Baqeri voted year's best player

PTV - Persepolis' Karim Baqeri has been appointed the best Iranian football player of the year by Iran's Physical Education Organization.

In a ceremony held in Iran's National Olympic Academy, Baqeri was voted player of the year by Iranian soccer coaches and the heads of various sports media outlets.

The 34-year-old, capped 80 times for Iran's national team, has been playing for Persepolis since 2002, one year after he ended his international career.

Baqeri joined Arminia Bielefeld in 1997 and played for the German club until 2000 when he left for England's Charlton Athletic.

His Persepolis teammate, Mohsen Khalili, and Esteqlal's Mojtaba Jabbari were the other two nominees for the player of the year title.

Persepolis had two other winners at the ceremony. Afshin Qotbi was voted the best coach of the year and Mohsen Khalili was voted the top scorer of Iran's Premier League, together with Rah Ahan's Hadi Asghari.

Abu Moslem's Ivan Petrovic was appointed the best foreign player of the year. Mehdi Rahmati from Mes Kerman was named the best goalkeeper while Sepahan Isfahan's Ehsan Hajsafi won the title of the year's best young player.

Vahid Shamsaei and Mohammad Khorakchi were voted the best futsal player and coach of the year respectively.

The rest of the winners include:

Mohammad Taheri (top scorer in Iran's futsal league); Mostafa Nazari and Reza Naseri (best goalkeepers in Iran's futsal league); Fahimeh Zarei (best player of the year in women's futsal); Maryam Irandoust (best coach in women's football); Afsaneh Eqbal and Bayan Mahmoudi (top scorers in women's football league); Ali Naderi (best beach football player); Saeid Mozaffari (best referee) and Hossein Shahmoradi (best futsal referee).