Tag: France

Final standing of the FIFA World Cup 2022 is published.

After the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA published the official ranking of all teams.

The four top-ranking were obvious as a result of the matches played to determine ranking Argentina beat France in a penalty shoot-out after a thrilling 3-3 draw in regulation time. In the third-place match, Croatia beat Morocco 2-1.

The rest of the rankings were based on the total matches of all participating teams. The Netherlands was placed fifth ahead of England at 6th.

Iran, which failed to qualify from the group stages for the third time running under the Portuguese coach, Queiroz  was ranked a disappointing 26th

 

The rest of the rankings were calculated based on the group stages results for the teams that failed to qualify from their groups. Iran lies in 26th place below Saudi Arabia and above Costa Rica. The host nation Qatar was the bottom-ranked team after ending its run with 3 defeats and with just 1 goal scored.

 

The heartbreaking ranking of Team Melli, coached by the perpetual failure Carlos Queiroz, will be reflected in the latest FIFA ranking which will be published shortly. Iran will lose its top Asian ranking which will be claimed by Japan after a long time. As the World Cup points are valuable, it is not expected that Iran will regain its top Asian ranking for a long time to come.

Team Melli complexion is changing rapidly.

After the transfer of Sepahan’s and Team Melli Captain Ehsan Hajsafi to AEK Athens, Iran has just five players playing in the domestic Persian Gulf league. That puts Iran among the group of countries whose majority of the national team players play abroad. These countries, including World Cup holder France and FIFA Top ranking team Belgium, have only a few footballers that are based at home.

With the conclusion of the 2020/21 season of the Persian Gulf League in which Persepolis won the title for the fifth time in a row, 3 significant transfers were confirmed. Hossein Kanani from Al Ahli of Qatar from Persepolis, Payam Niazmand to Portimonense of Portugal, and Ehsan Hajsafi to AEK Greece from Sepahan, the last 23-man squad of Team Melli home-based players reduced to five only,

Vahid Amiri,  Milad Sarlak, Ahmad Nourollahi, Mehdi Torabi (all Persepolis), and Mehdi Ghaedi (Esteghlal) are the only players present in the World Cup qualifiers who are based in Iran. As for the latter player, Mehdi Ghaedi, his suitors have increased since his brilliant performance in AFC Champions League. Farhad Majidi announced a while ago, that he will not stop Ghaedi from seeking his fortunes in other pastures to improve his standard, which means the possible transfer of the best current talent in Iranian football to a foreign club.

The full list of Team Melli with 19 players

Team Melli legionnaires also include the following players who were not part of the squad for the return legs of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, who could be possibly invited to the next stage of qualifiers. These 6 players are as follow

In total 25 (83%) players are legionnaires out of 30

It is quite possible that under these circumstances, Iran will probably not have any players from domestic league playing for the country in the national team for several years to come, and there will be no trace of the old superiority and total control of Team Melli squad by the to poles of Iran football, Esteghlal, and Persepolis.

Several years ago, at the time of the decline of the domestic leagues of France and Belgium, all the players of these two powerful national teams were players working outside the domestic leagues. It seems that no player from the Belgian league was in the Red Devils’ starting line-up at Euro 2020 this year, and that was the case in France before the re-emergence of Paris Saint-Germain in France as one of the top teams in Europe.

The standard of Iran’s domestic league has fallen quite badly in the last few years due to several factors. Total government hegemony on clubs, chronic incompetent management, nepotism, poor coaching, politics, lack of resources, favoritism, corruption, and exceptional indiscipline have all resulted in a league that is relegated in the AFC Asian ranking to mid tables.

Iranian clubs have never won the AFC Champions League and the last time a club from Iran won a trophy was back in 1990/91 when Esteghlal won the Asian Club Championship, the predecessor of Champions League.

Cristiano Ronaldo ‘Level with Ali Daei as highest international goalscorer’ –

The Portuguese superstar became the all-time highest goalscorer in Euros when he scored against Hungary on Tuesday…

Cristiano Ronaldo did the star turn for Portugal in their final Euro 2020 Group F game against France, scoring two penalties in a 2-2 draw. Not only did his goals see Portugal head into the Round of 16 but also saw him achieve yet another goalscoring feat.

Ronaldo has become the joint-top scoring men’s international player of all time, with his two goals taking his tally to 109 goals in 176 matches for the national team, putting him at the top of the list of goalscorers on the international stage, level only with Iran’s Ali Daei.

