FFIRI’s announced the list of 23 players selected for the International friendship tournament in Doha, Qatar.

Nearly half of the team members who played for the U23 team in the Asian Games have been dropped for this tournament including famous players such as Kaveh Rezaei , Mehdi Sharifi, Mohsen Mosallman, Morteza Pouraliganji , Shahriyar Shirvand , Yaghoub Karimi and  MohamadReza Khanzadeh. The performance of these players were quite appalling particularly in the humiliating defeat against Vietnam resulting in Iran not even qualifying from a 3 team group in Asian Games. MohamadReza Khanzadeh added insult to injury by being red carded after he pushed a Vietnamese player to the ground and escaped heavy sanction by AFC due to this disgraceful act.

Many new faces have been selected  for the squad from diverse places.  A young promising player like Darvishi who was born in Minab on the Persian Gulf shores made the list as well as unknown or unheard of names such as MohammadHossein PourAghaMalaki. As usual in the last few years , neither Persepolis nor Esteghlal provided any players for the Omid team (U23). The team will assemble in Tehran Azadi complex where they will be undergoing light training without the head coach Vingada. The Portuguese coach of the Olympic Team is out of the country and unable to return fearing being arrested for tax evasion. This is yet another anomaly of Iranian football.

It is not clear who will take charge of the training, although Mohammad Khakpour and Mehdi Tartar have been named as assistant coaches to Nelo Vingada. Habib Kashani , the ex-CEO of Persepolis club is currently the Team Manager.

List of Iran U-23 Squad

November 2014