Tag: Saeed Ezzatollahi

Skocic monitors Team Melli players in Belgium

Dragan Skocic headed to Europe for a close look at the Iranian legionaries players. The recently appointed head coach of Team Melli will be attending several matches involving the Iranian players.

This trip to Belgium by Skocic follows his attending of matches of Esteghlal and Persepolis matches in Kuwait and the Emirates in the AFC Champions League last week. Belgium is one of the countries with the most Iranian players in its league. Omid Ebrahimi and Saeed Ezzatollahi play for Eupen, Ali Gholizadeh, Younes Delphi and Kaveh Rezaei for Royal Charleroi and Milad Mohammadi for Gent.

On his trip to Belgium, Skocic first met with Saeed Ezzatollahi and Omid Ebrahimi and spoke with Eupen’s technical staff about the two Iranian players’ performances. Ezzatollah has not played for Eupen for a long time while Ebrahim is a fixed starter for the squad.

The Iranian teams competing in the AFC Champions League had a torrid start with only Sepahan managing a win in a total of 8 matches played by all the 4 Iranian teams. Skocic must have been concerned with such a performance especially since some of the Team Melli players have been less than ideal in those matches.

Ashkan Dejagah recalled to Team Melli.

After being surprisingly dropped by Team Melli selectors, Captain and midfield player Ashkan Dejagah has been recalled to the squad.

This is despite the fact that the training of the team which is in preparation for the Hong Kong match in the qualifying rounds of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 started two days ago. According to the FFIRI website, Ashkan Dejagah has been invited to join the rest of his teammates as of today (Tuesday). The federation’s website did not indicate which player Dejagah is replacing as the permitted 23 man squad quota has already been announced by the coaching team. There is no news of any injuries in the current squad.

Dejagah was not on the national team’s starting list for the camp.

It is unclear if Marc Wilmots and his foreign assistants were involved in this selection partly because the Belgian head coach has not been around and yet to be paid by the federation since commencing his duty. Most probably the selection is a reflection of Vahid Hashemian’s views. The Iranian assistant coach probably wanted to make an immediate impact by selecting two new players and ignoring some experienced ones.  Saeed Ezzatollahi has been dropped from the squad, which probably is quite justified because of his lack of match practise, although Jahanbakhsh who has Temporary Email not played for Brighton in the  Premier League is included. Ashkan Dejagah has been one of this season’s best League players in Iran’s domestic football. His exclusion has certainly raised a few eyebrows.

Saman Ghoddos is serving a FIFA ban so he is ineligible for inclusion.