Éamon Zayed

Éamon Zayed (أیمن زايد; born 4 October 1983) is a former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He is currently the head coach of Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC in USL League One.

Born in the Republic of Ireland, he represented the Libya national team as a player.

In the 92nd minute of the match Zayed put Persepolis into a 3–2 lead in dramatic style to be the first non-Iranian player to net a hat-trick in the Tehran derby.

He was voted World Player of the Week after the Tehran derby by Goal.com.

He then returned to Ireland after Leicester's relegation from the English Premiership in 2002.

He joined Bray Wanderers and after impressing in the Under-21s, Zayed soon graduated to the senior team making his League of Ireland debut on 18 October 2002 at the Carlisle Grounds.

He scored the fastest hat-trick ever by a Bray Wanderers player against Dundalk in 2003 within a nine-minute spell from the 7th to the 15th minute.

Zayed was the PFAI Young Player of the Year for 2003.

Zayed signed for Crewe Alexandra in February 2004 on loan, but returned to Bray in May without having made a first team appearance at Gresty Road.

He represented the Eircom League Under-21s in a four nations tournament in Scotland in May 2004 and earned his second U-21 international cap against Scotland in May 2004 in Galway.

In October 2004, Zayed became the first Bray player to score four goals in one match, in a 5–3 win over Athone Town.

He again left Bray on loan in August 2005, this time for Aalesunds in Norway.

He made one appearance for the club, coming on as a substitute in a 4–1 defeat by Molde.

Zayed signed for Drogheda United in July 2006 on a two and a half-year full-time contract, and scored on his debut on 7 July.

His first of 5 goals in the Europa League came in a 1–1 draw with IK Start in August 2006.

The following season he scored at A.C. Libertas.

His third Drogheda goal in European competition came against Helsingborgs IF.

He was a key part of the Drogheda team that won their first League of Ireland title in 2007 and finished as their top scorer.

In the midst of great financial uncertainty at Drogheda at the end of the 2008 season, Zayed was released from his contract.

He went on trial at Incheon United in the K-League, but eventually decided to remain in Ireland and moved to Sporting Fingal in January 2009.

He scored twice against his former club Bray in Fingal's 4–2 FAI Cup semi-final victory in October 2009.

He also scored twice against C.S. Marítimo in July 2010 in Sporting Fingal's European debut.

He was released by Sporting Fingal at the end of the 2010 season.

He was set to sign for Al Ahly in the Libyan Premier League, but the transfer was blocked following the introduction of a new rule preventing foreign-born Libyan internationals under the age of 30 from playing in the league.

He joined Derry City in January 2011 on a free transfer, signing a one-year contract.

In his first season at Derry, Zayed finished as the league's top scorer with 23 goals (helping the club to European qualification), and also scored the winner in the Candystripes' League Cup final victory over Cork City.

Zayed gained himself a place in the Premier Division team of the season, and went on to win the PFAI Players' Player of the Year award.

On 23 December 2011, Zayed signed a 6-month contract with Iran Pro League side, Persepolis.

He wore the number 12 shirt.

Zayed gained international fame on 2 February 2012 after scoring a hat-trick in the final ten minutes of the Tehran derby against Esteghlal in a match where Persepolis were one man down and losing 2–0 until the 82nd minute, and which was later referred to as "10 minutes with 10 men" or "10–10–3".

Zayed started his career with Broadford Rovers before moving to St. Joseph's Boys AFC, based in Sallynoggin, Dublin.

While with the club, Zayed was selected at U-16 and U-17 levels for both the Leinster Schoolboys and Dublin teams, and was on the Leinster Schools team at U-17.

In two years at Leicester City, he played for their youth (U-18), U-19 and Reserve sides.

At the end of the 2012 League of Ireland season Zayed is joint twenty fourth in the all-time League of Ireland goalscoring list with 118 league goals

On 2 February 2012, he came on as a substitute in his first appearance, in the Tehran derby with Persepolis being reduced to 10 men and 2–0 behind, he scored in the 82nd minute to make it 2–1 with a right-footed curling shot.

Two minutes later, he headed home an angled cross to level the game.

On 21 March 2012, Zayed scored a second hat-trick against Al-Shabab in AFC Champions League.

This was the first hat-trick a Persepolis player had scored in the AFC Champions League.

Persepolis won the game 6–1.