The reaction generally to Zayed’s hat-trick reveals more about people's patronizing attitude to the LOI than anything else in my opinion.
Are people amazed that a guy from the LOI can score goals in front of 90,000 people??
He’s had a good goal to game ratio since he made his debut in the LOI, who’s to say the standard in the LOI isn’t a lot higher than in the Iranian league??
The major difference would appear to be Iranians follow their local league. I long for the days that a Dublin derby would get even 15,000 at it again.