Iran's Steel Azin FC midfielder, Ali Karimi, has been selected as the world's 11th most popular football player in 2009.

According to Press TV on Sunday, January 31, the 31-year-old Iranian star was selected by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) with 17.905 points.

Steel Azin player, Mahdi Mahdavikia, who only recently left Eintracht Frankfurt to return to Iran, placed 27th with 6.429 points.

Honduran football striker, Carlos Alberto Pavon, who currently plays for Real CD Espana is at the top of the world's list with 195.182 points.

The IFFHS world's top 20 most popular football players for 2009

1. Carlos Alberto Pavon

2. Arda Turan

3. Mohamed Aboutreika

4. Micha' Zew'akow

5. Juan Manuel Vargas

6. Alexandre Raphael Meschini »Alex«

7. Yasser Al-Qahtani

8. Li Jinyu

9. Andrey Arshavin

10. Jose Francisco Cevallos

11. Ali Karimi

12. Antonio Pacheco

13. Alexis Alejandro Sanchez

14. Bryan Ruiz

15. Juan Sebastian Veron

16. Igor Akinfeev

17. Artem V. Milevskiy

18. Dario Srna

19. Dimitar Berbatov

20. Mohammed Noor Adam Hawsawi