Tag: Zenit St. Petersburg

Team Melli preparations and brief.

Team Melli Manager says that according to the coaching staff, 10 players present in the current camp are selected to continue attending the final phase together with the legionnaires. They form the final list of the Team Melli squad.

The first phase of the national team training camp was concluded with the presence of 22 domestic league players. The coaching staff shortlisted 10 players for the final list for the games against Syria and Iraq. Mojtaba Khorshidi, the national football team Manager, announced the list of selected players on the website of the Football Federation

Saleh Hardani, Siavash Yazdani, Omid Nourafkan, Milad Sarlak, Yasin Salmani, Mehdi Torabi, Mohammad Karimi, Zubair Niknafs, Aref Aghasi, and Vahid Amiri

Khorshidi also mentioned an important point about the 12 players whose names are not in the final list and added: “The absence of these players in the final list is not due to their poor quality or poor performance in training. Mr. Skocic emphasized that not being in the final list should not disappoint these players and their performance will always be considered by the head coach and the technical staff of the national team, they will definitely have a chance to be in the national team in the future.”

 Mojtaba Khorshidi also confirmed the absence of four injured players in the final list: Ehsan Haj Safi, Morteza Pouraliganji, Seyed Majid Hosseini and Ali Karimi are the four players whose names were to be included in the final list of the national team. Their injuries rendered them unavailable.

After the weekend games in Europe, it is expected that most legionnaires in the squad will be arriving in Tehran within a day or two.

It is interesting to note that Dragan Skocic was in quarantine after he was tested positively for COVID19. His assistants carried on training with the squad and the list is prepared after consultation with all stakeholders. In addition to head coach Skocic, his Iranian assistant Vahid Hashemian, who also tested positive, was absent from training.

Both the Team Melli forwards, Sardar Azmoun (Zenit) and Mehdi Taremi (Porto) were on the scoring sheet with their respective teams while Saman Ghoddos whose appearance remains in doubt was one of the better players in the EPL match between Brentford and Aston Villa.

Italian media: Roma loses Azmoun to Bayer Leverkusen!

According to some Italian media, Azmoun is heading towards the Bundesliga. The Team Melli central forward who opened his scoring this season with a goal this weekend is the center of much speculation about his immediate future. The player himself is tight-lipped so is the Russian club, but that does not prevent daily news about his possible transfer out of Zenit.

footballItalia.net has published the following report today:

Roma are expected to miss out on Zenit St Petersburg center-forward Sardar Azmoun, as Bayer Leverkusen are closing on a deal.

The Giallorossi and Germans were both interested in the 26-year-old Iran international.

His contract with Zenit is due to expire in June 2022 and he seems ready to move on for a new experience.

According to Tuttomercatoweb, Roma are not going to pursue Azmoun, as he has already pledged his future to Bayer Leverkusen. The Bundesliga outfit still needs to agree terms with Zenit, who are asking for circa €20m.

However, they are expected to whittle it down and probably get closer to that fee than Roma was prepared to pay.

Azmoun has 34 goals in just 52 senior caps for Iran, playing his club football for Rubin Kazan, Rostov and since February 2019 at Zenit.

He found the net 19 times in 29 competitive games for Zenit St Petersburg last season, as well as setting up six goals for his teammates.

Azmoun scores a cheeky goal for Zenit to lift the super cup.

Sardar Azmoun scored a cheeky goal to open his scoring for the new season in his club Zenit St. Petersburg win over Lokomotiv Moscow to help his club lift the Russian Super Cup.

The match between Zenit St. Petersburg and Lokomotiv Moscow ended 3-0 for the Russian League Titleholder.

In the 56th minute of the match played on Saturday in Kaliningrad Stadium, the opener of the Russian Premier League season, Azmoun received a perfect long pass from the Brazilian midfielder Malcom. Azmoun easily dribbled past the on-rushing defender and virtually walked the ball all the way past the goal line after beating the fully stretched Lokomotiv keeper with a shimmy. The Team Melli center forward goal was a continuation of where he left off last season.

After the goal, the second of the night for Zenit, Azmoun was substituted for a well-earned rest.

