AFC Asian Cup
The 34-year-old is already considered one of his nation’s finest-ever players, forging a successful career at the highest level in European club football as well as scoring at the FIFA World Cup.
Factfile:
Age: 34
Caps: 108
Goals: 58
Club: Olympiacos FC (Greece)
Age: 34
Caps: 108
Goals: 58
Club: Olympiacos FC (Greece)
Victory at the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027™ would put the seal on his status as an Iranian great alongside the likes of Ali Parvin and Ali Daei, providing the ideal curtain call for a career that is unlikely to extend through the entirety of another FIFA World Cup cycle.
Since making his international debut against Uzbekistan in June 2015, Taremi has managed to average more than a goal every other game, netting 60 times in 111 appearances for his country.
Trivia
IR Iran will make their 16th AFC Asian Cup appearance
in 2027, joint-most with Korea Republic.
Taremi’s journey started in humble surroundings with his hometown club Shahin Bushehr before a switch to Iranjavan, but it was his move to Persepolis in 2014 that saw the young forward attract national and, eventually, global attention.
His scoring exploits for the Tehran giants earned a call-up to the national team under Carlos Queiroz and the international game was soon sitting up and taking notice.
Taremi transferred to Qatar’s Al Gharafa before a switch in 2019 to Rio Ave in Portugal, where his career took off. Eighteen goals in 30 league matches prompted Lisbon-based FC Porto to sign him, launching Taremi on the next phase of his rapidly rising trajectory.
Across four seasons from 2020 to 2024, Taremi scored 91 goals in 182 matches in all competitions, with his exploits in the UEFA Champions League in particular catching the eye of clubs in Europe’s leading leagues.
A spectacular overhead kick against Chelsea in 2021 saw him nominated for the FIFA Puskas Award while in the 2022/23 season he scored seven times in 11 matches in the UEFA Champions League as Porto reached the last 16.
By this stage, Taremi had become a central component in Queiroz’s team representing IR Iran, featuring at the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups as well as the AFC Asian Cup in 2019 in the United Arab Emirates and at Qatar 2023.
Taremi became the first Iranian player to score twice in a FIFA World Cup match when he netted in a 6-2 loss to England in 2022 while his goals were vital again as the country secured their berth at the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027™.
And it will be there that Taremi will seek to etch his name in the history books by ending his country’s long wait for a record-equalling fourth AFC Asian Cup crown.
Photos: AFP, AFC
