Mehran Afshar, lastkick.com

Mehran Afshar is a native of Abadan, a city in the oil-rich southern Iran that has produced many of Iranian football’s talents. In his latest trip to his hometown, Mehran visited the city’s legendry football ground where many of the stars of the past and present started their careers.

If you put up a shinny star for every Team Melli player that this dusty field has produced over the last 50 years, the stars’ light intensity might even match that of the Sun’s!

Abadan’s Bouvardeh Jonubi (Boulevard South) football field’s myth can only be compared with the mighty 400 Dastgah (400 units) ground in South East of Tehran, except that the original 400 Dastgah field does not exist anymore, but the Bouvardeh Jonubi ground is still there and continues to produce rough but yet brilliant football talent in Abadan; although not for much longer.

In a hot spring afternoon, when I visited the ground for the first time in 30 years, I was amazed by the raw quality of the teenagers who were playing with much enthusiasm; Even a non-football fan could recognize and appreciate their pure love of the game.

Mohammad Ali Soheilati, a tired looking coach in his mid 50’s, was teaching them about “dos and don’ts” of taking free kicks.

“ee koloftu ro bebin (Watch this fatso)!” He was pointing at Majid Saeedi, a chubby 15-year old with lethal shots. “He will soon become one of the best midfielders in this country, I promise you.”

But my eyes were set on a petite dark skinned kid who was playing with inspiring technique and unusal maturity for his age. The way he went by and around his 15 to 19 years old playmates, who were helpless in trying to stop him, reminded me of the way Maradona went by defenders in his “goal of the century” against England in 1986 World Cup. The kid was just a joy to watch.

“His name is Jasem (Sadeghiyan)”, his coach told me. “He is a brilliant player, but suffers from poor nutrition” he added.

“We gave him this new football kit a week ago, and I swear his performance improved almost instantly! Even his attitude and personality seem to have changed for the better” said Soheilati.

Another young player captured my eyes. Watching in disbelief and I asked the coach “what?! Why is he playing barefooted?”

Soheilati shrugged; “He doesn’t have money to buy shoes, and I if I keep him off the field, he will bring this neighborhood down with his crying!”

More than 400 Abadan kids use this football ground from dawn to dusk.

A 20-30 member team’s budget is about $4000 to $5000 per year (as suggested by Soheilatis), which hardly covers the cost of proper team kits and beverages. To give the reader a point of comparison, an average “C” class player in the first division playing for Sanate Naft of Abadan football club makes around $30K. The salary cap is said to be around $200K to $250K for an “A” class player.

These enthusiastic kids with their extra ordinary talents are surrounded by wealth and pipelines filled with Black Gold, but they do not share the prosperity that their older counterparts enjoy. They play barefooted and hungry in Iran’s football paradise, but for them there is worse to come!

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is going to convert this historic ground into an indoor saloon, and keep it off limits to these kids. This will be a nightmare for the 400+ Abadani youths who train here.

“We will be wandering around like homeless gypsies” said Soheilati. “We are fighting this plan, but have no support from anyone. This playground is our life. We cannot live without it. That’s our only lifeline.”

It is getting dark when I bid my farewell to the boys and their coach. While driving through the streets which bear the rich memories of my childhood, I could not content my disappointment with the football authorities and NIOC officials for their outright failure to recognize the value of this dusty shrine to these kids and come up with an alternative plan that will not simply leave them out.