The superstar is in line to create a few more records during the course of the tournament. With Portugal expected to go deep into the tournament, the 36-year-old is expected to break them.

Meanwhile, The Iranian legend Ali Daei reacted to this feat by posting a message on his personal page on social media after Cristiano Ronaldo equaled his national goals record. “Congrats @Cristiano” he said in the message. ” You have achieved what you deserved. You are a true symbol of perseverance and professionalism, and were born to show the world that you are the best.”

Previously, Ali Daei was the world’s top scorer with 109 goals in 149 national games, but now Cristiano Ronaldo has reached Ali Daei’s record with two goals against France. According to ISNA, Ali Daei deleted this post from his page a few minutes after its publication for unknown reasons.

Iranian legionnaires mixed fortune.

2019 has been a difficult year for Team Melli.

There was high hope for the Team to lift the Asian Cup for the first time since 1976. Iran was the favorite for the AFC Asian Cup and reached the semi-final without much difficulty too. Then a moment of madness and breakdown of discipline allowed the Japanese to open the scoring and the rest was a steep uphill struggle for the Team Melli. The match ended in one of the worst defeats of the decade after Japan scored 3 goals. That was also the end of an era as Carlos Queiroz Finally packed his bags for good.

Then came a relatively unknown quality in the form of a Belgian coach who did not last the distance on his last job with the Ivory Coast. Marc Wilmots started brilliantly with a big win in a friendly against Syria and a draw away to South Korea. The real test, however, was the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. It started well against the two weakest teams of the group, but when they faced the first real test, Team Melli failed tactically and lost to Bahrain. There was hope that the second match away to Iraq will yield a better result but like the match against Japan the semi-final of the Asian Cup, the poor tactical discipline of the players and lack of concentration in the last seconds meant another defeat and now the qualification is at perils.

Wilmots left the Job, which he frankly hardly got involved in, and Team Melli is now coachless.

Despite the disappointing Team Melli results, some of the players have been having a good year abroad.

The most delightful of the successes must be that of Al-Shahaniyah Iranian defender, Ramin Rezaeian. Despite his post of a defender, he is one of Qatar’s top five goalscorers by the end of the year.

Rezaian who is on his second season with Al-Shahaniyah is becoming a hot commodity in Qatar Star League (QSL). Rezaian, despite being a defender, has also been among the best players in Qatar. His name in Top Scorers list is among the elite of the league such as  Baghdad Bonajah (19 goals), Akram Afif (17 goals) who are the two top scorers. Rezaeian, Mohammed Montari and Thiago Parisa of Al-Khour are next all on 9 goals.

Interestingly enough, Team Melli center forward, Karim Ansaifard has scored 5 goals only in the same, he plays for  Al -Sailiya.

The Other refreshing performance must go to Kaveh Rezaei who is making real waves in the Belgian league. His disappointment at Brugge last season is all but forgotten as the 27 years old Sporting Charleroi forward has scored an average of a goal in every two matches bagging 8 goals so far this season. His compatriot and teammate Ali Golizadeh also scored 3 goals.

Sardar Azmoun is also having his best season ever and is being sought after by many clubs hoping to lure him out of the Russian League.  Sardar has scored 7 goals in the league so far which is on winter break. He scored 9 all season last term. Zenit is leading the table in Russia.

Another of the legionnaires who exploded on the scene abroad is Mehdi Taremi.  The Team Melli Center forward and Azmoun partner upfront joined the Portuguese club Rio Ave and not only he managed to make a sensational start in the cup competition by scoring 4 goals, his tally so far is 5  goals in 10 games ( a goal every two matches) in the league. Taremi suffered several nagging injuries meantime while in Portugal, but the winter break should keep him fit and ready for another adventure.

Also in Portugal, another Team Melli player has been doing quite well with Desportivo Aves. Mehrdad Mohammadi has been brilliant and scored 5 goals in a team that is struggling near the end of the table.

Alireza Jahanbaksh who is the most expensive Iranian player in history had been having a torrid time since joining Brighton from AZ Alkmaar, but in one week the star player scored two wonderful gaols for his club to take the headlines.

Two very disappointing stories of Team Melli players are those of Saeid Ezatollahi and Samman Ghoddos. The former had a long injury that threatened his career. After a full recovery, he struggled to regain even a fraction of his previous level. He is now warming the bench in AS Eupen, a team in the Belgian league at the bottom of the standing. The 23-year-old Ezatollahi has made one appearance for Eupen this season, while his Team Melli teammate in the same club, Omid Ebrahimi has featured 12 times in the league for AS Eupen.

