The World Stars team included Michel Salgado (captain), Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos, Fabio Cannavaro, Guti, Fernando Hierro, Fernando Couto, Vitor Baia, Bodo Illgner, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Steve McManaman, Fernando Morientes, Marcel Desailly, Gaizka Mendieta, Edgar Davids, Jari Litmanen, Christian Karembeu, Boudewijn Zenden and Santiago Solari. Iran’s All-Star team featured 1998 and 2006 Iran World Cup players as well as Iranian celebrities.

The World Stars team takes the field once a month in a country to raise funds for people who are suffering from a disease or disaster. Support for Ebola patients in Africa was one of the latest fundraisers of this team. The match was held to raise money for MS patients.

The game

The constellation of world-renowned former soccer giants, including Vitor Baia, Luis Figo, Marcel Desailly, Pedro Miguel Carreiro Resendes, known as Pauleta, as well as Fabio Cannavaro, edged the Iranian side 3-0 in a fixture staged at Azadi stadium in western Iran.

On the 24th minute, the world stars were awarded a free kick, which Brazilian footballer Roberto Carlos, adroitly landed just inside the Iranians’ net. In the 31st minute, Figo cracked a terrific shot into the bottom corner of the net to put the world’s all-star team 2-0 ahead.

Shortly afterwards, Iran’s Alireza Mansourian, who is currently manager of Naft Tehran F.C. in Iran Pro League, delivered a pass to Farhad Majidi, who shot. The goalkeeper for world stars’ team, Vitor Baia, parried the shot outside the penalty area, and the referee, Afshariya, flashed the red card. However, he altered his decision due to the nature of the match and showed the Portuguese retired footballer the yellow card.​

Pauleta seized a golden opportunity one minute before the breather and scored the third goal for the world retired soccer giants. The match lost its momentum after the break, and both squads did not threaten each others’ posts.

Sources: Payvand News 1, Payvand News 2, Tasnim News Agency, IRNA, Borna News