Sat in the local watering hole on a Saturday evening watching the 5:30pm kick off with your friends, reminiscing over some obscure footballers bringing with them the happy memories of times gone by. The likes of Adel Taraabt, Hatem Ben Arfa and the one season wonder Michu, all skilful players and almost untouchable on their day.
Suddenly somebody mentions that name, ‘Rory Delap’, and abruptly there’s a chill in the air, the fear of facing one of them long, flat, direct throws into your team’s penalty area filling you with despair and angst. Nobody knew what was about to unfold. This got me thinking, do my friends know about the man with the world record throw in football? I mention the name and I am greeted with looks of confusion. Nobody had heard of Alireza Beiranvand.
The early life of Alireza Beiranvand
You’d be forgiven for not knowing the name too. This is the story of world record holder Alireza Safar Beiranvand, born 21st of September 1992 in the Lorestan province in western Iran, it’s safe to say Alireza did not have the most customary of upbringings. Being born into a Lurish nomadic family descended from the Lak tribe, this was never going to be the case.
Alireza opened his eyes to football as a 12-year-old signing for a local outfit as a tall, slender striker. However, he soon found his love for goalkeeping and relished every opportunity he was given to stand between those hallowed sticks. Much like Caoimhín Kelleher of Liverpool, he had the agility and reflexes needed, and preferred denying goals rather than scoring them.
There were many obstacles in the way, none more than his own father, Mortaza Beiranvand, a shepherd, who did not see the appeal of football and certainly did not see a career waiting for Alireza. And the opportunity to play professional sport was very limited in the mountain regions.
In a 2018 interview Kurdish Alireza was asked about his childhood and the influence his father played on his budding career as a goalkeeper, and the answer given was not one of joy or happiness as we come to expect from the usual enlightening journey of a footballer. Instead he spoke about the times his father would commonly tear up his gloves and his kit to deter Alireza from playing football, wanting him to focus on more viable options in life that may come his way.
To a lot of young children, particularly at the age of 12, this might be the end of a dream, not for Alireza though. At the humble age of 18, he made the decision to risk it all and run, run from his father, run from his nomadic lifestyle and run for his dreams. Running away from home for many people seems impossible and implausible, this becomes more apparent when you think that Alireza ran away from his home and family in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A nation commonly found on lists of the world’s top 20 dangerous countries, and just as you start to think it isn’t hard enough the west of Iran, the Lorestan province is a very mountainous region so even traversing the harsh landscapes is difficult enough.
Is there anything riskier than running from your family half way across a highly dangerous country as a teenager with nothing but a dream and a will to succeed? Alireza found himself in Tehran the capital of Iran.
A common realisation for runaways is that when they reach their destination, they come to discover that they have no place to go. And this was no different for Alireza who had just run across the country to become homeless in the capital city at the age of 18. Of course the greatest stories are one of determination and hard work. Being talented and athletic is not enough, you also need the opportunity to show your skills.
Working odd jobs such as car washing, pizza making and even in a dress making factory to scrape enough money together to survive on the streets of Tehran, Alireza would often sleep right on the doorsteps of the Azadi tower and outside the football club where he managed to get an invitation to trial. Passers-by assumed this young man was a homeless beggar trying to get by in life, little did they know this homeless man was to become arguably the greatest goalkeeper in the history of Asian football.
The start of his football career
Unlike many runaway stories however, Alireza’s has a happy ending, after completing his trial period he was accepted into the football club Naft Tehran, one of the most prestigious clubs in Iranian football. He had done it, from living a nomadic life in Lorestan, to running away chasing his dreams and after living homeless, Alireza Beiranvand had become a professional goalkeeper an youth team football player.
Alireza went on to make 68 appearances for Naft Tehran between 2011 and 2016 before securing arguably the biggest move you can make in Iranian football, joining giants, Persepolis FC. This move wasn’t a smooth transition though as the Naft Tehran chairman, Mansour Ghanbarzadeh, refused the transfer of the goalkeeper who had single-handily helped the club wins matches to a third placed finish and qualification to the AFC champions league. After numerous rumours of a move, Alireza finally got his wish as at the end of his contract he made the switch in May 2016,
Persepolis FC were a team consistently battling at the top of the table, winning more often than not. His first international call up came in 2014 but did not make an appearance until January 2015 in a match against Iraq, and this was just a sign of things to come for the dedicated goalkeeper. The year before joining Persepolis, they had just finished second in the league, but the next 4 saw them win the league title consecutively. And at the heart of it all was a goalkeeper who lived on the streets, until he made his dream come true.
During his time at Persepolis, Alireza also took them to the final of the AFC Champions league twice, unfortunately finishing runners up on both occasions, but the club had never been there and have never been there since Alireza Beiranvand’s arrival.
The world’s longest throw
This article all stems from a conversation about Rory Delap, if you type in on YouTube or Google, ‘Longest football throw’, the search engines will throw up, pardon the pun, 2 names, Rory Delap and Alireza Beiranvand. There is a famous video clip of a 2015 AFC Champions League round of 16 match facing Al Ahli, who we have all come to know in recent times.
