Iranian football legend Ali Daei said a plane travelling from Tehran to Dubai had been rerouted, and his wife and daughter ordered off, according to Iranian news organisations.
Daei - one of Iran’s most famous footballers and a former German Bundesliga striker whose 109 goals at the international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him - said his wife and daughter had flown on a Mahan Air flight, taking off from the Iranian capital’s Imam Khomeini Airport on Monday, headed to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.
But the plane was rerouted and made to land on Iran’s Kish Island in the Gulf, where “Ali Daei’s wife and daughter got off the plane”, the state news agency IRNA said.
Daei - who has expressed support for the protest movement that has rocked Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran by morality police for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women - said he was trying to arrange his family’s return to Tehran.
