Tag: Mehdi Mahadivikia

Omid Team called for Islamic Solidarity Games 2022

The Football federation announced the name of 26 players invited to join the Omid Team camp in preparation for The Islamic Solidarity Games football competition in Turkey. The team will be led by coach Mehdi Mahdavikia who has arranged two friendly games before departure for the games. Omid team's last outing in the AFC U23 Asian Championship was rather disappointing as the team did not manage to qualify from the group stage and departed home early. In the last decade, Omid team under various coaches failed in every competition that has been played including the Olympic Qualifiers.   The invited players' list
  1. Ali Pilaram (South Pars)
  2. Alireza Khodaei (Persepolis)
  3. Ali Asghar SadeghNasab (Mes Rafsanjan)
  4. Amir Ali Sadeghi (Esteghlal)
  5. Amir Jafari Siglani (Gol Gohar Sirjan)
  6. Amir Mohammad MohkamKar (Sepahan)
  7. Arya Barzegar (Tractor)
  8. Arya Yousefi (Sepahan)
  9. Bilal Arazi (Gol Gohar Sirjan)
  10. Erfan Shahriari Khalaji,
  11. Fardin Rabet
  12. Mehdi Hashemnejad (Tractor)
  13. Mohammad Ghorbani (Nasiji Mazandaran)
  14. Mohammad Hossein Alipour (Mes Shar Babak) 
  15. Mohammad Hossein Eslami (Zob Ahan)
  16. Mohammad Javadkia (Aluminium Arak)
  17. Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi (Persepolis)
  18. Mohammad Amin Hezbavi (Foolad Khuzestan)
  19. Milad Kerr (Tractor)
  20. Payam Parsa (Sanat Naft Abadan)
  21. Saman Falah (Peykan)
  22. Saman Tooranian (Mes Kerman)
  23. Sina SaeediFar (Esteghlal)
  24. Sina Abdollahei (Naft Masjed Soleiman)
  25. Yasin Salmani (Sepahan)
  26. Younis Akbarpour (Aluminium Arak)

The Lethal Weapon : JAHANBAKHSH

This has been a landmark week for Asian and Middle Eastern football in Europe. While the whole world focused on the US pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, in Holland, another Iranian "lethal weapon" was making headlines. On Sunday, Alireza Jahanbakhsh - the Iranian winger of AZ Alkmaar - scored a hat-trick in his team's 6-0 victory over FC Zwolle on the final matchday of the Dutch Eredivise season. Aside the fact that it was Jahanbakhsh's second hat-trick in his past three matches, these three goals left him as the top goal-scorer in Holland. The 24-year-old has scored 21 goals, made 12 assists, completed 78 key passes and 111 successful dribbles in 2017/2018 - in what has arguably been the best ever season for an Iranian footballer in Europe. Jahanbakhsh becomes the first Asian player to become top scorer in a major European league. No other famous Iranian footballer - including Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahadivikia or Ali Karimi - had such a statistical feat in one European season, hinting that the young Jirandeh-born striker might be on his way to becoming one of the greatest Iranian footballers of all time.

Carlos Queiroz and his Iranian national team will now get a top forward in top form for the World Cup, and Jahanbakhsh has been linked with few notable clubs in Europe - with Italian side Napoli reported to be the favourite to add the young starlet to their squad. Jahanbakhsh is part of a wider range of talented Iranian prospects that have made their mark in European teams in the past season. Karim Ansarifard of Olympiakos in Greece notched up 17 goals this season; Heerenveen's Reza Ghoochannejhad scored 10 for the Dutch club; Kaveh Rezaei contributed 16 goals for Charleroi in Belgium; and Saman Ghoddos - who was a key figure in Ostersunds' Europa League run - finished with nine goals and five assists for the Swedish side.

With the return of Masoud Shojaei to the Iran squad, even if not in an active role on the pitch, and Sardar Azmoun - who will play at his club town of Kazan against Spain - the Iranians have a few fantastic reasons to be optimistic for the forthcoming summer in Russia.