Tag: Players

Masoud Shojaei joins QSL club Al-Shahaniya SC

Masoud Shojaei signed with Al Shahaniya club the newest member of Qatar Star League for one season. The ceremony was held in the club's HQ in Doha on Thursday. After claiming that he has offers from several Spanish and Greek clubs, Shaojae , turned up in Doha to sign for the newly promoted club. AL Shahaniya formerly know as Al Nasr, has spent the majority of its existence in the second division in Qatar. Las Palmas , in the segunda Division of the Spanish league was the last team that Masoud played for after his contract with Osasuna expired.  

Mehrdad Pooladi , from the EPL to La Liga and now Qatar !

Mehrdad Pooladi was the top Iranian player in the World Cup. This is not just some wise guys opinion, but based on actual data, statistics and figures from each player's performance that FIFA has introduced. He was solid in left back and was one of the reasons that the defense of Team Melli held tight, until the Bosnia match that is.

 Right after the World Cup conclusion, the rumor mills were talking about the English Premiere league as the next destination of the Persepolis left back. Then there was a mention of La Liga while Osasuna was also cited in the midst of clubs that have been chasing Pooladi. The player himself confirmed to the media that he has two offers from European clubs. He was in the process of choosing the best deal and naming the club soon. Suddenly however, it was the good old Qatar Star League  (QSL) that seems to be the destination of the best Iranian player in the World Cup. We are not sure whether Pooladi has got his bearing right.  

Like nearly half of the starting lineup of Team Melli , Pooladi is heading towards the hot temperatures of Doha to join a Qatari first division club. But unlike Jabbari , Dejagah , Montazeri and  Hosseini who are playing for higher ranked teams and title contenders, Pooladi is joining a newly promoted team , Al Shahania. The modest club has just gained promotion and working on a tight budget, relatively speaking. Al Shahania’s mission for the coming season is to maintain their place in First Division and perhaps cause a few upsets in the cup.

The deal has not been officially announced yet as Pooladi will be flying to Doha on Friday to complete the formalities. Qatar league has yet to start. Meanwhile Persepolis has been complaining about Pooladi’s absence from the squad, but the player said that he is not a Persepolis player anymore,  he is a free agent and out of contract. He does not quite understand why Persepolis is talking about absence.

So, the chapter of the most famous and Marquee players of Team Melli and their transfers to the grand arenas of Europe is just about close. There has been rumors of Karim Ansarifard going to the Spanish league, but frankly we have heard so much of these false grand plans, that we will not dignify the pages of teammelli.com with such stories until it actually happens.

Meanwhile, another Team Melli player Reza Haghighi is still persisting with Persepolis for a release so that he can be close to his Team Melli teammates in Qatar.

Al Arabi close to signing Ashkan Dejagah

he latest one is for Iranian-German winger Ashkan Dejagah who had a great performance in World Cup especially against Argentina.
 
Fulham have received a £5 million bid for Ashkan Dejagah from Qatari side Al-Arabi. Dejagah, voted as Fulham’s player of the year by fans, should play in the Championship following the London club’s relegation.
 
Former Wolfsburg playmaker also linked with a return to Bundesliga but has expressed a desire to play again in the Premier League.
 
“I don’t know what will happen next season,” he told the Daily Star, then added “I still have a contract at Fulham and I have liked it there, but it is a hard situation.”
 
“Of course I want to play in the Premier League, but I will focus here and then we will see what happens”, he mentioned.
Al Arabi has recently appointed Dan Petrescu as their head coach Former Chelsea defender Dan Petrescu was presented to media and fans as Al Arabi’s new head coach on 5th June .
Al Arabi Team had finished fifth in the last season of Qatar Stars League . Coach Dan Petrescu claims Barcelona playmaker Xavi has signed a pre-contract agreement with the Qatari club.
Petrescu appointed Al Arabi coach

Career threatening injury for Fereydoon Zandi.