 

Saman Goddos is a sad story as he is suspended by FIFA for breach of contract. On 29 August 2019, FIFA suspended the  French Ligue 1 side Amiens SC Saman Ghoddos from all football activities for four months plus a €4 million fine for his failure to report to Huesca in the La Liga in accordance with a signed contract.

Saman Ghoddos , a repeat story for Iranian players.

Saman Quddos has been suspended for four months after being sued by Spain’s Huesca club in addition to paying € 5m in damages. The FIFA ruling was due to a preliminary agreement by the Swedish club Ostershunds and Saman Ghoddos for transfer to the Spanish club, but instead of heading to Spain Ghoddos turned up in France to sign for the French side Amiens.

This FIFA rule is reminiscent of the one handed to Mehdi Taremi on September 2017. A Persepolis player at the time , all parties agreed on terms of the contract to transfer to Turkey’s Çaykur Rizespor Club. At that time, Taremi was suspended for four months after unilaterally breaking his contract and returning back to Iran. Taremi’s suspension meant his absence from Team Melli

Persepolis was also banned from two transfer windows. It came at a time when Iran has already qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2018  and its presence at the Russian World Cup was assured. Taremi declined to appeal to CAS for fear of prolonging the proceedings and missing the World Cup all togother.

Carlos Queiroz, the then head coach of Team Melli, commented  “It certainly hurts both Taremi himself and Persepolis club as well as the fans. Even the national team suffers because the player cannot be mentally ready. What we need to do is keep the player mentally and physically fit for the next few months so that he doesn’t have problems with the international games. But what happened in 2017 was a strange and shameful act that is damaging to Iranian football’s reputation and one has to accept responsibility for it.” the Portuguese concluded.

About two years later, Saman Goddos is committing the same act of indiscretion. Ghoddos , of course, has the right to appeal and he might succeed in reducing the ban, although it is quite doubtful. The point that needs emphasis, however, is the lack of professionalism and poor awareness of Iranian players.  It does not take a distinguished person to realize that contracts have to be honored and breaking it is unlawful.  It is not only about the law but also the ethics and integrity of a person involved in a contract.

The lack of success of the many Iranian players in Europe can be summarized in one main phrase, lack of professionalism. That of course entails, ethics, commitments, teamwork, team integration and dedication. Iranian players seemed to be poorly prepared for Europe and the lack of true professional management and advisors has reduced their value and potential to succeed outside Iran. Saman Ghoddos should have known much better as he grew up in the European environment, but!

Marc Wilmots has not yet commented on the Ghoddos suspension.

 

Saeid Ezatolahi finally expected to arrive at Reading

From Rostov to Reading, via Belgium, Uzbekistan and France.

The deal to bring Saeid Ezatolahi to Reading has been far from straightforward, but the Iranian international is set to finally arrive in England this weekend.

The 21-year-old completed his season-long loan move from Russian outfit FC Rostov on August 31, the final day of the summer transfer window.

But he is yet to arrive at Hogwood with all previous stages of the deal completed elsewhere across the globe.

“He hasn’t reported yet,” explained Reading FC boss Paul Clement.

“As we speak (on Thursday afternoon), he is in Paris.

“He was on international duty with Iran and they played Uzbekistan. He played a good, significant amount of the game and he set up the goal, so that’s good.

“He is in Paris to get his visa. Everything is in place now, the visa has been approved and we’re just waiting for it to be collected. Ezatolahi has spent a few days in Paris
“So he’s got to go back to the office to collect it, that’ll probably be on Friday and then he’s free to travel to the UK.”

“We expect him to arrive here either Friday or Saturday. He’ll do some light training on Saturday, on Sunday the players are off and he’ll start fully with everybody on Monday.”

Clement added: “After the World Cup he had some rest time. He did go back to Russia, Rostov for a couple of weeks where he was training and then there has been a period where he hasn’t been there and he’s been back in Iran.

“He lost a little bit of time but fortunately during this period where he was with the national team, clearly he’s been training and he’s already played a game.

“So he might need a bit of time, but I don’t think he’ll need that much. I’ll assess it as soon as I see him.”

Paul Clement insists there are no problems behind the scenes at Reading

The announcement of Ezatolahi’s arrival came as a surprise to many, with the deal accelerated during the final week of the transfer window.

