25 invited for East Asia tour

PFDC – TEHRAN, Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi named a strong squad for the friendly matches against China and South Korea in September.

Team Melli will first play in Zhengzhou on September 3, before travelling to Seoul to play there on September 7.

Apart from Ali Karimi, who currently is unemployed after being released by Steel Azin FC, and Hossein Kaebi, who has been suspended by Ghotbi, all backbones of the national team made the list.

Masoud Shojaei and Andranik Teymourian returned to the roster after being left out for the Armenia match and also Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari returned from injury.

Noteable addition is Steel Azin striker Mohammad Gholami, who was preferred over Esteghlal strikers Milad Meydavoudi and Farhad Majidi. Also Zob Ahan duo Mohammad Hosseini and Ghassem Hadadifar were dropped from the list.

Below comes the squad for the friendly matches:

Goalkeepers: Mehdi Rahmati, Ebrahim Mirzapour, Alireza Haghighi

Defenders: Khosro Heydari, Hashem Beikzadeh, Hadi Aghily, Jalal Hosseini, Mohammad Nosrati, Hanif Omranzadeh, Ehsan Hajsafi, Hassan Ashjari

Midfielders: Javad Nekounam, Andranik Teymourian, Pejman Nouri, Farzad Ashoubi, Iman Mobali, Mohammad Nouri

Strikers: Masoud Shojaei, Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari, Gholamreza Rezaei, Milad Zanidpour, Hadi Norouzi, Karim Ansarifard, Mohammad Gholami, Mehrdad Oladi