The rich boys of Team Melli

Becoming a legionnaire is perhaps the dream of many young footballers all over the world.

Football has passed the stage of being a sport for fun and competition, it is now a business and a money-generating activity filled with fortunes. Not all the sources are clean money though as the sport is still suffering blatant money laundering schemes, however, at players’ level these sinister plots are invisible.

Iranian players have played in Europe from the onset. After the 1998 Fifa World Cup, the biggest number of Iranian players transferred to European leagues, specifically the Bundesliga. With the failure to qualify for the World Cup there were fewer suitors for Iranian players,  but the migration never completely stopped.

There are around 50 Iranian players exercising their profession outside of Iran. Europe, Persian Gulf states, and to a lesser extent the Far East have been the favorite destination.

The top earners are those who are successful and play in the European leagues. The Premier League is the richest league in the world and hence it is not a surprise that the top Iranian money earner comes from that league. Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who has been mostly a bench warmer in Brighton & Hove Albion, is the Top Earner of all Iranian footballers with a salary of nearly 4 million dollars per annum.

Iran’s best player of the season 2020/21 by far is Sardar Azmoun, yet he earns less than Jahanbakhsh. Taremi comes third in the table, despite his brilliant season with Porto, he earns half what Jahanbaksh earns with Brighton. Note that Brighton just avoided relegation in England while Porto defeated Chelsea, the current titleholder of the Champions League by the brilliant overhead kick by Taremi, ended the season in second place in Portugal.

In 4th position in the table is Saman Ghoddos who plays his football in the second tier club Brantford. The team from West London has won promotion to the premier league now,

 

 

Weekly Annual
Rank Player Club Wages US$ Wages US$
1 Alireza Jahanbakhsh Brighton  $ 75,260.00  $3,913,520.00
2 Sardar Azmoun Zenit  $ 62,480.00  $3,248,960.00
3 Mehdi Taremi FC Porto  $ 32,660.00  $1,698,320.00
4 Saman Ghoddos Brentford  $ 19,880.00  $1,033,760.00
5 Kaveh Rezai Charleroi  $ 17,040.00  $   886,080.00
6 Milad Mohammadi Gent  $ 12,638.00  $   656,040.00
7 Ali Alipour Maritimo  $   4,970.00  $   258,440.00
8 Ali Gholizadeh Charleroi  $   4,970.00  $   258,440.00
9 Reza Ghoochannejhad PEC Zwolle  $   3,834.00  $   169,832.00
10 Amir Abedzadeh Maritimo  $   2,130.00  $   102,240.00

Sardar Azmoun wins Best Player Award in RPL season 2020/21

Zenit forward Sardar Azmoun became the best player in the Russian Premier League (RPL) according to the results of the footballers’ voting in the annual poll.

Сердар Азмун

May 2 & nbsp; St. Petersburg. & laquo; Zenith & raquo; & nbsp; & mdash; & laquo; Locomotive & raquo; & nbsp; & mdash; 6: 1. Serdar Azmun (left) celebrates one of his & nbsp; three goals with & nbsp; Sebastian Driussi.Azmun is the best. Zenit scored a hat-trick

The poll among football players is perhaps the most objective of all. It is clear that in each team, many players votes for their own teammates, but when it comes to representatives of other clubs, the assessment of professionals is the most accurate. And the advantage with which Serdar Azmoun overtook Artyom Dzyuba, who took second place, leaves no doubt at all – this was the season of the 26-year-old Iranian Center Forward.

In 2019 and 2020 seasons, Sardar’s attacking partner Artem Dzyuba won this title. Azmoun brought Zenit their seventh poll victory in history. Before him, in addition to the already mentioned Dziuba, the honorary titles were received by Andrey Arshavin (2006), Konstantin Zyryanov (2007), Danny (2010), and Hulk (2014/15). Now Petersburgers share the lead with Spartak, Lokomotiv and CSKA have five first places each, Krasnodar has three, Dynamo and Rubin have one each.

Although, strictly judging, the Zenit striker played his usual championship at a high level, gaining decent statistics – 19 goals in 24 RPL matches. But let’s be honest: Serdar is able to look even brighter. Plus, the voting was probably influenced by the fact that at the end of the season Azmoun scored six goals in three games, including a hat-trick in the most important one at the finish – with Lokomotiv. And the last thing is always remembered, as we all know.

