TEHRAN – Portugal’s
Primeira Liga has praised Iranian professional footballer Mehdi Taremi, who plays as a striker for Porto and Iran’s national team, for exhibiting a splendid display of skills in matches despite observing the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
“During the day, the rules of Ramadan are followed; whilst hunger is satisfied at night with goals. Mehdi Taremi was unstoppable and scored a hat trick for the Dragon (nickname for Porto) to cheer,” it wrote in a post published on its official Twitter page on Sunday.
Porto thrashed Portimonense 7-0 on Saturday at home, and provisionally increased their lead over champions Sporting Lisbon from six to nine points, in a match on the 30th round of the Portuguese football league.
Taremi scored a hat trick at 20, 34 and 47 minutes – the second from a penalty. Serbian midfielder Marko Grujić hit the ball into the net at 28, and Brazilian partner Evanilson bagged a brace at 40 and 60 minutes. Pepe also scored for Sérgio Conceição’s squad at 55.
Tito Arantes Fontes, president of Grupo Stromp, could not swallow the brilliant performance of the professional Iranian football player as he published a text on Sporting’s official website tinged with racist tropes about Taremi.
The statements drew strong condemnations hours later and were slammed as xenophobic.
“In light of a recent article by Sporting Lisbon, we would like to hereby show our full support to Mehdi Taremi who is being subjected to racism and xenophobia. We condemn the use of such language by a club which claims to purvey “sporting” values — @Sporting_CP should apologize,” the Persian Gulf Pro League, which

is the highest division of professional football in Iran, tweeted.
Iranian Ambassador to Portugal Morteza Damanpak Jami also denounced the racist attack against Taremi.
“The trick of the #Persian man is not in the circus, it’s a hat- trick in the match! It is the real act of a “Prince of Persia” who comes with goals!” he wrote in a tweet.