Financial Tribune - Family of the late football player and coach Nasser Hejazi (1949-2011) put up his soccer shoes for auction to help the quake-stricken region in west of Iran.
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake jolted western Kermanshah Province and the regions bordering Iraq on November 12 and killed at least 437 people, injured 9400 others and left thousands homeless.
Hejazi’s family sold his shoes to the highest bidder for 500 million rials ($12,500), November 19, and the amount went to help the relief effort in quake-ravaged Kermanshah, Young Journalists Club reported.
Considered by many the best keeper in Iranian soccer history, Hejazi played for Taj Tehran (renamed Esteghlal Tehran) during the 1970s and 80s. Together with Taj, he won the Asian Club Championship in 1970; he also won the Iranian league in 1971 and in 1975. He won the Hazfi Cup in 1977.
Hejazi was a member of the Iran national team in the 1970s and won the Asian Cup twice and Asian Games once and represented Iran at two Summer Olympics as well as the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
He played 62 times for the Iran national football team. In 2000, the Asian Football Confederation ranked him the second best Asian goalkeeper of the 20th century.
As manager, he won the Azadegan League in 1998 with Esteghlal and a Bangladesh League in 1988 with Mohammadan.