Amir Ghalenavi, the head coach of the Iranian national football team, announced his list of preferred players to participate in the Asian Cup on Monday, January 10 (December 31). Out of the 27 selected players, 12 are over 30 years old, making it one of the oldest national football teams in Iranian history to compete in the Asian tournament.
The Iranian national football team has three championship titles, five third-place finishes, and one fourth-place finish, making it the third most successful team in Asia after Japan and Saudi Arabia. However, all three of Iran’s championships date back to the pre-revolution era, and in the last 45 years, Iranian footballers have never reached the final of the Asian Cup.
The new list includes three players under 23, two players aged 25, and 12 players over 30 years old. Sepahan Isfahan has the most representatives with six players, followed by Persepolis with three and Esteghlal and AEK Athens with two each.
The participation of Sardar Azmoun, a forward for AS Roma in Italy, in the Iranian national team’s training camp for the Asian Cup is still uncertain, with reports suggesting that his contract with the Italian club may prohibit him from leaving Roma to travel to Qatar and join the Iranian team.
Ahmad Noorollahi, a midfielder for Al-Wahda Club in the UAE, who was sidelined for disciplinary reasons from Ghalenavi’s list, is considered the main absentee from the Iranian national team in Qatar. Noorollahi, who was part of Queiroz’s squad in the 2022 World Cup, has scored seven goals and provided assists for his club in the past month.
The call-up of Karim Ansarifard, despite his poor performance with only two goals in the last 15 matches, the inclusion of Ali Gholizadeh, who has only played 248 minutes for his team without scoring any goals or assists, and the call-up of Ehsan Haji Safi, who is unfit and aging, are among the prominent question marks in the new list of the Iranian national team, bringing back previous news about Ghalenavi’s strong influence on Mehdi Taremi’s position in the national team.
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The list of invitees to the Iranian national football team’s training camp, which must play its first match against Hong Kong in the Asian Cup on January 24, includes Alireza Beiranvand, Payam Niazmand, Seyed Hossein Hosseini, Ehsan Haji Safi, Milad Mohammadi, Shojai Khalilzadeh, Seyed Majid Hosseini, Saman Ghoddos, Hossein Kanaanizadegan, Sadeq Moharrami, Ramin Rezaeian, Arya Yusefi, Rouzbeh Cheshmi, Omid Ebrahimi, Saeid Ezatolahi, Saman Qodous, Mohammad Mohammadi, Mehdi Ghayedi, Javad Hosseinzadeh, Mehdi Taremi, Reza Asadi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Ali Gholizadeh, Sardar Azmoun, Karim Ansarifard, and Shahriar Moghanlou.
Unlike the previous 25-member list for the first stage of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the current list does not include players such as Mohammad Daneshgar (Sepahan), Mohammad Amin Haji Abbasi (Al Sadd Qatar), Ali Karimi (Kayserispor Turkey), Ahmad Noorollahi (Al Wahda UAE), and Mehrdad Mohammadi (Esteghlal).
Shahriar Moghanlou, who was last called up for the national team training camp in the Persian month of Farvardin, has been included in the list again after shining in Sepahan and topping the Iranian league’s goal-scoring chart. Mehdi Ghayedi has also earned his place in the current list with a good performance at Ittihad Kalba in the UAE.
The 18th edition of the Asian Cup will be held in Qatar from January 22 to February 21, and the Iranian national team is in Group C with the UAE, Palestine, and Hong Kong.
In the previous edition of this competition, the Iranian national football team, under the guidance of Carlos Queiroz, was eliminated in the semifinals by Japan after three humiliating exits in the quarterfinals in the years prior. From the current list, Alireza Beiranvand, Payam Niazmand, Ramin Rezaeian, Seyed Majid Hosseini, Mohammad Hossein Kanaanizadegan, Ehsan Haji Safi, Milad Mohammadi, Rouzbeh Cheshmi, Omid Ebrahimi, Mehdi Taremi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Karim Ansarifard, Sardar Azmoun, Saman Ghoddos, and Mehdi Taremi also participated in the 2019 Asian Cup.