Behind the discovery and nurturing of Iran’s golden generation gunning for the Asian Cup

ESPN.com – DOHA, From Porto star Mehdi Taremi and Roma striker Sardar Azmoun to Feyenoord winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Brentford’s Saman Ghoddos, Iran at present have no shortage of genuine stellar talent.

Over the next month at the AFC Asian Cup, these star names will once again be aiming to achieve something that has eluded Iran for a long time now — a fourth continental crown.

48 years to be exact. That is how much time has passed since the Iranians won the last of their three consecutive titles.

And for some time now, it has seemed like they will not get a better chance.

Taremi, Azmoun, Jahanbakhsh, Ghoddos, Karim Ansarifard, Saeid Ezatolahi — never before did Iranian football have so much quality come through at the same time.

It is a term that may be thrown around too easily at times but this is indeed Team Melli’s ‘golden generation’.

One man who knows plenty about Team Melli — and golden generations — is Oceano Cruz.

From 2014 to 2019, Oceano was assistant to Carlos Queiroz when the latter led Iran at two editions of the FIFA World Cup and Asian Cup.

As an ex-Portugal international with 54 caps to his name between 1985-98, he will also be extremely familiar with his nation’s own golden generation which boasted players who would go on to attain iconic status like Luis Figo and Rui Costa.

Given national teams are usually restricted to players that have been nurtured within the country itself, it might be easy to assume that there remains an element of good fortune whenever a significant number of outstanding prospects come through the ranks at the same time.

But Oceano was keen to stress the amount of work that actually went on behind the scenes to not just uncover but then nurture these then-young talents.

“It all started after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,” Oceano told ESPN. “We had great players but they were starting to approach 34 or 35 years of age. We knew if we wanted to make the next World Cup in Russia, we need to start the plan to change the team.

“With the great work of the national team staff, we watched 20 games a week from Tabriz to Tehran. Iran has 90 million people — you can find players.

“We started with a big group of over 100 players that stayed in the national team facility. Then it was reduced to a smaller group of 40 to 45 players.

“Back then, almost every national team player was still playing in Iran so it was easy to work with them. We started to work with them two days a week on things like tactics, or recovery after a game, or even showing them a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo and working on the upper body.

“Of course, we had the help of the clubs. This can only happen in Iran because it’s difficult to arrange such commitments between the clubs at the national team. But with the great diplomatic work of Carlos, we could achieve that — because the clubs knew we were trying to help their own players.

“Eventually, we started to see the improvement in the players, who themselves were very happy to be working with us. When I went to watch games, even players not in our (training) list wanted to join.

“The important thing was the rejuvenation between (the) 2014 and 2018 (World Cups). There were only about four to five players that remained — the rest were different.

“And that’s when we said Iran now had (their national team) players for the next ten years.”

Now coach of the Portugal U-20 team, Oceano has fond memories of his former Iran charges and refers to them as his children.

Oceano expressed happiness that — whenever their schedules permit in Portugal — he is still able to meet with Taremi, who he counts among his favourites among others like Jahanbakhsh, Ramin Rezaeian, Ali Gholizadeh and Mehdi Torabi.

He also speaks fondly of the Iranian people, who he believes would greatly enjoy seeing Team Melli achieve success — which could come in two forms.

One would be to reach the knockout round of the World Cup for the first time ever — which they came so close to achieving under Queiroz in 2018.

After victory over Morocco and a narrow loss to Spain, few gave Team Melli a chance of getting a result against Portugal — only for them to pull off an inspired 1-1 draw in a game where Alireza Beiranvand brilliantly denied Ronaldo from the spot before Iran almost snatched victory at the death only for Taremi to uncharacteristically miss a golden opportunity.

The experience was a unique one for Oceano, who recalls the conflicting emotions coming up against his own nation.

“It was the first time, as a coach, that I knew I would not celebrate any goal from either team — I will not run or jump,” he revealed.

“At the end of the day, I was sad. That opportunity that Taremi had, he usually would not miss it nine times out of ten. If he had scored, history would have been made — I would have been very happy but also very sad at the end of the game.

“It was a mix of feelings but the one thing I knew for sure was that, regardless of the result, I could only show my true emotions in private.”

If not in the form of going further than they ever have at a World Cup, then success could perhaps also come in ending this near half-century wait to be crowned champions of Asia once more.

So would it be a disappointment if this ‘golden generation’ achieves neither?

“I think so,” he agreed, while admitting Iran do have fierce competition at the Asian Cup in the form of Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and maybe even Australia and Qatar.

“These players want to win something with the national team. This Asian Cup is maybe the last opportunity for some players, or perhaps the next World Cup.

“If they can win it, I would be very happy for two things: for the players, and for the happiness they are going to give the people of Iran.

“It will also give me the feeling of a job done, like a little of my work, Carlos’ work and that of all the other staff helped these players in a way.”