Team Melli starts training [VIDEO]

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Iran’s national team began their preperations for the final three World Cup qualifiers in June on Tuesday.

22 players are training for the friendly match in Oman (May 22) under the guidance of Carlos Queiroz and his team, which has been strengthened with the new Finnish fitness coach Mikko Kujala and u-23 coach Alireza Mansourian.

A second friendly match versus Iraq (May 27) was cancelled after hosts UAE refused to hold the match. However, negotiations about hosting the match either in Iran or Iraq are currently ongoing.

From the initially named 24-man squad, Tractorsazi striker Mehdi Seyed-Salehi and Sepahan’s Shahab Gordan, who both turned down the invitation due to personal reasons, as well as the injured Persepolis leftback Mehrdad Pouladi. For the Sepahan goalkeeper, young Saba keeper Hamed Lak was called up.

Of course all foreign based and Esteghlal players are missing. The newly crowned Persian Gulf League champions are still busy with their AFC Champions League campaign.

Carlos Queiroz was responsible for the first little outrage in the camp when he stormed off a press conference after repeated questions from reporters about the former national team players Ali Karimi, Mehdi Rahmati and Hadi Aghily despite having explained numerous times he would not comment on these players.

You can watch videos from the aborted press conference as well as the first training days from PFDC TV below.