Reading had been chasing Swansea City midfielder Jay Fulton on a permanent deal, but when that fell through they moved to snap up Ezatolahi on loan.

But Clement hopes that could turn into a longer term deal.

“I hope he has a long future here,” said the Reading manager.

“The situation with the deal at the moment is he’s on a loan for the season because when we signed him, it was obviously outside the period where we could do a permanent, so it’s on an initial loan.

Paul Clement is hoping Ezatolahi will be here for longer than one season
“Hopefully he does really well and it’s a long-term thing.

“It was brought to my attention late in the window. We had a week. During that week it was about gathering as much intelligence as possible, speaking to people he had worked with.

“A really complicated deal.”       – Paul Clement

“Fortunately I was able to have a good conversation with Carlos Queiroz (Iran’s national team boss), who spoke really highly of him.

“Then I spoke to the player and got a really good feel about him and we’re really pleased to get it over the line.

“It was a little bit complicated. You’re dealing with Russia, you’ve got the situation where he’s Iranian so you’ve got the visa issues, international clearance and those type of things.

“He had his medical in Belgium at Roeselare because it was difficult to get him here to do the medical because of the visa, but in the end we got it over the line.

“A really complicated deal.”

“We’re looking forward to working with him. I think he’s going to be a good addition to us.”

Opponent watch: Portugal

Having won a first major tournament at Euro 2016, can Cristiano Ronaldo now inspire the Seleccao again?

Portugal stunned Europe in 2016 after winning the European Championships despite rarely looking like potential winners until the semi-final.

Under pragmatic boss Fernando Santos, the Seleccao claimed a first ever major tournament success in France, despite drawing all three group games and managing just one win inside 90 minutes.

Now ranked No.3 in the world by FIFA, a side full full of experience, including Pepe (35), Rui Patricio (30), Joao Moutinho (31), Nani (31) and, of course, all-time record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo (33), will have one final fling at the World Cup.

Santos has shown loyalty to his veterans – and been repaid – while also bringing through younger stars such as Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Raphael Guerreiro and Andre Silva, giving the side a mixture of youth and experience, nous and speed.

“Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany and France are the favourites to win the World Cup,” says the Portugal coach, Fernando Santos, before adding: “Then we have other candidates, who want to get as far as possible, and win the tournament if possible, and Portugal are in this second group.” Santos is cautious, despite winning Euro 2016 but he is looking forward to the World Cup with optimism and does so with good reason: Portugal seem stronger now than a year and a half ago, having added creativity to the defensive organisation that underpinned the 2016 title. Bernardo Silva and André Silva have been important factors in this attacking upgrade and in general the team have more depth. The one area which is perhaps weaker is the defence, where it has been hard to find replacements for Pepe (who will be 35 next summer), José Fonte (34) and Bruno Alves (36).

Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal lifts the European Championship trophy after his side win 1-0 against France
Portugal celebrate their Euro 2016 triumph (Image: Getty)
Portugal boss Fernando Santos (Image: Matthias Hangst)

The big question regards whether Ronaldo can shine on the world stage and light up the major finals with his goalscoring; dumped out at the group stage in 2014, he has a much stronger support cast backing him up this time. Andre Silva has proven an excellent foil also, but has endured a difficult season at AC Milan after a big-money move.

Their opener against Spain offers an early test, but they’ll expect to get past Morocco and Iran, before heading into the knockout stages…a road they proved two years ago that they know how to travel.

 

Form guide

The Seleccao lost their opening World Cup qualifier in Switzerland, but won the following nine – including a must-win decider against the previously unbeaten Swiss – to book their finals spot.

That initial defeat to the Swiss apart, Portugal have lost just one friendly in the past 18 months – 3-2 at home to Sweden last March – while they finished third in the Confederations Cup last summer, having been beaten on penalties by Chile in the semi-final.

 

Star player

Cristiano Ronaldo

As crucial as ever (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Cristiano Ronaldo remains absolutely pivotal to the Seleccao, their biggest star and chief supplier of goals.

He doesn’t run down the flank as much as he did in his youth, and the step-overs are far more infrequent, but there simply isn’t a better big-game goalscorer on the planet.

His relationship with pragmatic coach Fernando Santos remains crucial, and this is, almost certainly, his last chance to win a World Cup.