RPL: top 10 players of the 2020/21 Russian championship according to a poll of football players. Photo "SE"

RPL: top 10 players of the 2020/21 Russian championship according to a poll of football players. Photo “SE”

But Azmoun’s convincing win, in my opinion, is more of the weakness of competitors. Not as good as in autumn, Vlašić and Noboa turned out to be in the spring. Dzyuba and Krykhovyak stood out, but we saw much more powerful football in their performance. Larsson gave a decent season, but the Swede also flashed with episodes, even if he decided at the expense of them a lot for Spartak to win silver.

So it turns out that there was no alternative to Azmoun – an advantage over the closest competitor of more than a hundred points has not happened for a very long time in this poll.

Well, it remains to be hoped that in the summer the RPL will not lose the bright striker. And all the rest will add so much that a more stubborn struggle will unfold for the title of the best.

Until then, congratulations, Serdar! All to the point.

Sardar puts the icing on the cake for Zenit St. Petersburg with a hat trick.

Teammeli center forward, continued his brilliant run in the Russian League by scoring a hat-trick in the game against staunch rivals Locomotiv to award his team the Russian league title for the third season running.

On the match played on Sunday evening, Zenit St, Petersburg needed a win to secure the title. Dzyuba scored in the 19th minute in the first half then Azmoun opened his account with a brilliant powerful header from Driussi cross in the 39th minute, Right on the stroke of halftime, Zenit was awarded a penalty in which Azmoun scored his second and the third for his team.

In the second half, with barely a minute passed Azmoun completed his hat-trick when he slotted the ball from Malcolm cross.

Zenit went on to win 6-1 with Azmoun being subbed out on the 70th minute.

Sardar is leading the scoring chart with 19 goals followed by his teammate Dzyuba with 16.

Sardar Azmoun scores a brace for Zenit

Sardar Azmoun scored a brace in the match between FK Sochi and Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League match on Sunday 11th April.

The home team opened the scoring through Nikita Burmistrov in the 58th minute, but the visitors equalized with a powerful header by Team Melli forward, Sardar Azmoun from a cross by Jarosław Rakicki.

Azmoun then scored the winner and his team’s second goal with another well-placed header out of reach of the stretching keeper.
This was Azmoun’s 15th goal of the season in the Russian League. He heads the top scorers’ list ahead of his striking partner and Teammate Dzuba, who has two goals less to his credit.
Zenit leads the table by 7 points margin in the 25th week of the season and looks a firm favorite to retain the title this season and lift the championship trophy before the end of the season.
After the match in an interview with the official Broadcaster of the Russian league, Azmoun was asked what he thought of him leading the top scorers’ table with 15 goals, to which the Iranian striker said that he is much more important for him to win the title with his teammates rather than achieving individual honors.
Sardar is expected to lead Team Melli on the 3rd of June against Hong Kong , in the return legs of FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar qualifiers

Mehdi Taremi’s goal stuns Juventus in Champions League.

A terrific start for Team Melli’s striker, Mehdi Taremi, and an early second-half goal by Moussa Marega propelled Porto to their first victory against Juventus in the Champions League as they secured a 2-1 first-leg win against the Italian champions in their round-of-16 tie on Wednesday.

Taremi pounced on a sloppy back pass after 63 seconds to fire in the opener that left Juventus, which had a fully fit Cristiano Ronaldo in the lineup, rattled and they failed to create any clear chances before half-time.

This was the fourth consecutive goal by Taremi in as many games for his club Porto in what was described as a dream run for the Iranian striker by the match commentator. Taremi, considered by many as a bargain purchase from Rio Ave by Porto, was initially left out of the starting lineup by coach  Sérgio Conceição, however, a last-minute change of match plan meant that Porto would start to play a 4-4-2 with two strikers upfront, a plan which worked to perfection as both the strikers scored early in each half.

Taremi’s brilliant scoring run, a first for Iranian professional footballer in Europe, started with a goal against Sporting Braga in two home and away consecutive cup matches, Boavista in the league and Juventus in the European Champions League.

