34 invited for Kuwait and Guinea

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Carlos Queiroz named an extended 34-man squad for the Asian Cup qualifier versus Kuwait in Karaj on Monday and the friendly match against Guinea in Tehran two days later.

Iran have already qualified for the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia as group winners and in absence of most of the legionnaires might use the game to test some alternatives and resting the available domestic key players for the Guinea test two days later.

Indeed the squad includes some new faces and long time absentees, such as veteran defender Mohsen Bengar, leftback Mehrdad Jamaati, young Sepahan midfielder Ali Karimi – not to be confused with veteran playmaker Ali Karimi of Tractorsazi – goalgetter Reza Norouzi as well as midfield gems Bakhtiar Rahmani and Payam Sadeghian.

The absence of the latter two gifted younsters had filled the pages of Iran’s sports tabloids for months and certainly is a surprise after Queiroz ignoring the duo for quite some time.

The two matches finally kick off Iran’s World Cup preparations which will then resume with a training camp in South Africa in April.

Below comes the full squad.

Goalkeepers:
Daniel Davari – Eintracht Braunschweig, GER
Rahman Ahmadi – Sepahan Esfahan
Alireza Haghighi – Sporting Covilha, POR
Hamed Lak – Tractorsazi Tabriz
Sousha Makani – Foolad Khuzestan

Defenders:
Khosro Heydari – Esteghlal Tehran
Steven Beitashour – Vancouver Whitecaps, CAN
Hossein Mahini – Persepolis Tehran
Pejman Montazeri – Umm Salal, QAT
Jalal Hosseini – Persepolis Tehran
Amir-Hossein Sadeghi – Esteghlal Tehran
Mohammad-Reza Khanzadeh – Zob Ahan Esfahan
Mohsen Bengar – Persepolis Tehran
Ahmad Alenemeh – Naft Tehran
Hashem Beikzadeh – Esteghlal Tehran
Ehsan Hajsafi – Sepahan Esfahan
Mehrdad Pouladi – Persepolis Tehran
Mehrad Jamaati – Foolad Khuzestan

Midfielders:
Javad Nekounam – Kuwait SC, KUW
Andranik Teymourian – Esteghlal Tehran
Reza Haghighi – Persepolis Tehran
Ghasem Hadadifar – Zob Ahan Esfahan
Ali Karimi – Sepahan Esfahan
Mojtaba Jabbari – Al Ahli, QAT
Bakhtiar Rahmani – Foolad Khuzestan
Payam Sadeghian – Persepolis Tehran

Forwards:
Ashkan Dejagah – Fulham FC, ENG
Masoud Shojaei – UD Las Palmas, ESP
Alireza Jahanbakhsh – NEC Nijmegen, NED
Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari – Persepolis Tehran
Yaghoub Karimi – Sepahan Esfahan
Reza Ghoochannejhad – Charlton Athletic, ENG
Karim Ansarifard – Tractorsazi Tabriz
Reza Norouzi – Naft Tehran