Voters can submit their choice for the world's most popular football player from a list of 115 currently active players from 68 countries across the world published by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) on Monday.
Karimi and Mahdavikia appear in the list along with famous players such as Adriano, Andrey Arshavin, Michael Ballack, Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto'o, Steven Gerrard, Ryan Giggs, Lionel Messi, Franck Ribery and Francesco Totti.
Both Mahdavikia and Karimi ended their careers in Iran's national team after it failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup earlier this year.
Voters have until January 2, 2010 to submit their choice. The result of the poll will be announced in January 2010, the intermediate results on November 3rd and on November 30th, 2009.
Visit the IFFHS website to cast your vote for the world's most popular football player in 2009.