from the field, Mahdavikia did it differently from everybody else. Instead of coveting a bench-job for Persepolis, the national team or the major football clubs belonging to Iran’s military or industrial sectors, he chose to go to the roots of football. Once, in an interview with the TV program 90, he spoke about the “pathetic” moral climate at football schools and among Iranian teen and youth football teams. Looking directly at the camera, he asked: “What are our authorities waiting for before they take action? What family must come to grief in these football schools before you do something?” Mahdavikia has recently launched the Kiva Football Academy to bring the model of the most professional clubs in Europe to Iranian football. With the academy, he aims to discover new talent, teach football, but also help players get an education and nurture them morally.

For FIFA, the different life Mahdavikia has led has made him a model of excellence.  He continues to teach football and there can be no doubt that soon Iran and international football will witness the remarkable results of his work at Kia Football Academy. This, of course, will be the real “Mehdi Magic.”