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GOAL - Today Ali Daei
announced his first squad as coach of the Iranian national team.
The former international striker has named a preliminary squad of 30 ahead
of Iran's March 26 World Cup qualifier against Kuwait on Kuwait City.
This was the second significant move that the newly appointed coach has made
this week.
Daei approached Malavan FC head coach Mohammad Ahmadzadeh and former Iran
goalkeeper Behzad Gholampour for assistant and goalkeeping coach positions
respectively.
A quick look at some of the players called up by Daei may give an insight to
the thinking of the former Team Melli star who last weekend promised to
select the fittest players “whether they were fifteen or forty five!”
Having coached Saipa FC for the last two years, it is comes as no surprise
that Daei has invited five of his players to the squad.
The Iranian Pro League’s leading club, Persepolis FC of Tehran, has six
members in the squad and the highest number of representatives on the
roster.
Goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati secured his position in Team Melli when he almost
single handedly saved Iran from losing to Syria in their opening qualifying
match in February.
Thanks to his late heroics Iran salvaged a point out of that game.
Persepolis FC’s Hassan Roudbarian is another goalkeeper invited by Daei.
Roudbarian has always been outspoken about his desire to be a part of Team
Melli. His super performance against Fajr Sepasi of Shiraz last week almost
guaranteed his place on the roster. His selection was at expense of Mehdi
Vaezi, the other Persepolis goalkeeper, who had been called up in the past
and performed well when his services were needed.
A curious pick, however, was Saipa goalkeeper Misagh Memarzadeh who has been
inconsistent and, at times, shown lack of discipline and proper attitude.
Pejman Nouri the hard working Perspolis defender is an interesting call.
Watching his tireless nonstop runs up and down the field at left back makes
one wonder how successful he would have been as a long-distance runner.
Daei did not forget his former European and Persian Gulf-based teammates and
invited seven of them, including Ali Karimi, Iman Mobali, and Vahid
Hashemian.
All three were rumored to have had problems with Daei during his playing
time but the new coach is looking to demonstrate that he is looking beyond
past differences.
Two of the promising young players invited by Daei are the two Milads; Milad
Maydavoudi and Milad Zanidpour, both of whom may play an important role in
the future of Iran’s team.
As a first step, Daei's squad shows that he is keeping true to his promise
that he intends to select a healthy mix and youth and experience forget old
grudges.
Squad: 1-Mehdi Rahmati (Mes kerman) 2-Hassan Roudbarian (Persepolis Tehran)
3-Misagh Memarzadeh (Saipa Karaj) 4-Jalal Hosseini (Saipa Karaj) 5-Hadi
Aghili (Sepahan Esfahan) 6-Amir-Hossein Sadeghi (Esteghlal Tehran) 7-Hanif
Omranzadeh (Pas Hamedan) 8-Mohsen Bengar(Sepahan Esfahan) 9-Hossein Kaebi (Persepolis
Tehran) 10-Majeed Gholamnejad (Saipa Karaj) 11-Pejman Noori (Persepolis
Tehran) 12-Sattar Zare (Bargh Shiraz) 13-Seyd Hashem Beikzadeh (Sepasi
Shiraz) 14-Andranik Teymourian (Bolton) 15-Ebrahim Sadeghi (Saipa Karaj)
16-Abbas Aghaei (Persepolis Tehran) 17-Iman Mobali (Al_Shabab ) 18-Milad
Meydavoodi (Al_Ahali) 19-Reza Khaleghifard (Sepasi Shiraz) 20-Vahid Amraei (Zob
Ahan Esfahan) 21-Alireza Vahdi Nikbakht (Persepolis Tehran) 22-Milad
Zandipour (Saipa Karaj) 23-Mehrzad Madanchi (Al_Shabab) 24-Ali Karimi (Al_Ghatar)
25-Mojtaba Jabbari (Esteghlal Tehran) 26-Masoud Shojaei (Al_Sharjeh)
27-Vahid Hashemian (Hannover 96 ) 28-Mohsen Khalili (Persepolis Tehran)
29-Alireza Abbasfard (Saba Battery) 30-Maziar Zare (Malavan Anzali)
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