Team Melli will play complete its FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 schedule by playing a double-header against South Korea and Lebanon on March 24th and 29th respectively. With a day before flying to Seoul on a chartered plane. the squad for the two matches was announced. Iran has qualified for the finals in Qatar and will be battling the Koreans for a top-of-the-table finish and more importantly a significant addition of points in FIFA ranking. The draw in June will seed countries for the Finals based on total points in FIFA Ranking.
Dragan Skočić has announced the list of players invited to the national team camp. The Croat coach is desperate to keep his immaculate, near-perfect record with Team Melli after over two years from his appointment replacing the perpetual failure Marc Wilmots.
The names of the invited players:
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- Goalkeepers:
- Alireza Biranvand
- Amir Abedzadeh
- Hossein Hosseini
- Defenders:
- Sadegh Moharremi
- Hossein Kananizadegan
- Shoja’a Khalilzadeh
- Majid Hosseini
- Omid Nourafkan
- Milad Mohammadi
- Daniel Ismaelifar
- Farshad Faraji
- Aref Gholami
- Midfielders:
- Saeed Ezatollahi
- Kamal Kamiyabinia
- Mehdi Mehdipour
- Amirhossein Hassanzadeh
- Milad Sarlak
- Ehsan Haj Safi
- Vahid Amiri
- Mehdi Torabi
- Ahmad Noorollahi
- Saman Ghoddos
- Ali Gholizadeh
- Forwards:
- Mehdi Taremi
- Alireza Jahanbakhsh
- Sardar Azmoun
- Karim Ansarifard
- Allahyar Sayadmanesh
Two players Saeed Ezatollahi and Sadegh Moharremi are suspended for the Korea Rep match with an accumulation of two cards, while Hossein Kananizadegan is surprisingly included in the list despite being sanctioned by the disciplinary committee!!
The absentees from the last squad are Mehdi Ghaedi, Kaveh Rezaei, Payam Niazmand, and Shahab Zahedi.
New players are :
Daniel Ismaelifar: Sepahan – Midfiled – Born: February 26, 1993 (age 29 years)
Farshad Faraji: Persepolis – Central Defender- Born: April 7, 1994 (age 27)
Aref Gholami: Esteghlal – Midfielder- Born: 19 April 1997 (age 24)
Kamal Kamiyabinia: Persepolis – Defensive Midfielder- Born: 18 January 1989 (age 33)
Mehdi Mehdipour : Esteghlal – Attacking Midfielder – Born: February 18, 1994 (age 28)
Amirhossein Hassanzadeh: Esteghlal – Attacking Midfielder – Born: October 30, 2000 (age 21)