Daei Names First Preliminary Squad

GOAL - Today Ali Daei announced his first squad as coach of the Iranian national team.

The former international striker has named a preliminary squad of 30 ahead of Iran's March 26 World Cup qualifier against Kuwait on Kuwait City.

This was the second significant move that the newly appointed coach has made this week.

Daei approached Malavan FC head coach Mohammad Ahmadzadeh and former Iran goalkeeper Behzad Gholampour for assistant and goalkeeping coach positions respectively.

A quick look at some of the players called up by Daei may give an insight to the thinking of the former Team Melli star who last weekend promised to select the fittest players “whether they were fifteen or forty five!”

Having coached Saipa FC for the last two years, it is comes as no surprise that Daei has invited five of his players to the squad.

The Iranian Pro League’s leading club, Persepolis FC of Tehran, has six members in the squad and the highest number of representatives on the roster.

Goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati secured his position in Team Melli when he almost single handedly saved Iran from losing to Syria in their opening qualifying match in February.

Thanks to his late heroics Iran salvaged a point out of that game. Persepolis FC’s Hassan Roudbarian is another goalkeeper invited by Daei. Roudbarian has always been outspoken about his desire to be a part of Team Melli. His super performance against Fajr Sepasi of Shiraz last week almost guaranteed his place on the roster. His selection was at expense of Mehdi Vaezi, the other Persepolis goalkeeper, who had been called up in the past and performed well when his services were needed.

A curious pick, however, was Saipa goalkeeper Misagh Memarzadeh who has been inconsistent and, at times, shown lack of discipline and proper attitude.

Pejman Nouri the hard working Perspolis defender is an interesting call. Watching his tireless nonstop runs up and down the field at left back makes one wonder how successful he would have been as a long-distance runner.

Daei did not forget his former European and Persian Gulf-based teammates and invited seven of them, including Ali Karimi, Iman Mobali, and Vahid Hashemian.

All three were rumored to have had problems with Daei during his playing time but the new coach is looking to demonstrate that he is looking beyond past differences.

Two of the promising young players invited by Daei are the two Milads; Milad Maydavoudi and Milad Zanidpour, both of whom may play an important role in the future of Iran’s team.

As a first step, Daei's squad shows that he is keeping true to his promise that he intends to select a healthy mix and youth and experience forget old grudges.

Squad: 1-Mehdi Rahmati (Mes kerman) 2-Hassan Roudbarian (Persepolis Tehran) 3-Misagh Memarzadeh (Saipa Karaj) 4-Jalal Hosseini (Saipa Karaj) 5-Hadi Aghili (Sepahan Esfahan) 6-Amir-Hossein Sadeghi (Esteghlal Tehran) 7-Hanif Omranzadeh (Pas Hamedan) 8-Mohsen Bengar(Sepahan Esfahan) 9-Hossein Kaebi (Persepolis Tehran) 10-Majeed Gholamnejad (Saipa Karaj) 11-Pejman Noori (Persepolis Tehran) 12-Sattar Zare (Bargh Shiraz) 13-Seyd Hashem Beikzadeh (Sepasi Shiraz) 14-Andranik Teymourian (Bolton) 15-Ebrahim Sadeghi (Saipa Karaj) 16-Abbas Aghaei (Persepolis Tehran) 17-Iman Mobali (Al_Shabab ) 18-Milad Meydavoodi (Al_Ahali) 19-Reza Khaleghifard (Sepasi Shiraz) 20-Vahid Amraei (Zob Ahan Esfahan) 21-Alireza Vahdi Nikbakht (Persepolis Tehran) 22-Milad Zandipour (Saipa Karaj) 23-Mehrzad Madanchi (Al_Shabab) 24-Ali Karimi (Al_Ghatar) 25-Mojtaba Jabbari (Esteghlal Tehran) 26-Masoud Shojaei (Al_Sharjeh) 27-Vahid Hashemian (Hannover 96 ) 28-Mohsen Khalili (Persepolis Tehran) 29-Alireza Abbasfard (Saba Battery) 30-Maziar Zare (Malavan Anzali)