Zayed big in Tehran after derby hat-trick brings instant celebrity status

HAD THINGS worked out little differently, Eamon Zayed might have spent the last few weeks in Equatorial Guinea with Libya at the African Cup of Nations.

But the former Bray, Drogheda and Derry City striker’s Plan B could hardly be described as mundane: for the past month or so he’s been settling in with his new club, Persepolis, in Tehran where, after a few nights on the bench and an earlier appearance from it, he made himself an instant hero to roughly half the city’s population by coming on to score a dramatic, and decisive, late hat-trick in Thursday evening’s derby against local rivals Esteghlal.

About 90,000 supporters turned out at the Azadi stadium, where Ireland secured World Cup qualification just over a decade ago, to see the 74th encounter between these two clubs. The fixture is rated Asia’s leading derby game by World Soccer magazine and Esteghlal looked set to maintain their edge in the tie with 10 minutes or so remaining.

With their side two down and reduced to 10 men, many Persepolis fans started heading for the exits.

The Dubliner, who qualifies to play for Libya through his grandparents, gave Persepolis hope of a comeback when he got between two defenders to run onto a through ball from Mohammad Nouri, then coolly pushed the ball into the bottom right corner from 15 yards.

His second, a few minutes later, was an equally well taken close-range header but he saved the best until last, with last year’s top scorer in the League of Ireland controlling a low cross from Hossein Badamaki with his back to goal during the third minute of added time before neatly turning his marker and sweeping the ball home for the winner.

“At that stage I think the coach was just telling Badamaki to keep the ball in the corner,” said Zayed last night.

“We’d got back level from two down with 10 men, it was a good result for us and I was the only one in the box but when the cross came in, thankfully I managed to put it away.

“It was Roy of the Rovers stuff,” he laughs, “fairytale stuff really and everything since has been mad, surreal but great at the same time.”

Zayed admits he had just been getting used to the sort of mid-level celebrity that comes with being a new player whose worth has not yet been gauged by supporters of a big club in a football crazy city. Now, however, he is having to adjust to an altogether more exalted status.

“At the stadium the whole place went mad, I’ve never seen anything like it. And then on the bus afterwards all the players were coming up, hugging and kissing me, telling me I didn’t realise what I’d done.

“Then, when I got back to the hotel there was a wedding on and the people wanted me to join them as a special guest. An old man offered me $100, he told me how grateful he was and that he wanted to give me a gift.” And this being Iran, it wasn’t the drink talking.

If he’d woken up thinking it had all been a dream then the hotel staff soon put an end to the notion.

“It’s a nice place in a lovely part of town and everyone has been friendly, saying hello and all that, but every few minutes this morning there’d be members of staff knocking on the door, looking to have pictures taken and a lot more people have been recognising and stopping me in the street outside. It’s been mad.”

Zayed is contracted to the club until the end of the season but could probably stay longer now if he wanted given that the club president had told the squad before Thursday’s game that he didn’t care how they did in the rest of the campaign (they had been 16 points behind their rivals who are favourites for the title), he just wanted them to win that game.