Tag: Younis Delphi

Omid Team to start the long road to Olympics in earnest.

Iran will kickstart their 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers campaign from 22nd March in Tehran. The team, known as Omid Team, is under the guidance of the seasoned Croat coach Zlatko Krancjar and will lock horns against Turkmenistan in their first match before crossing swords against Yemen two days later and finally, their strongest rival, Iraq on 26th March.

Omid team held has held a series of training sessions and camps including playing friendly games against Syria and Jordan prior to the competition. Omid Team also played in a competition in Qatar where three U-23 teams took part. Iran won the title of that round ribbon tournament.

Tehran is hosting Group C of 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers

 In preparation for the matches starting tomorrow, a post-match conference was held at the National Iranian National Football Center’s conference hall where all the coaches expressed optimism for their team’s chances while Iraqi and Yemeni coach criticized the AFC plans for the Olympic Games qualifiers.

At the beginning of the press conference, Turkmen coach Bayram Dordayiev said: “I know Iran’s football quite well, since I worked in Iran for several years. Iran’s football has a a colorful history and has produced players such as Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Ali Parvin in its history. Football is strong and powerful in this country. Iran is strong in the Olympics age group and has a youth team that plays well in defense and attack. We have a tough group. Iran and Iraq are powerful teams and we have information about them. Ultimately, the result of any match cannot be predicted but only the playing field will dictate the victorious and superior team.”

Iran’s coach, Zlatko Krancjar, said: “First of all, I wish to congratulate everyone on the occasion of the Persian New Year and welcome my colleagues from Turkmenistan, Yemen and Iraq to Iran. Apart from Iraq, we do not know adequate knowledge about the other two teams, we only know the Iraqi team and played two games and hopefully in the coming days we will be able to get the necessary knowledge of the other competitors.”

About the final list of 23 players in the squad, Head coach or Iran U23 team, Krancjar said  “We should announce the list beforehand. We set up this list, and the promise is that it can deliver our objectives. Some clubs did not cooperate with the team by holding their players.  Apart from the damage that was done because of that, there is no particular problem in the team. We were looking at the legionnaires, but the domestic players were better and more prepared”

Referring to the use of players outside the Iranian league, he said ” We have Reza Shekari from Russia but  we do not have Younis Delphi due to injury.”

Iraqi coach Abdul Ghani Shahid said: “We have great hopes to qualify. We succeeded in qualifying to the Rio Olympics in the last competition and hope we can repeat it again. Many think that Iraq and Iran will qualify from this group, but I believe the standards are too close to call. Asian Football Confederation has made a strange plan for the tournament. The AFC, which always pays particular attention to the quality of the players and the quality of the tournament, holds tournaments in tandem, and this affects the quality of the work. We did not use adult players in the tournament because they were engaged in the AFC Asian Cup with the senior team and subsequently entered this competition without them by using younger players.”

Yemeni coach Sammy Na’ash also spoke at the press conference “We are in a tough and strong group. The two teams from Iraq and Iran have a special lead in this group. The AFC’s planning for this tournament is not desirable, and competitions are held with the least rest for the players. We started the preparation program very late and we encountered a lot of problems, but we are doing our best to produce a good and decent performance.”

A Milestone for Younis Delphi

The young footballer from Khuzestan set a new record in Iranian Football. Younis Delphi, born in Shush, was a member of the Esteghlal Khuzestan Club and has featured in the 2016/17 season by playing five matches for the Full team.

During two and a half years, Delphi was considered by many as one of the greatest talents in the League, whose brilliant performance has also led to his invitation to Omid Team (Iran U23) despite his young age. The fledgling and upcoming striker scored 7 goals in the previous season in 24 Premier League matches and added the FIFA U17 World Cup, held in India to his resume.

That tournament attracted many European scouts looking for young talented players to recruit. A few months back there were discussion about Delphi transferring to the Dutch club, Eindhoven, but the opposition by his club Esteghlal Khuzestan put an end to that transfer as the club would not release him at the start of the new season.

Younis Delphi, however, eventually became a legionnaire in the winter transfer window when he signed a contract to join Sporting Charleroi of Belgium. This club which is owned by an Iranian has attracted several Iranian players in the last couple of seasons such as Kaveh Rezaei, Ali Gholizadeh and Omid Noorafkan

Last Sunday evening Sporting Charleroi hosted Fourth placed KV Oostende at Stade du Pays de Charleroi. Younis Delphi, was included in the squad for the first time since his transfer. In the absence of the other Iranian player, Ali Gholizadeh who is suffering from a leg injury, Delphi made his debut. With the presence of Younis Delphi in the Charleroi team, he becomes the youngest legionnaire in Iranian football history with 18 years and 129 days. It is a good age to start gaining experience of European football. The match between Charleroi and Oostende ended 1 -1. Delphi played for 64 minutes and was substituted midway through the second half.