Iran's ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has some hot takes on NCAA basketball

(Image credit: Mustafa Ozer/Getty Images)

published 4 March 2019

Some might call Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a Holocaust denier. He prefers the term "student athlete."

The former leader of Iran has spent his post-presidential years on (what else?) Twitter, and it's not too surprising that he used it to share unsolicited advice for the U.S. government. What's a little more confusing are his sports opinions — most recently a Monday tweet calling for college athletes to be paid.

While the ex-president — or should we say "soccer player," as his Twitter bio touts — doesn't seem to have a reason for this unprompted tweet, it's far from his first out-of-the-blue sports take. Ahmadinejad defended Serena Williams after the French Open banned her catsuit and shared a string of predictions during football season. He's even mixed the personal with the political in calling for President Trump to "love all" athletes, even those who call him a "bum."

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.