The clip is of Alireza collecting a high ball and went onto throw the ball overarm for 60 metres. The shock of everyone when they see is unnerving, nobody can understand how and why he can and or does this. It is not a one-time thing either, Alireza often uses his trebuchet of an arm to launch quick counter attacks. None more so than the time in 2014 against Tractor Sazi in which he actually recorded an assist by throwing the ball over 60 metres for his teammate to score.
He was officially entered into to the Guinness Book of World Records for recording the longest throw by hand in a football match after he threw the ball 61 metres during the 2018 World Cup qualifier between the Iranian national team and South Korea on October 11th 2016.
An unbelievable trait to have and one that has gone under the radar for so long as streaming the Persian Gulf Pro League and the AFC Champions League is not the easiest task to complete in Europe.
International Recognition and national team career
Reflecting a little more on his International career, it was not the prettiest of starts, after making a few non-competitive appearances for the national side his first competitive debut was one to forget. During 2018 World Cup qualifying Iran’s then first choice goalkeeper, Alireza Haghighi, was denied visa entry to Guam throwing Alireza Beiranvand into the deep end.
However, he was shown a straight red card in the 72nd minute for a foul on Dylan Naputi. From that moment though Alireza had become irreplaceable, he had forced his way into becoming the national sides number one and hasn’t looked back since.
Possibly Alireza’s most famous performance in a football shirt came in the 2018 World Cup. The final group game of Iran’s tournament they faced up to Portugal. 1-0 down to a Ricardo Quaresma goal on the stroke of half time, Iran were down but not out. Iran’s dreams were almost all but crushed, if it wasn’t for Alireza Beiranvand. Just after halftime a penalty was awarded after a VAR check.
This was the moment, Alireza Beiranvand was facing 5-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo. The world expected only one outcome, but there was only one man that wanted to run that glory. Diving to his left and miraculously saving the shot that left the football world shook.
Iran buoyed from this moment went on to equalise in the 93rd minute of regular time but ultimately it wasn’t enough to see them progress, but still that moment will live on in Iranian football history, and Beiranvand was capulted to international recognition as he saved a penalty from the GOAT.
The failed move to Europe
Back to club football in 2020 Alireza took the opportunity to play in Europe with his raised profile. Moving to Belgians Royal Antwerp, never really making his mark there with 10 appearances for the club. So he was shipped out on loan to Portuguese side Boavista, of which he again could not cement a place with only 8 appearances for the club.
A man who was a titan of Iranian goalkeeping and a hero amongst others for his heroics in the world cup, could not transition into European club football.
So, after 2 years away from his home nation Alireza returned to Persepolis in 2022, with fans celebrating the news. And with it came the return of the Persian Gulf Pro League title, after they had failed to lift the trophy the season before. His inspired goalkeeping led to 18 clean sheets in 30 games. Conceding just 13 goals, meaning they conceded more than one goal on just one occasion throughout the season.
The 2022 World Cup
In 2022 Alireza came back to the World Cup competition as Iran’s number one goal keeper, and again he was there making the headlines. But this time not for the right reasons. During the group stage game against England Alireza collided with defender Majid Hosseini and was clearly struggling with concussion.
For whatever reason, still unclear to many he was allowed to carry on. The scrutiny that came down on the officials and medical staff was heavy laden, with many people calling it an ‘Abject Failure’ of following concussion protocol, an utter disgrace he was allowed to continue
After a few minutes he laid down on the ground and was finally substituted and taken to a nearby hospital where the concussion was confirmed, forcing Alireza to miss the next game against Wales, where Iran famously won late on.
To many then, it was a surprise to see Alireza standing between the sticks in Iran’s last group games against the United States of America. There was an underlying thought, on one hand, yes, he is the nation’s best and number one goalkeeper. On the other, should he be out there having been severely concussed just days before.
Was there enough time for Alireza to recover, only he will know but the majority of people felt dubious about this decision to play. Iran ultimately lost the game 1-0 and exited the World Cup at the group stage yet again.
Final Thoughts
Throughout his career Alireza has collected numerous awards including the Persian Gulf Pro League Best Goalkeeper on 4 occasions, being in the leagues Team of the Year on 4 occasions also. Iranian footballer of the year in 2019, the AFC Asian Cup Team of the Tournament and notably the AFC Fans’ Best Player of All Time at the FIFA World Cup (although experts placed him 5th behind Park Ji-Sung, Tim Cahill, Sami Al-Jaber and Keisuke Honda).
All in all, so far Alireza has had a successful career overall, perhaps not making the step up to European club football hampers his legacy but to have won so many club trophies, a number of personal accolades, defining moments in the national team, and holding a world record for the longest throw in football, it’s not been a bad career.
Alireza Beiranvand continues to play football for Persepolis at the age of 31 so expect to see him in at least another World Cup, that’s not bad going for a young man from a nomadic family in Western Iran who ran away from his family to pursue his dreams.
Alireza Beiranvand is more than the man who can throw the ball further than anyone else. To many in his home nation of Iran his story serves as an inspiration showing that dedication and taking risks can lead you to great heights, and you never know, it could all lead to facing a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo one day.
