Ali Nozar Karimi ( fa, علی کریمی; born 11 February 1994) is an Iranian professional

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 le ...

who plays for Kayserispor as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Sepahan

He joined Sepahan in the summer of 2012. From 2010 to 2012, he was a member of Sepahan under-19 football team. Karimi made his first league appearance in the 2013–14 season. He won the Persian Gulf Pro League with Sepahan in the 2014–15 season.

Dinamo Zagreb

2016–17

On 1 July 2016, Karimi joined Croatian champions

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

on a five-year contract for a reported US$400,000 transfer fee. He is the first Iranian to play in Croatian

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, it was called Prva H ...

. Karimi made his preseason debut on 2 July 2016, coming on as a second-half substitute against Romanian club

CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu Clubul Sportiv Pandurii Lignitul Târgu Jiu (), commonly known as Pandurii Târgu Jiu or simply Pandurii, was a Romanian football club based in Târgu Jiu, Gorj County, which competed last time in the Liga IV. Founded in 1962 following the merg ...

Loan to Lokomotiva

Karimi joined Dinamo Zagreb's feeder club Lokomotiva in January 2017 on a 6-month loan. He finally got a chance to show off his power and control in the midfield as he started six games for Lokomotiva, set up multiple goals and scored his first goal in the Croatian league for the NK Lokomotiva on 26 April 2017 in a 1–0 league victory against Istra 1961.

Esteghlal

On 15 July 2018, Karimi joined Esteghlal signing a one-year contract with the club.

Qatar SC

On 1 November 2020, Karimi joined Qatar SC, signing a one-year contract with the club.

Kayserispor

In July 2020, Karimi joined Kayseispor as a free agent.

International career

Youth

He was invited to Iran U-23 training camp by

Nelo Vingada Eduardo Manuel "Nelo" Martinho Bragança de Vingada (born 30 March 1953) is a Portuguese football manager. Managerial career Early years Vingada was born in Serpa. His first steps as a professional football manager were in Belenenses, and then ...

in preparation for Incheon 2014 and 2016 AFC U-22 Championship (Summer Olympic qualification). He was named for the Iran U23 and on the final roster for Incheon 2014.

Senior

Karimi was called to the national team in March 2014 but did not play a game. He was called up again to the senior Iran squad for a

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

qualifier against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in September 2015. He made his debut against Papua New Guinea on 10 November 2016 in a friendly match. In May 2018, he was named in Iran's preliminary

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Russia. but did not make the final 23 because of injury.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Sepahan * Hazfi Cup:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* Persian Gulf Pro League: 2014–15 Iran U23 * WAFF U23 Championship:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

Ali Karimi joined Al-Duhail
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karimi, Ali 1994 births Living people People from Izeh Iranian men's footballers Iranian expatriate men's footballers Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Sepahan S.C. footballers GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Lokomotiva Zagreb players Esteghlal F.C. players Qatar SC players Al-Duhail SC players Kayserispor footballers Persian Gulf Pro League players Croatian Football League players First Football League (Croatia) players Qatar Stars League players Süper Lig players Iran men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Iran Iran men's international footballers Footballers from Khuzestan province 2022 FIFA World Cup players