Love story: Israeli, Iranian soccer mates

[oberliner]

LONDON - It is an image you can see in almost any soccer match: One of the players scores a goal, and his friends pounce on him with aggressive hugs.

Last week, in a match between the Bolton Wanderers and the Doncaster Rovers, was one real, warm, hard to fake embrace: In the 49th minute, shortly after Iranian midfielder Andranik Teimourian scored Bolton’s fourth goal, he was embraced by none other than Idan Tal, the team’s Israeli midfielder, who scored the team’s third goal a few minutes earlier.

The image of number 16, Teimourian, holding number 23, Tal, quickly became a hit in newspapers and websites all over the world; even the “Persian Football” website proudly reported the historic cooperation between the Iranian and the Israeli. But Idan Tal, one of two Israeli players on the team along with defender Tal Ben Haim, does not understand what the fuss is about.

As far as Tal is concerned, it was just another victory bear hug, and there is no significance to the fact that the other half of this embrace comes from a country which wished his own country gone, or at least gone from the Middle East.

“We don’t discuss the tension between Israel and Iran,” he explained to Yedioth Aharonoth. “Other than hugging, hanging out together and showing the world that people can live and work together, we don’t deal with it. On the team bus we prefer talking about Persian food.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3353505,00.html

[thereismore]

1. I'd like to see that picture. nt