Mehdi Taremi (28 years) has scored 9 goals for Porto this season scoring an average of a goal in every 121 minutes.

Sardar Azmoun, Taremi’s partner in Team Melli who is also enjoying a brilliant season with the Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg has scored 11 goals for his club this season averaging a goal in every 92 minutes.

Team Melli’s third striker Karim Ansarifard who plays in the Greek League with AEK Athens, has scored 8 goals in the season averaging one goal in 155 minutes of play.

Coach comments signal the end for Alireza Jahanbakhsh at Brighton.

One of the many difficult transfer decisions for Brighton and Hove Albion to make this summer is the future of Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh has made just three starts in the Premier League for Brighton this season

Jahanbakhsh, 26, has started just three times from his nine appearances in the Premier League under Graham Potter and didn’t once complete a full 90 minutes.

He scored in his first start against Bournemouth last December and also netted a memorable overhead kick when he came off the bench in the following match against Chelsea.

It didn’t however result in a sustained run in the team for a player who joined Brighton for £17m in 2018 from AZ Alkmaar and is contracted until June 2023.

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His other two outings in the starting XI were during the 3-1 loss at Bournemouth and the 1-0 defeat at Everton.

He failed to make the Premier League matchday squad entirely on 19 separate occasions this season and his only run out since the restart was for the final 20 minutes during the 5-0 home loss against Man City.

Jahanbakhsh scored 34 goals from 79 appearances at his previous club AZ Alkmaar and reports from Holland suggest Ajax want to bring the Albion man back to the Eredivisie as a replacement for Chelsea-bound Hakim Ziyech.

In 2017/18 he was the leading goal scorer in the Dutch top-flight with 21 goals and finished joint third with 12 assists. Jahanbakhsh is the first Asian player ever to finish top goalscorer in a top level European league.

“He’ll be frustrated of course because he wants to play and I understand that,” said Albion head coach Potter. “He’s been great around the club, great with me, he gives his best all the time but he’s like any footballer – they want to play more.

“So it’s something we have to think about over the break and do what’s right for him and the club.

“But he’s a good player and he can help us. But again you can understand it from his perspective that he wants to play more regularly than he has.”

The contradictory comments of Brighton coach who barely managed to keep his team in the Premier League is a signal that Jahanbakhsh has no future in the club. However, the player has always insisted that he wants to remain and prove himself. Brighton wants to offload many high-cost players and Alireza Jahanbakhsh is one of them.

Sardar Azmoun Named Top Goal Scorer of Russian Football League

For the second time in history, an Iranian player wins the League Top Scorer in Europe

Sardar Azmoun,  Team Melli and Zenit Saint Petersburg center forward, has finished the 2019/20 season at the Russian Premier League as the top goal scorer after scoring the winner against FC Rostov in the season’s last fixture. Match ended 2-1 for the champion.

Both Azmoun and teammate Artem Dzyuba played 28 games, with both forwards scoring 17 goals, but the Iranian was ahead of the Russian striker by virtue of fewer goals from the penalty spot. Azmoun scored one penalty, whereas Dzyuba scored seven.

In the history of the RPL, Azmoun is the third Zenit player to finish a season as top scorer.
Much was expected of Azmoun when he was snapped up by Rubin Kazan as an 18-year-old, and he has grown to become a superstar of Asian football.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh finished the 2017-18  Dutch Eredivise as the top scorer with 21 goals. Jahanbakhsh becomes the first Asian ever to finish as the highest-scoring player in an Eredivisie campaign.

Now Azmoun is repeating a similar feat by becoming the first Asian player to win the top scorer title in Russia, and the second Iranian player to achieve this honor in a European league.

Azmoun is both the youngest Iranian to score in a Champions League game, as well as the Iranian record-holder for the most goals scored in UEFA Champions League games, having scored 4 goals in the two seasons he has taken part in the tournament. Azmoun has a great chance to add to his tally as Zenit has qualified for next season UEFA Champions League.

Azmoun is now linked to several top European football teams, from AC Milan, Napoli, and Lazio in Italy to Arsenal and West Ham in England. It is reported that Azmoun’s agent has already met this week with Napoli owner discussing players transfers.