Majidi, Nekounam back in Team Melli

AFC - Iran coach Carlos Queiroz has called up Farhad Majidi back to the squad for Team Melli’s opening match against Indonesia in the third qualifying round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup on September 2.


This is the first time Majidi, who has 43 caps and scored 10 goals, has been recalled to the team since last year.

Also back in the team is Osasuna playmaker Javad Nekounam, who missed out the second leg of the qualifiers against Maldives. Nekounam’s injured team mate Masoud Shojaei, however, doesn’t figure in the list.

Queiroz will be hoping for a winning start when his men clash with Indonesia at the Azadi Stadium. The other teams in their group are Qatar and Bahrain.

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Mehdi Rahmati, Shahab Gordan, Alireza Haghighi
Defenders: Khosro Heydari, Mehrdad Pouladi, Jalal Hosseini, Hadi Aghily, Ehsan Hajsafi, Hossein Mahini, Hanif Omranzadeh
Midfielders: Andranik Teymourian, Ali Karimi, Mojtaba Jabbari, Ghasem Hadadifar, Milad Zenyedpour , Maziar Zare, Javad Nekounam, Mohammad Ghazi
Strikers: Karim Ansarifard, Arash Afshin, Saeid Daghighi, Gholam-Reza Rezaei, Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari, Farhad Majidi