Iranian football legend Hamid Alidousti has died at the age of 70. The former international striker, who was banned from the national team in the 1980s for playing the guitar, passed away on October 31 after a battle with cancer.

Alidousti was born on March 12, 1956, in Tehran. He earned his first senior cap for Iran in 1977 and went on to make 27 appearances, scoring 15 goals-an impressive strike rate. He represented his country at the 1980 and 1984 AFC Asian Cup tournaments.

Club Career and Coaching

He spent over a decade playing for Tehran-based club Homa, rejecting offers from giants Esteghlal and Persepolis. After a stint in Germany with SV Salmrohr in the 2. Bundesliga, where he scored 10 goals in 30 appearances during the 1986-87 season, he returned to play for Daraei, Keshavarz, and Saipa. Following his retirement, he managed several clubs including Paykan, Saipa, Homa, and Tractor, and also led Iran's national youth and U17 teams. His most recent role was as technical director and academy head of Chadormalu Ardakan Club, appointed in July 2025.

A Figure Beyond Football

Alidousti was a varied cultural icon with a deep passion for literature, cinema, and philosophy. His former Homa head coach, Bahman Foroutan, said of him: "When Hamid was in the world of books, he was a writer. When he was in music, he was a virtuoso musician." Alidousti himself was known for the aphorism: "Love means unfulfillment."

A goalkeeper in his youth-a fact he shared with French author Albert Camus-he was an avid reader of authors like Hermann Hesse, Dostoevsky, and Camus. His personal life was marked by tragedy when his son, Pouyan, died in a fireworks explosion in March 2005 at the age of 16. His wife, Nadereh Hakimolahi, is a sculptor, and his daughter, Taraneh Alidousti, is a prominent Iranian actress.

His passing comes as the Iran national team seeks to rebound from two consecutive defeats in September, including a 2-0 loss to Russia on the 29th. The team's next fixture is an away match against Palestine on November 14. The funeral for Hamid Alidousti will be held in Tehran on Thursday.

The original report is at iranwire.com