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Iranian national football The team has done its job World Cup 2026 The debut comes amid a turbulent backdrop: a sudden, temporary ceasefire after months of war, an unusual setup in Mexico after the United States banned the team from residing within the country between matches, and political uncertainty that has now spilled over into the international arena.
But for many Iranians, professional sports have always been at the intersection of sports, identity and politics. From sporting dissent and political activism to moments of immense national sporting pride, the trajectory of Iranian sports highlights what is at stake in this World Cup. On Tuesday morning, the Iranian national team tied 2-2 in its first appearance against New Zealand, and will face Belgium and Egypt, and will travel to and from Mexico between them.
“I think it’s not fair,” Iranian athlete Hadi Teran Valipour says of the Iranian team traveling from Mexico to the United States before each match, even though he is not paying much attention to this year’s World Cup.
Like many prominent Iranian athletes, Tiranvalipour knows the dichotomy between pursuing his sporting dreams against the backdrop of the nation he once represented. In fact, he left everything behind in 2022: his family and friends, a whole life in Iran, and the crossing to Türkiye, before seeking asylum in Italy. The taekwondo athlete and TV presenter spent eight years on the Iranian national team, even becoming team captain, and winning countless national and international honors while representing his country.
But after speaking out for the rights of Iranian people, especially women and girls, on television, everything changed. What followed was a swift backlash, Tiranvalipur says: “After the programme, they shut down everything on me, they shut down my sports career, they shut down my education.”
“I decided to leave behind all the medals and all the memories I created in my life,” he told WIRED Middle East about leaving Iran, even though it was far from the end of his sporting journey.
Sports have always been a major part of Iranian society and have often been a meeting point between identity and politics.
But the experience of being an athlete in Iran, and what the role represents on the international stage, is not always clear. There were moments of deep pride, when Iranian soccer players presented white roses to their American opponents before the 1998 World Cup, for example. But there have also been a number of high-profile defections and sporting tensions, such as Kimia Alizadeh, Iran’s only Olympic medalist. Leave the country In 2020.
As for Tiranvalipur, he had no choice but to pursue his dreams elsewhere, in what he described as a “difficult” refugee journey amid periods of great uncertainty. “I had no other solution, because I wanted to continue achieving my goals,” he says. “Unfortunately, sports in Iran are very complicated.” Two years after his departure, Tiranvalipur has fulfilled his dreams, representing the Refugee Olympic Team supported by Italy while competing in taekwondo at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
