5/25/2006
Christian Oliver, Reuters

TEHRAN, May 25 – They call him the "Wizard of Tehran" and the "Asian Maradona" and Iran are pinning their World Cup hopes on the midfield magic of Ali Karimi.

A nation trembled when Karimi, 27, picked up an ankle injury playing for Bayern Munich in early March. State television repeatedly showed the talismanic playmaker being helped from a snow-dusted pitch.

However, he is expected to have regained full fitness by the start of he finals and Asia's "Player of the Year 2004″ will present the biggest headache to first-round opponents Portugal, Mexico and Angola.

Karimi is a balletic dribbler, dancing through robust defences, and is armed with a sharp instinct for finding the back of the net. He was the top scorer in the 2004 Asian Cup and scored on his Champions' League debut with Bayern.

He told the Bayern Munich website his best was still to come, but remained realistic about Iran's World Cup prospects.

"We want to put on a good show for the large Iranian community in Germany and go back with our heads held high," said the flair player who was first head-hunted while playing street football in an industrial satellite town west of Tehran.

"I do not mean we will win the trophy, I am not that unrealistic, but getting through the group stage would be a fantastic achievement," he added.

Karimi is perhaps the closest thing Iran have to a superstar. He looms down from huge motorway billboards advertising cooking utensils, offering a little wizardry in the kitchen.