Tag: Dragan Skočić

Cancelation of Team Melli Training camp.

With the cancellation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers in the Asian regions in March, Team Melli’s match vs Hong Kong and Cambodia is postponed until further notice.

Yesterday, FIFA announced the cancellation of the World Cup qualifiers of April and June, thus canceling Iran’s two games against Hong Kong and Cambodia, as well as Bahrain and Iraq.

This has disrupted Team Melli’s camp in Nowrooz in Tehran and is not expected that the coaches will invite players to the camp. On the other hand, the logistic difficulties of traveling to Iran caused by the restriction of flights by the major airlines means that the legionaries are unable to travel to Iran by air and will not be able to join any camps.

Dragan Skocic has also urged his foreign aides not to come to Iran and continue to monitor legionaries in Europe until a new tournament is announced.

The coaching staff is waiting for the announcement of a new dates of the World Cup qualifiers in Asia to coincide with the schedule of the national team camps. The current situation may also cancel the friendly match between Iran and Oman on June 21.

Bad news all over for Iran’s football.

If you are a die-hard fan of Iranian football, the bad news coming out of Iran is enough to send one into depression.

It seems that since Carlos Queiroz left the country to seek his fortunes in Latin America with the Colombian National team, hardly anything has gone right for Team Melli and Iran’s football in general. It all started with the recruitment of Marc Wilmots, a coach who has been sacked in his last two jobs with the latest appointment lasting only six months with the Ivory Coast. For the first time in decades, Team Melli suffered two consecutive defeats and that was in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

There have been a lot of secret talks and behind the scene negotiation to find a competent and true replacement for the legendary Queiroz. The odds on that were quite low for a lot of reasons. Not only the leading and the renowned coaches were already active coaching teams and thus not available, the second tiers looking for a job, did not put Iran’s Team Melli coaching on the top of their priority. Any potential foreign coach fancied the job but examined Queiroz’s experience in Iran or heard about the pandemonium in the football federation management with several layers of governance making decisions, would have thought twice before indulging in such an adventure.

Not surprisingly there were no quality takers for the job. Is this a Queiroz curse ?!

 Then came the real shock. While the masses were waiting for an Amir Ghalenoei or an Ali Daei to take over the helm, there comes an outsider and takes over the chair. To the utter shock of many, Dragan Skocic, a Croat who was coaching Sanat Naft was announced as Head Coach of Team Melli and assumed responsibility without much fanfare.

While the Croat enthusiastically started his mission by building rapport in preparing for the two upcoming matches, the coronavirus struck and chances of the fans seeing Skocic in action is delayed for at least 3 or 4 months.

Team Melli at least has a leader in Skocis, the football federations do not. The leadership struggles, political interference, influences, and the circus, continues in the head-less FFIRI. Mehdi Taj was forced to resign citing ill-health while the government is looking for an obedient regime stooge to install him as President of the Federation in the upcoming election!

FIFA got hold of these games and finally put its foot down hard on the authorities and the FFIRI itself declaring any elections under the current conditions and rules will not be recognized by FIFA unless the FFIRI amends its statute and rules in compliance with the international football law governance.

Away from Team Melli, Iranian clubs in the AFC Champions league displayed their worst performances and results ever with one solitary win in 8 matches. It was not only the results that were disappointing but the manner of defeats and the amateurish attitudes of the Iranian players with a lack of character and professionalism that hurt the most.

The so-called professional football league devoid of proper competition is full of drama, however, yet nothing like what Sepahan club did when they refused to turn up for the match against Persepolis in their home ground Naghsh Jehan stadium in Esfahan for. These things belong to the fifties and in Europe, such acts may result in relegation to lower divisions, but the FFIRI disciplinary committee like the rest of the federation is as incompetent as the rest of the federation. When it comes to applying strict discipline and punitive measures.

And then there are players who receive a cheque from one club to turn up playing for another club in a league match!

