PTV - Iran’s Steel Azin FC midfielder, Ali Karimi, has been selected as the world’s 11th most popular football player in 2009.
The 31-year-old Iranian star was selected by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) with 17.905 points.
Steel Azin player Mehdi Mahdavikia, who only recently left Eintracht Frankfurt to return to Iran, placed 27th with 6.429 points.
Honduran football striker, Carlos Alberto Pavon, who currently plays for Real CD Espana is at the top of the world’s list with 195.182 points.
The IFFHS world’s top 20 most popular football players for 2009
1. Carlos Alberto Pavon
2. Arda Turan
3. Mohamed Aboutreika
4. Micha? Zew?akow
5. Juan Manuel Vargas
6. Alexandre Raphael Meschini »Alex«
7. Yasser Al-Qahtani
8. Li Jinyu
9. Andrey Arshavin
10. Jose Francisco Cevallos
11. Ali Karimi
12. Antonio Pacheco
13. Alexis Alejandro Sanchez
14. Bryan Ruiz
15. Juan Sebastian Veron
16. Igor Akinfeev
17. Artem V. Milevskiy
18. Dario Srna
19. Dimitar Berbatov
20. Mohammed Noor Adam Hawsawi