In the video, the captain of the Iranian team tells the details of his escape from the “ambush” of the armed gang.

Iran’s national team captain Ali Reza Jahanbakhsh has recounted the details of a strange confrontation with an armed gang in Mexico that almost turned into a crisis when his identity did not turn the situation upside down and end the impasse.

Jahanbakhsh did not expect his Iranian identity to be his “survival card” during another tourist trip in Mexico, a few months before the start of the 2026 World Cup.

And he visited Captain of the Iranian national team The tourist district of Tulum, where he came face to face with the armed group, before the scene suddenly changed.

Jahanbakhsh said in a widely circulated video that he was with a friend when several masked men, whom he described as “drug dealers”, blocked their path and demanded a search at gunpoint, in what at first appeared to be a dangerous situation.

He told the details of what happened. “We didn’t really have anything. I was traveling from Holland and one of the gang members asked me where are you from? I said, from the Netherlands. Then my friend said: Tell Ira. When the gangster searched my friend who said Ira, the man laughed and said Ira, let’s go.

The captain of the Iranian national team jokingly added that the reaction of the militants completely changed after hearing about his nationality, saying: “It seems that Mexican gangs are very fond of Iranians.”

The incident comes as Iran’s national team prepares to compete in the World Cup finals for the seventh time in its history, having previously competed in 1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, 2018 and 2022, having so far failed to make it past the group stage.

The draw for the 2026 World Cup placed Iran in Group 7 along with New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt. The team will play its first matches in Los Angeles before traveling to Seattle next June 15-26 to face Egypt.

The Iranian Federation originally planned to base its camp in the US state of Arizona, but was forced to change its destination to the Mexican border city of Tijuana due to US restrictions and visa issues the mission faced.

Under the new plan, the team will travel to the United States for each match and return to its headquarters in Mexico after the match.