The initial enthusiasm of Iranian legionnaires in Europe all but evaporated with one player after another struggling to make the starting line-up. Even Sardar Azmoun was benched in Zenit last match with Jahanbakhsh remaining a solid benchwarmer in Brighton, Ezattolahi making a rare cameo appearance in a lowly Belgian league club and Taremi losing that initial goalscoring brilliant run of his in the Portuguese league.

Very little good news to report from Iran’s football. Perhaps it needs a real shake-up and severe jolt for it to recover again.

Iranian assistant coach for Skocic is to be named.

The Croatian Head coach of Team Melli will soon identify his Iranian assistant among five candidates.

Dragan Skočić, has taken over the post after the mediocre tenure of the Belgian Marc Wilmots in which Iran’s qualification for the next round of FIFA World Cup 2022 Asian zone qualifiers is under threat

Skocic will soon be supported by an Iranian assistant coach. There are 5 candidates in the pot for the post;

According to the reports, Karim Bagheri, Moharram Navidkia, Sohrab BakhtiariZadeh, Pirouz Ghorbani, and Vahid Hashemian are the most likely candidates for the job as Skocic aide.

Karim Bagheri: (46 Years) Assistant coach to Perspolis in two separate periods under Golamahammadi and Daei. Bagheri has not achieved FIFA Class certification but has the strongest international background as a player with 87 caps and 50 international goals for Team Melli.

Moharram Navidkia: (37 Years) the least experienced of the lot. Very little coaching experience with Sepahan. Navidkia has a complex sulky character that is not well suited for coaching.  As a player, he scored one goal in 25 caps for Iran.

Sohrab BakhtiariZadeh: (42 years) head coach of Naft Masjed Soleiman in 2016, followed by  Iran U-23 assistant coach between 2018–2019. As a player, he scored 4 goals, including the goal against Angola in the FIFA 2006 World Cup in 37 caps for Iran.

Pirouz Ghorbani: (42 years) It is not clear whether Ghorbani has any coaching experience in his CV. The former Esteghlal player who retired from football in 2015 with Saba Qom, has not been officially appointed in any coaching position. He played 6 matches for Team Melli.

Vahid Hashemian:(43 years) Selected as an assistant to Wilmots based on his knowledge of German which both Wilmots and Hashemian speak fluently. Hashemian has attended several training coaches courses in Germany and achieved German certification.  he managed  SV Halstenbek-Rellingen, for one season then  Niendorfer TSV in 2013. Hasmeian went to his old club Hamburger SV in 2017 to work in the Academy then became U17 Team assistant coach from 2017–2018 and finally with Hamburger SV (U21) in 2018 as an assistant coach before working with Wilmots.

It is clear from their experience that none of the Iranian coaches have the proper qualification and experience to be of value to the Team. The only advantage is communication which is itself a two-edged sword.

Skocic monitors Team Melli players in Belgium

Dragan Skocic headed to Europe for a close look at the Iranian legionaries players. The recently appointed head coach of Team Melli will be attending several matches involving the Iranian players.

This trip to Belgium by Skocic follows his attending of matches of Esteghlal and Persepolis matches in Kuwait and the Emirates in the AFC Champions League last week. Belgium is one of the countries with the most Iranian players in its league. Omid Ebrahimi and Saeed Ezzatollahi play for Eupen, Ali Gholizadeh, Younes Delphi and Kaveh Rezaei for Royal Charleroi and Milad Mohammadi for Gent.

On his trip to Belgium, Skocic first met with Saeed Ezzatollahi and Omid Ebrahimi and spoke with Eupen’s technical staff about the two Iranian players’ performances. Ezzatollah has not played for Eupen for a long time while Ebrahim is a fixed starter for the squad.

The Iranian teams competing in the AFC Champions League had a torrid start with only Sepahan managing a win in a total of 8 matches played by all the 4 Iranian teams. Skocic must have been concerned with such a performance especially since some of the Team Melli players have been less than ideal in those matches.

