By DPA
Tehran : Former Iranian national team skipper Ali Daei, who guided Saipa Tehran to the Iranian league championship by beating Mess Kerman 2-0 in his first year as a coach, announced he would end his career as a football player.
"This was my last game as player and I am happy that I scored once again and enabled my team to win the championship. I thank all my fans," Daei told reporters here after the match Monday.
The 38-year-old Daei, who also occasionally played as a substitute, crowned a dream season by scoring the second goal of the game himself.
Four teams still had the chance of winning the championship on the last day of the league season, but Daei's team emerged lucky to clinch the title and Saipa Tehran will now also represent Iran in next season's Asian Champion league.
"We worked hard and eventually deserved to become champions," Daei said.
Daei has had a tough time following last year's World Cup in Germany where he was singled out as the main scapegoat for Iran's poor performance despite scoring more than 100 goals for the Iranian national team in his career and being the most renowned Iranian player abroad.
Following the humiliation, Daei withdrew from the limelight and joined the rather less important Saipa Tehran club, which at the beginning of the season was coached by German Werner Lorant.
Lorant left the team after only four weeks and Daei took over the team, which only had young and inexperienced players and, unlike the two capital's top teams, Esteqlal and Persepolis, was not backed by governmental funds.
Daei, who spent several years in the German Bundesliga, however turned Saipa around to lift the title with a three-point margin over Persepolis and four over Esteqlal.
The former Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin striker had previously complained that his footballing achievements in the last 12 years had been more honoured abroad than in Iran.
Sports reporters in Tehran, however, believe that a championship in his first year as trainer was the best reply to his critics and would not only expose the importance of Daei in Iran's football but also make his appointment as national team coach in the near future inevitable.
"I do not want to talk about the past – we are champions and that is the most important thing," Daei said.
Born in 1969 in Ardebil in north-western Iran, Daei started his football career in his hometown before moving to Tehran to Bank Tejarat and later Persepolis, the most popular team in Iran.
His breakthrough came during the 1994 World Cup qualification games although his strong performance and goals did not lead to Iran's qualification in the games in the US.
Four years later, however, he led Iran's national team to the World Cup in France where he, together with former Hamburger midfielder Mehdi Mahdavikia, defeated Iran's political arch-foe the US 2:1.
In 1997, Daei joined Arminia Bielefeld in the German Bundesliga but stayed with the team for only one year and changed to Bayern Munich.
In 1999 he switched Hertha BSC Berlin and stayed in the German capital until 2002 and then returned, after a short stay in the United Arab Emirates, to Iran.
In 2004 president Mohammad Khatami presented Daei with the Iranian badge of merit for his outstanding achievements for the country not only for his exceptional sports career but also for his social engagement for children and young adults as ambassador of the United Nations Children Fund.
In 2006 he once again led Iran's national team to the World Cup in Germany but fell out of favour after the team's defeats against Mexico and Portugal and a draw against Angola.