The ex-Esteghlal and Team Melli player, Fereydoon Zandi was rushed to hospital after a horrible tackle that broke his leg and threatened his career as a footballer. The incident happened during the match between Al Ahli and the newly promoted club Al Muaither. In the 80th minute a wild tackle by Georgi Gikalov hit the worst possible area of Zandi Leg who fell on the ground in severe pain and was immediately taken off the field. Zandi was taken to Espitar sport hospital and went immediately under operation. The irony of that match which was stopped for 5 minutes while attending to Zandi, was that the player who broke Zandi's leg was awarded the Most Valuable Player title to the utter disgust of Al Ahlii club and its supporters. The Manager of Al Ahlii said that this selection is a blatant disregard for for play. The surgery took 4 hours under the supervision of Dr. Philip Landro one of the top sport surgeon in the world. After the long surgery , with many well wishers, Zandi supporters and his family at attendance in the hospital, Dr. Landro informed the crowd that the operations was completely successful , and Zandi will be playing football in 6 months from now, if he wishes to do so. Al Ahli won promotion last season under Milan Macala with Zandi playing a prominent part in the campaign after leaving Esteghlal to play in the Qatar Soccer League QSL.  
Fereydoon Zandi hospitalized
   

Iran continues its domination of Asian futsal with an Aussie drubbing.

Dubai - Maktoum bin Rashid Arena - Al Wasl Club..

Iran futsal team dominated their strongest group rival and scored 9 goals without return in what was dubbed as the battle for group leadership. At the end , it was just another practice session for the Persians as they run over Australia 9-0 in a one sided match.

Vahid Shamsaei , the ever green Iranian Captain was on the score sheet again as he lead his young teammates to an emphatic third victory on a row scoring an average of 10 goals a game ( Played 3 Won 3 Goals for 31 against 1). The first half ended 5-0 for Iran and despite some strong efforts by the Australians , they could not manage to penetrate the solid Iranian defense. On the rare occasion that they managed , Nazari , Iran's goalkeeper was more than capable of handling any threats.

Iran , therefor concludes its group matches with an impressive record. Team Melli will be facing Uzbekistan in the Quarter Finals on Monday.

A whirlwind start for defending AFC Futsal Champions, Iran.

Iran Futsal teamThe defending AFC Futsal Champions, Iran has started their campaign in whirlwind style when they defeated their main rival in the group , Korea Republic by a whopping 14-1 score line.

The first match of the two powerful Asian opponents played in Al Shabab arena to a full capacity mostly Iranian fans who did not stop supporting their team from way before kickoff. Apparently, many fans were unable to gain entry due to the limited space and seats available at this venue.

The first half ended with a 6-0 score line for Team Melli , but the floodgates really opened a few minutes into the second half.  Iran displayed some fantastic  team world and wonderful goals to keep the crowd entertained through the match.

Midway through the second half, Iran’s coach played virtually the reserve team , but that did not stop the Iranians notching goals one after another.

The irony of this match was that the Korean were quite strong and opponents who did not give up at any stage. Perhaps the gamble taken by the coach in playing the goalkeeper as a field player was behind the large number of late goals conceded in the second half , but apart form that the Koreans were  simply overpowered  by their nemesis the Iranians who were excellent in individual skills and teamwork.

Another odd occurrence was the failure of the world's top futsal scorer Vahid Shamsaei and the Captain of the team , to score.

Iran will play Qatar , who lost their first match 3-1 , on Saturday before finishing their group  matches against Australia on Sunday.

  Lineups I.R. IRAN 4              DF           MOHAMMAD KESHAVARZ NASRABADI 23 7              MF         ALI ASGHAR HASSANZADEH         12,  33 9              FW         SHAMSAEE VAHID (C) 10           FP           TAHERI MOHAMMAD    11 12           GK          MOSTAFA NAZARI Substitutes 1              GK          ALI REZA SAMIMI 5              DF           HAMID AHMADI 6              MF         JAVAD ASGHARIMOGHADDAM                29,  39 11           DF           MAJID LATIFI 14           FW         MAHDI JAVID    15,  17  27 15           MF         HOSSEIN TAYEBI               31 17           MF         AHMAD ESMAEILPOUR                  7   ALI  SANEI ARANI (Head Coach)