He played over half of his professional career for Persepolis in the Persian Gulf Pro League.

He was discovered by manager Vasile Godja and began his football playing for his hometown club Tractor where he impressed enough to land himself a contract with Keshavarz.

Numerous impressive displays ended up in Bagheri attracting attention from many European clubs and on 1 August 1997, a year after he signed a contract with Persepolis, Bagheri signed with Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld along with his fellow Iranian international Ali Daei.

In his second season, he established himself as a starter playing in the libero position, helping the team make it back to the Bundesliga.

At that time English clubs were interested in Bagheri and Charlton Athletic of the Premiership quickly signed him for an initial fee of £400,000.

"I've noticed he is scoring regularly for Iran and whoever picks him up at set pieces on Saturday must be alert while he times his runs from midfield very well.

In September 2006, many thought he had been released from the team after arguments with management and staff over the club's financial commitments and unpaid wages.

[5] Bagheri was first called up to the Iran national team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, making his debut versus Pakistan on 6 June 1993.

Overall, he scored 19 goals during the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, making him the top goalscorer from all six continental confederations.

Their joint record was broken on 11 April 2001 when another Australian, Archie Thompson scored 13 goals against American Samoa.

[8][failed verification] Bagheri retired from the national team with 80 caps and 47 goals for the Iran national team after Iran's unsuccessful FIFA World Cup 2002 qualification campaign which ended with an aggregate defeat to Republic of Ireland in November 2001.

He was called up to the national team again soon after World Cup 2006, but said he would not participate as he is retired from international football and has no plans on returning to it.

He played few important matches for Team Melli in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against UAE and South Korea.

He was invited again by Afshin Ghotbi but he stated in Navad that he only returned to the Iran national team because of Daei and would not participate in any more matches.