 

Rising Star

Bernardo Silva

Bernardo Silva celebrates scoring against Arsenal in March (Image: Shaun Botterill)

The former Benfica and Monaco playmaker Bernardo Silva experienced a slow start to his Manchester City career due to injury and the form of Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling, but the fleet-footed star has become increasingly important at the Etihad.

Extremely skillful, clever with his use of the ball and cutting in the final third, the 23-year-old missed out on Euro 2016 due to injury; he’ll be looking to make up for lost time in Russia.

How they qualified Winners of European Group B ahead of Switzerland 

Preferred system 4-4-2

Star player Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

One to watch Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Manager Fernando Santos

Odds 20-1

Head 2 Head

Iran & Portugal met twice. The first meeting in Brazil was 36 years ago in Brazil Centenary tournament. Portugal was one of the best teams in the World at that time with the great Eusebio leading the attack. Iran was the top team in Asia but with an aging golden generation players such as Kalani, Iranpak, Halvaei and Arab.

The next meeting was in the World Cup 2006,where the  two teams have met in the group stage. It was a tough match for both team. Cristiano Ronaldo remains the only survivor from that match. He also scored a goal against Mirzapour. Portugal included two legendary players Luis Figo and Deck in that team.

Portugal had the upper hand in both the matches with 5 goals scored and none conceded.

 

Date Comp. H / A / N Final score Stadium Attendance
17.Jun.2006 FIFA World Cup / Group D N 0 – 2 Waldstadion , Frankfurt 48,000
14.Jun.1972 Brazil Independance Cup N 0 – 3 Santa Cruz Stadium, RECIFE 115,000

Squad for Tunisia and Algeria Match

 

Carlos Queiroz invited 28 players to the national football team in preparation for the two friendly matches against Tunisia and Algeria.

According to ISNA, Iran’s Team Melli, which defeated Sierra Leone last yesterday (Saturday) by a convincing 4-0 result, will continue the preparation for the  friendly matches against Tunisia and Algeria which should me a much more serious affair and will give the coach a pretty good idea about the north african style of football ahead on the opener Word Cup match against Morocco.

The surprise inclusion is the former capt of Team Melli , Masoud Shojaei who has been recalled to the team.

In this list, 6 players who were in the squad for the last game vs. Sierra Leone, have lost their places in the latest squad. Hamed Lak, Mohammad Ansari, Kamal Kamyiabinia, Ahmad Abdollahzadeh, Omid Noroufkan and Ali AliPour were all left put. Among these players, NoorAfkan , the young Esteghl;al player was the best performer in the last match..

The names of the players invited to the national team are as follows:

 

# Player Post Club Country
1 ABEDZADEH, Amir GK C.S. Marítimo Portugal
2 BIRANVAND, Alireza GK Persepolis Iran
3 HOSSEINI, Hossein GK Esteghlal Iran
4 MAZAHERI, Mohammad Rashid GK Zob Ahan Iran
         
5 AGHAEI, Saeed DF Sepahan Iran
6 CHESHMI, Rouzbeh DF Esteghlal Iran
7 GHAFOORI, Vourya DF Esteghlal Iran
8 HOSSEINI, Jalal DF Persepolis Iran
9 KHANZADEH, Mohammadreza DF Padidah Iran
10 MOHAMMADI, Milad DF Terek Grozny Russia
11 MONTAZERI, Pejman DF Esteghlal Iran
12 POURALIGANJI, Morteza DF Al Sadd Qatar
13 REZAEIAN, Ramin DF K.V. Oostende Belgium
         
14 AMIRI, Vahid MF Persepolis Iran
15 EBRAHIMI, Omid MF Esteghlal Iran
16 EZZATOLLAHI, Saeid MF Amkar Perm Russia
17 HAJSAFY, Ehsan MF Panionios FC Greece
18 KARIMI, Ali MF Sepahan Iran
19 SHOJAEI, Masoud MF AEK Athens Greece
20 TORABI, Mehdi MF Saipa Alborz Iran
         
21 ANSARIFARD, Karim FW Olympiacos F.C. Greece
22 AZMOUN, Sardar FW Rubin Kazan Russia
23 GHODDOS, Saman FW Östersunds FK  Sweden
24 GHOLIZADEH, Ali FW Saipa Alborz Iran
25 GHOOCHANNEJAD, Reza FW SC Heerenveen Holland
26 JAHANBAKHSH, AliReza FW AZ Alkmaar  Holland
27 REZAEI, Kaveh FW R. Charleroi Belgium
28 TAREMI, Mehdi FW Al Gharrafah Qatar