Ali "Naji" Badavi (born 20 June 1982) is an Iranian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who last played for the Sanat Naft in Azadegan League.

Club career

Badavi started his career at Foolad FC, however on his return from China after the 2004 Asian Cup, his troubles continued with Foolad FC and eventually left for city rival Esteghlal Ahvaz where he has yet to win a regular spot in the team. Ali Badavi continued his excellent run for Esteghlal Ahvaz in the Iran Premier League (2005–2006) Season. His form was good enough for yet another recall for international duty.

Club career statistics

Last Update 24 May 2010 * Assist Goals

International career

He made his debut for

Iran national football team ) ''(the national team)' other nicknames'' , Badge = Flag_of_Iran.svg , Badge_size = 190px , Association = Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran , FIFA Trigramme = IRN , FIFA Rank ...

on 1 September 2002 versus

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

. He also played for the Iranian Olympic team during the 2002 Asian Games in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

, and soon after became a player who was regularly called up to the national team. During Iran's

2004 AFC Asian Cup The 2004 AFC Asian Cup was the 13th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held from 17 July to 7 August 2004 in China. The defending champio ...

game versus

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

, Badavi and Rezaei began physically fighting with each other in the middle of the game after a series of mistakes. Badavi was suspended for 2 games and returned in the semis versus China, where his last minute, close-range miss proved to be costly. The following season, he did not have good form and is rarely called up to the national team any more.

References

* Iranian footballers Association football defenders Foolad FC players Sanat Naft Abadan F.C. players Esteghlal Ahvaz players People from Ahvaz 1982 births Living people Iran international footballers 2004 AFC Asian Cup players Iranian Arab sportspeople Asian Games gold medalists for Iran Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Sportspeople from Khuzestan province 21st-century Iranian people {{Iran-footy-defender-stub