Guardian:

There was a small rubber ball, dusty streets and not much else. This was Jalal Talebi’s childhood growing up in Tehran in the 1950s.

Every day, he would race to the narrow alleyways and play football. His wish was to emulate his older brother, who was captain of the Iranian water-polo team. He wanted to represent his country too and play in front of big crowds. But he also dreamt of reaching a World Cup.

Talebi did become a senior Iranian international and an Olympian too, but a knee injury ended his playing career at the age of 27. He turned to coaching and even spent a season with Dave Sexton’s Chelsea to learn more. By the mid-1970s, he was a well-respected young manager at Daraei, the Iranian club where he’d started his career, and his reputation was on the rise.

Then, the revolution came and everything changed.

“After it happened, football started to struggle,” Talebi says.

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