TEHRAN – A new species of fish discovered by an Iranian-German research team was named after former Iranian professional footballer and top goalscorer “Ali Daei” due to his humanitarian activities after the 2018 earthquake in the western province of Kermanshah, which is the sole habitat of the fish.

Until now, the “Glyptothorax alidaeii” species was only found in headwater streams in the upper Karkheh drainage, Seymareh river in southwest Kermanshah.

Ali Daei is the scorer of 109 goals for Iran and is the highest goal scorer of the world. Some 5 species of catfish have been discovered and introduced during 10-year research, Mehr reported on Monday.

Iranian and German researchers have worked on the fish species in the catchment area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iran; Turkey, Syria, and Iraq and published an article in Zootaxa journal discovering unknown species of this family.

New fish species are named in respect to the prominent people in the biological sciences, great poets such as Ferdowsi, Hafez, Amirkabir, Professor Samiei, and Mohammad Reza Shajarian.

Ali Daei is the scorer of 109 goals for Iran and is the highest goal scorer of the world after Portugal's forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

He represented Iran national football team from 1993 to 2006.

Daei played for three German clubs Arminia Bielefeld, Bayern Munich and Hertha BSC from 1997 to 2002.

FB/MG