Ghoochannejhad named in Iran squad

PFDC – TEHRAN, Reza Ghoochannejhad’s debut for Iran’s national team comes closer, as the Sint Truiden striker was named in Carlos Queiroz 23-men squad for the training camp in Hungary and the friendly match against Tunisia.

While the other four foreign based players in the squad will probably be unavailable for the camp starting on August 9 due to club commitments and join the rest of the team shortly before the test match on August 15, Ghoochannejhad reportedly will take part in the camp as well.

Noteable absentees are Esteghlal playmaker Mojtaba Jabbari and Al Kharaitiyat midfielder Andranik Teymourian. While Jabbari is once again suffering from an injury, Teymourian will be unavailable in Iran’s next World Cup qualifier in Lebanon on September 11 due to suspension and therefore was left out in the preperations.

Masoud Shojaei of La Liga outfits Osasuna also wasn’t named. The offensive allrounder just recently recovered from a lengthy injury and despite good test match performances still has to play his forst competitive match since spring 2011.

Omid Nazari of Swedish Ängelholms FF once again made the list. The young midfielder already trained with the national team in June but had to travel home before the World Cup qualifiers against Uzbekistan and Qatar because his player pass hadn’t arrived in time.

Below comes the full squad.

Goalkeepers:
Mehdi Rahmati – Esteghlal
Alireza Haghighi – Rubin Kazan, RUS
Mohsen Forouzan – Tractor Sazi

Defenders:
Khosro Heydari – Esteghlal
Hossein Mahini – Persepolis
Hadi Aghily – Qatar SC, QAT
Jalal Hosseini – Persepolis
Pejman Montazeri – Esteghlal
Mehrdad Pouladi – Persepolis
Ehsan Hajsafi – Tractor Sazi

Midfielders:
Javad Nekounam – Esteghlal
Reza Haghigi – Fajr Sepasi
Maziar Zare – Malavan
Pejman Nouri – Malavan
Omid Nazari – Ängelholms FF, SWE
Ghasem Hadadifar – Zob Ahan
Ali Karimi – Persepolis

Strikers:
Ashkan Dejagah – Vfl Wolfsburg, GER
Mohammad Ebrahimi – Tractor Sazi
Karim Ansarifard – Persepolis
Mohammad Ghazi – Persepolis
Reza Ghoochannejhad – St. Truiden VV, BEL
Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari – Sepahan