Dragan Skocic’s first Press Conference

The first press conference of the new head coach of the Iranian national football team was held in the presence of the media on Saturday 15th February 2020.

Dragan Skočić, the Croat coach, faced a large group of media personnel, reporters and photographers in a meeting that lasted for more than 100 minutes. Skocic had a happy face and did not seem to be overwhelmed by the large number of reports and the atmosphere. The newly appointed Head Coach of Team Melli answered the questions and posed for the cameras, unwittingly. The Academy Hotel Amphitheater had one of its busiest days in a long time. No one was late, and everyone had made it to the nearby Azadi Stadium on time. Admirably, he accommodated all the reporters and photographers without much complaint.

The reception by media companions was as expected. It was Skocic’s most pressing meeting in Iranian football and now he has to get used to these crowds of reporters. Skocic first began the introductory remarks and responded to the vast majority of questions. At the end of the press conference, the Croat showed to both his backers and opponents that they must believe that Skocic has become the head coach of Team Melli.

Like many of Head Coaches press conferences, this one was mostly predictable. Much of the questions were either routines or had no direct definite answers, on the other hand, Skocic response was either diplomatic or full of positive messages.

Brief Details of the conference will be published separately.

The Croatian Legacy.

Croatian football coach Dragan Skocic (51) has been named Iran’s new coach, the football association announced there.

Rijeka’s Dragan Skocic has replaced Belgian Marco Wilmots on the bench of Iran following two consecutive defeats in qualifying for the FIFA 2022 World Cup against Bahrain (0-1) and Iraq (1-2).

According to the Iranian state news agency IRNA, Skocic has agreed to sign with the Iranian Football Federation until the end of the second round of the FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifications, or by June this year.

Another Croat on Iran bench

Skocic followed in the footsteps of Tomislav Ivic , Stanko Poklepovic , Miroslav Blazevic and Branko Ivankovic , all of whom managed the Iranian football team quite successfully.

“It is certainly an honor to be in the company of other great Croatian coaches. Croats are highly respected in Iran, so I’m really happy that I got the opportunity to be the coach of Iran, a great football nation,” says Skočić in an interview with HRT’s Ivan Dorian Molnar .

Skočić has been working in Iran since 2013 and has led four clubs, Malavan, Foolad, Knooneh be Knooneh and Sanat Naft.

“With three of the four teams I led, I made the greatest successes in their history. I think this was one logical sequence. I came up with something very tangible, and that is the position of the Iranian national team coach,” he added, noting that this is actually his biggest career challenge.

Iran “hunts” Bahrain and Iraq

Iran is currently ranked third in Group C of the second qualifying round with six points from four appearances.

Iraq tops with 11 points from five duels, the second is Bahrain with nine points from five appearances as well, with Hong Kong with five points and Cambodia with one point, and both teams also played five matches each.

The winners of all eight groups and the four best runner-up teams will compete in the third qualifying round.

Anton ‘Toni’ Usnik
Mladen Zganjer

“There will be a battle, the key matches are with Bahrain and Iraq. Both games are played in Tehran in front of a full stadium that seats 100,000 people. We have a lot of looks, I hope we pass the group. The key matches will be against my friend Srecko Katanec (current Iraq coach.). It will be interesting,” Skocic adds, pointing out that expectations are high, that everyone wants Iran to qualify for the FIFA World Cup  2022, and especially after a great performance at the last edition in Russia, where they almost passed the group with Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

Skocic’s assistants will be Mladen Zganjer, former U-21 national team coach and Toni Usnik, who worked at the Slovenian national team headquarters.

Mehdi Ghaedi , the Prince of Persia , a star in the making.

Mehdi Ghaedi, Esthghlal’s winger has been making the headlines for all the good reasons in the last few months.

Only 1.66 m tall, (or short as most will refer to his height) and barely 60 kgs in weight, Ghadei’s built is hardly the physique of a top-level footballer. Yet he has already demonstrated plenty of skills and scored enough goals to make him a star. He is even shorter than Messi who is 1.70 m.

