Ali Karimi reunites with former coach Felix Magath in Gelsenkirchen

January 31st, 2011 | by: Afshin Afshar | Comments(1)

Ali Karimi

Former Team Melli midfield star Ali Karimi reached an agreement with Schalke 04 of the German Bundesliga on Monday and is set to his former Bayern Munich coach Felix Magath in Gelsenkirchen.

In recent weeks Karimi had been linked to a couple of Iranian clubs including Perspolis of Tehran and Zob Ahan of Isfahan. It was widely believed that he would join Perspolis before surprising everyone by making his second move to Europe.

When Karimi joined Bayern Munich on May 3, 2005 on a free transfer, it was then Bayern coach Felix Magath who had requested the club to sign him. The midfielder’s two years with Bayern were not successful despite a few respectable performances and strong signs of improvement. In March of 2006 Karimi injured his ankle in a match against Hamburg and that seemed to hamper his progress. On May 2007 Bayern Munich announced that Karimi would be leaving the club at the end of the season. All in all he had 33 appearances for the Bavarians and scored 3 goals.

Hi move to Schalke has been received well by most Iranian football fans that have been very supportive of the midfielder whom they have lovingly nicknamed “The Wizard of Tehran” for his tricky ball handling.

Here is a compilation of Karimi highlights: