The Mizan news agency of the Iranian judiciary confirmed that Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri was under arrest but said he had been detained after seeking to illegally cross the border.

Mazaheri won a handful of caps for his country and was in the Iranian squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but spent most of his international career in the shadow of Iran's undisputed number one goalie in the last years, Alireza Beiranvand.

The player, who also kept goal for top domestic teams, had in February published a since-deleted Instagram post in which he described longstanding supreme leader Khamenei as "only a dark and passing chapter" in Iran's history.

The post came after January mass protests but before the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran, in which Ali Khamenei was killed in on the first day.

The Persian-language news site IranWire, which is based outside Iran, said Mazaheri's home had been raided on February 25.

His wife Maryam Abdollahi wrote on Instagram on Tuesday that her husband was now being held "in very harsh solitary confinement" in Urmia in northwestern Iran.

"Rashid always stood up for what he believed was right, and now he is paying the price for that courage with imprisonment in solitary confinement," she said.

Mizan on Wednesday reported he was being held in a "general prison ward", without saying where.

It said Mazaheri was arrested "after attempting to leave the country illegally through Iran's western borders by altering his appearance and bribing border officers".

The football scene in Iran is under intense scrutiny, with the Iranian men's team due to play in the World Cup in the United States in June.

Iranian authorities earlier this month announced the seizure of assets linked to the former captain of the national football team, Ali Karimi, who now lives in exile and is a vehement critic of the Islamic republic.

Voria Ghafouri, a former national team player, was arrested during anti-government protests in 2022 during the last World Cup in Qatar. A member of Iran's Kurdish minority, he had bitterly condemned a crackdown on protesters.