The 21 years old Mehdi Ghaedi was born and raised in the port city of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf. After joining his local club IranJavan Bushehr as a kid. His talent was recognized early and was soon promoted to the full team in which he played in season 2016-17 scoring 10 goals in a total of 29 league games.

Esteghlal Tehran, forever a club with scouts spread all over the country looking for talents, was forewarned about this skillful tiny player that is drawing rings around defenders. He was immediately recruited at the age of 19 and made his debut as a substitute in 2017 against Foolad Khuzestan.

Less than 3 years with Esteghlal, the tiny Ghaedi is becoming a household name in Iranian football. This is the season that transformed the young man into a fearful player with dribbling skills, pace and crossing accuracy of the highest kind.

During the immaculate performance of Esteghlal in the AFC Champions League qualifier against Al Rayyan Club in Doha, Mehdi Ghaedi was the undisputed star. He even out jumped much taller defenders to score a fine heard on the far reach of the goalkeeper.

He has scored 9 goals this season and provided 6 assists in the league plus two goals in the AFC Champions League.

What Ghaedi lacks in physique he compensates in his outstanding dribbling which is in fact helped by his tiny frame. Mehdi Ghaedi is also a controversial player already with many accusing him to be a fall guy. Although he has been awarded yellow cards for easily falling on the ground during tackles, he has been unfairly treated by the Referees even when genuinely fouled upon. With such a tiny built, it seems to be difficult for referees to decide whether his fall to the ground is genuine or not.

He was involved in a fatal car accident a couple of years ago and was lucky to survive after a series of surgical operations.

Although transfermarkt.com , the website that evaluates the price of players, Far from a complete player, half a million Euro, Ghaedi is easily worth several folds value. Ghaedi is a rough diamond who and is destined to be a true star of Iranian football. The rough edges need to be handled by skilled managers and if this player manages his time on and off the field well enough, there is little doubt that he will end up in a European club challenging at the highest level.

Turkish clubs have already made serious inquiries about him, but Esteghlal will not be easily persuaded to let go of this talent at such an early age. The mistake they have done with releasing Majid Hosseini will not be repeated.

For the time being, Esteghlal fans are enjoying the performance of the Prince of Persia who is torturing defenders with his clever dribbles and body shimmy as seen yesterday when he passed 3 Persepolis players right on the touchline to cross for Motahari to score Esteghlal’s goal in the local Derby.

His next destination is Team Melli. Surely Dragan  Skocic has seen enough potential in Ghaedi to select him for the next squad.

Dragan Skočić appointed as Head Coach of Team Melli

The Croat coach Dragan Skočić has been appointed as the new head coach of Team Melli on Thursday.

The 51 years old Croatian has just resigned from his post as head coach of Persian Gulf League club Sanat Naft after a long dispute with the Abadani club for their failure to respect the contract and failure to provide proper support for the team.

A day after Dragan Skočić announced his departure from Sanat Naft Abadan, he was appointed as Team Melli head coach.

Skočić first arrived in Iran in 2013 where he coached Malavan Anzali where he could not have much success with the team. Next season he was recruited by Foolad Khuzestan where he remained for two seasons and managed to improve the results of the team but still could not win them any trophies. He left Iran in 2016.

In 2018 Skočić turned up again in Iran where he took over the coached of Azadegan league side Khooneh be Khooneh. A season later 2019 he was coaching  Sanat Naft Abadan in July before he resigned his post on 4th February 2020.

Zlatko Kranjcar with Dragan Skocic in a league match encounter
Zlatko Kranjcar (left) with Dragan Skocic (Right) in a league match encounter

During his long managerial career, in Croatia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, Skočić managed only a single achievement with his home club Rijeka, winning the Croatian Cup for the 2005–06 season.

Team Melli is the first National Team coaching experience of Dragan Skočić