Female Football Stars of Iranian Origin Play in Europe

The word "hybrids" entered Iranian football after Fereydoun Zandi accepted the Football Federation’s offer to play on the national team. This player was born to a German mother and an Iranian father. But since then, even figures such as Reza Ghouchan-Nejad, who was born in Khorasan, and Ashkan Dejageh, who was born to an Iranian father and mother, have been called footballing “hybrids”: players with European citizenship but from an Iranian background.

In women's football, no player from Europe has been included on the Iranian women's national team to date. But there are Iranian women who now shine for other national teams or in European clubs, and yet are little-known in Iran. On International Women's Day we pay tribute to the amazing Iranian women in world football, who have never played for the Iranian national team.

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In the 2019 Women's World Cup the presence of an Iranian player on the German national team provoked admiration and surprise among football fans in Iran. An Iranian was also awarded the silver ball, which goes to the best female futsal player of the year, at a ceremony in Sweden. In 2020 an Iranian player was the most newsworthy winter purchase of the Juventus women's team. Here, we get to know three Iranian women who grew up and succeeded in European sports.

Annahita Zamanian Bakhtiari: from Paris Saint-Germain to Juventus

Born in 1998 in London to an Iranian father and a French mother, Annahita Zamanian Bakhtiari moved to Sweden with her family when she was four years old. Her older brother was a footballer and Annahita started playing football very early on. At the age of just six she joined her first club, and when she grew older she wore the shirt of the prestigious Gothenburg team, which every footballing Swede aspires to join.

Zamanian made her debut on the pitch in the Swedish Women’s League in April 2016, when she was just 18 years old, against Örebro. She played three seasons for Gothenburg, appearing 34 times and scoring two goals. During this time she turned down offers to play for Sweden's national youth teams.

Playing as an influential midfielder, Zamanian first joined the French Under-17 team in 2014 against the Czech Republic. She wore the French shirt four times in this age category and then reached the Under-20 team. In the Under-20 World Cup of 2018 in France her team lost to Spain and failed to reach the final. She managed to get a penalty, which was in vain because her teammates didn’t make use of the opportunity. They also lost to England on penalties in the playoff, thus finishing fourth.

After playing for Gothenburg Zamanian decided to take on a bigger challenge. The Swedish league was too small for her. She went to France and now wore a Paris Saint-Germain shirt instead. Her presence in Paris was not very successful: she played in the Champions League five times but only got the opportunity to play as a substitute only seven times.

This prompted her to think about a transfer. Juventus boss Maria Rita Guarino, who had seen Zamanian playing in the Under-20 World Cup, decided to sign her during the winter transfer window. The French player of Iranian heritage was introduced to fans as the club’s first purchase in 2020, and she scored her first goal soon afterward. "I was really excited when I joined Juventus," she says. "I was also motivated to prove myself, which fortunately happened."

Zamanian Bakhtiari can speak four languages: English, French, Persian and Swedish. "We usually speak English at home, but that is no a reason to leave out Persian and French," she says. "We use both these languages ​​in our conversations."

Speaking of Iran, she says: "I have never been to Iran. My father is very interested in Iran. I was born in England and grew up in Sweden." Juventus went on to win the Series A and Italian Super Cups after signing Zamanian and extended her contract for another season at the end of 2020.

Sara Doorsoun Khajeh on the German National Team

The 2019 Women's World Cup came as a surprise to Iranians. An Iranian player was at the heart of the German defense: Sara Doorsoun-Khajeh. Born in November 1991 in Cologne, her father is Iranian and her mother is Turkish.

Doorsoun started playing professional football at the age of 15 when she was accepted in the German national youth team trials for new talent. She then played for the German national team in all age categories. She went to Wolfsburg in 2018 after playing for Wattenscheid, Turbine Potsdam, Bad Neuenahr and Essen. Doorsoun was playing at the highest level of professional football in the world, and Wolfsburg won the Women's Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal cup for two consecutive seasons with her in the squad.

At the 2019 World Cup the German women's national team lost to Sweden in the quarter-finals. This was Doorsoun's first appearance at a World Cup and she was in the starting line-up in all the games.

In 2020 Wolfburg lost to Lyon 3-1 in the final of the European Women's Champions League, which was between Lyon and Wolfsburg.  Doorsoun was forced to leave the pitch in the 39th minute due to injury. She struggled with the after-effects for a while before returning to form. In the Women's Bundesliga this season, she and her team are in second place behind Bayern Munich in the 14^th week.

Nazanin Vaseghpanah: from Karaj to Swedish Player of the Year

In 2019 Nazanin Vaseghpanah won the award for best Swedish female futsal player. She was born in Karaj to Iranian parents in 1987, but her family emigrated to Sweden when she was two years old. Initially a footballer, she played for Reymersholms at 18, but at the age of 32, in futsal, she was named the Falcao Stockholm Player of the Year.

"Most of my life has been spent in Stockholm," she says. "My two football-loving brothers made me play from the age of five. I scored a lot since I was a child and even in a match where we scored 12 goals, I scored all the goals alone. Everyone said I would become something."

On the inequalities in top-tier football, Vaseghpanah has said: "It would be great if I could focus only on my football, but women's football brings no great income. That's why I work from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon before training. I get angry because we practice like men every day. As a child, I always wondered why there was so much difference between men and women.  I don't think we will ever earn as much from football as men."

And this Karaji girl's opinion about the Swedish national team? "I had been dreaming of being in the national team since I was five years old. When I was called up to the Swedish national team, I thought I had achieved my dream, but I have to work harder."

Vaseghpanah played for the Swedish national football team in the Under-17 and youth categories. In 2008 she was called up to the Swedish senior national football team, but she played for them only teice. She moved from football to futsal at the age of 29, going on to achieve great success with Falcao, and now she plays for the Swedish national futsal team. She was a vital member of her team in the European Cup, scoring a stunning 18 goals over 18 games.

Despite having two children and being employed, Vaseghpanah still plays futsal at the international level. "Because of playing for Sweden, I can no longer play for the Iranian national team," she says. “I really wanted to play for my country. The older you get, the more you realize that you have to serve your country."

This article was written by a citizen journalist in Tehran under a pseudonym.

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