TEHRAN, The coaching staff of Team Melli headed by Carlos Queiroz announced the 26-man squad as part of the team preparation for the the Asian Cup qualifier versus Lebanon on February 6.
As expected abd despite the excitement of including yet another European based Iranian player , this time by the name of Daniel Davari , the Eintracht Braunschweig did not make the list due to the proximity of the match with an importance Bundesliga II meet a couple of days after the Lebanon match.
Mojtaba Jabbari, is recalled to the team after a long absence. The Esteghlal player has suffered a long term injury and is short of match practice , however , he showed that he is one of the best players for Iran during the last two league matches that he featured.
Major players missing are , Ali Karimi and Omid Nazari due to injury added to that the recently joined Perspolis midfielder Reza Haghighi.
The biggest loser of the list is Perspolis. Karim Ansarifard and Mohammad Ghazi are not among those as they complete the prominent absentee list of Persepolis players.
There is a recall for two senior players Gholamreza Rezaei and Hadi Aghili . The former due to a combination of injury and loss of form missed quite a number of Team Melli games while Aghili’s absent was a mystery as he was playing well for his Qatari club. Esteghlal target man Farzad Hatami could celebrate his national team debut.
The camp will start on Friday at the national teams hotel in Azadi complex.
The Squad
Goalkeepers
Rahman AHMADI – Saipa (32 years) – 2 Caps
Alireza HAGHIGHI – Rubin Kazan, RUS (24 years) – 3 Caps
Shehab GORDAN – Sepahan (28 years) – 3 Caps
Defenders
Mehrdad POOLADI – Persepolis (25 years) – 15 Caps
Ehsan HAJSAFY– Sepahan (22 years) – 49 Caps
Khosrow HEYDARI– Esteghlal (29 years) – 40 Caps
Hossein MAHINI– Persepolis (26 years) – 16 Caps
Jalal HOSSEINI – Persepolis (30 years) – 75 Caps
Pejman MONTAZERI – Esteghlal (29 years) – 11 Caps
Mohammad NOSRATI – Tractor Sazi (31 years) – 80 Caps
Hadi AGHILI – Qatar SC, QAT (32 years) – 69 Caps
Midfielders
Javad NEKOUNAM – Esteghlal (32 years)- 130 Caps
Andranik TEYMOURIAN – Al Kharitiyath, QAT (29 years) – 69 Caps
Omid EBRAHIMI – Sepahan (25 years) – 3 Caps
Mojtaba JABBARI – Esteghlal (29 years) – 22 Caps
Pejman NOURI – Malavan (32 years)- 45 Caps
Yaghoub KARIMI – Naft Tehran (22 years) – 4 Caps
Masoud SHOJAEI – Osasuna, ESP (28 years) – 40 Caps
Strikers
Ashkan DEJAGAH – Fulham FC, ENG (26 years) – 5 Caps
MohamadReza KHALATBARY – Sepahan (29 years) – 52 Caps
Gholamreza REZAEI – Persepolis (28 years) – 46 Caps
Arash AFSHIN – Foolad Khuzestan (23 years) – 4 Caps
Reza GHOOCHANEJAD – Standard Liege, BEL (25 years) – 2 Caps
Jalal RAFKHAEI – Malavan (28 years) – 10 Caps
Mehrdad OULADI – Malavan (27 years) -11 Caps
Farzad Hatami – Esteghlal (27 years) – 0 Caps