I marked Cristiano Ronaldo ‘out the game’ then signed for EFL club – I was let go seven months later

Milan Mandarić is a well-known name to English football fans

The ex-chairman of Portsmouth, Leicester City, and Sheffield Wednesday has a mixed reputation among supporters, having guided Pompey to the Premier League in 2003 but also overseen Leicester’s relegation to League 1 in 2008.

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It was Mandarić’s time with The Foxes that led to one of the club’s most infamous signings of the 21st century – a player with a near-mythical reputation amongst fans: Hossein Kaebi.

Kaebi, an Iranian international, represented his country on 84 occasions between 2002 to 2010, and was highly regarded within his home nation.

The diminutive right-back first caught Mandarić’s eye at the 2006 World Cup, when Iran faced Portugal in front of a packed crowd in Group D.

Up against Kaebi on Portugal’s left flank was none other than then-Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal ran out 2-0 winners that day with Ronaldo scoring from the penalty spot, but having kept the superstar quiet during 90 minutes of open play, Kaebi left a lasting impression on Mandarić.

So much so that the following year, when Mandarić successfully completed his takeover of Leicester City, he demanded the club sign him.

As recalled recently by Leicester manager at the time Martin Allen when appearing on the Big Strong Leicester Boys podcast, Mandarić said to him: “I’ve got a right-back who marked Ronaldo in front of 70-odd-thousand people. He man-marked Ronaldo out the game. 

“We can sign him for £500,000 and we’ll sell him for £20million, he’s that good.”

Allen had his doubts. Not least over Kaebi’s 5ft 5ins stature, and his ability to defend aerially from set pieces and crosses. But Mandarić insisted and pressed ahead with the deal regardless.

“We were up in a restaurant inside the [Walkers] Stadium,” Allen continued.

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“We were waiting in there, and he [Kaebi] has come in from Heathrow, on his way up to Leicester. We sat around talking bullshit for a few hours, they arrived, walked towards us, and I promise you now, I couldn’t believe how small he was! 

“I put my hand out and said ‘hello’ – he looked over his shoulder and his interpreter translated. So he couldn’t even say hello… absolute zero English.

“He flew in from Iran and signed all the documents that night. Nothing to do with me. We already had loads of right-backs that could’ve done that job, and we signed another one!”

Suffice to say the relationship between manager and chairman deteriorated rapidly after that, with Allen going on to explain the situation. 

“Then I started getting telephone calls saying ‘he’s got to play, we’ve got to get him in the team’. And I just said no, I ain’t playing him, he’s rubbish. He’s useless. Nowhere near good enough for us.

“Then I got more phone calls saying ‘Martin, you’ve got to play him. You’ve got to put him in the team.’ You can imagine what it’s like then as a manager, when you start getting those phone calls. That ain’t for me, I don’t like that.”

The final straw came when Allen point-blank refused to sign forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who Mandarić had personally invited to the club for a medical.

Allen was relieved of his duties just four games into the season, after which things at the club started to spiral.

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Gary Megson replaced Allen in the dugout but only lasted 41 days himself, opting to take a Premier League job with Bolton Wanderers instead.

Ian Holloway was Mandarić’s third roll of the dice, who ended up leading Leicester to relegation that season, consigning The Foxes to England’s third tier, the lowest level they’d competed at in the club’s history.

As for Kaebi, the right-back would make just three appearances that season for Leicester, failing to leave a lasting impression on any of the managers in charge.

Having failed to secure a January move away from the club, both parties agreed to mutually terminate the player’s contract after just seven months, leaving Kaebi as a free agent by February, after only signing for Leicester the summer before.

To rub salt in the wound, Ronaldo would go on to collect his first Ballon d’Or later that same year.

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Kaebi’s career was somewhat nomadic thereafter, with brief spells at no fewer than seven Iranian clubs over the following decade.

He continued to represent Iran at international level until 2010, but having gone from a £20 million prospect to a free agent struggling to find a club within just seven months, Kaebi’s career is a cautionary tale of the ruthless world of professional football.