Lausanne, Switzerland, May 8, 2018 – Iran coach Igor Kolakovic has promised the young players in the squad their chance to feature in the team if they show the right quality and approach after he named a 26-man training squad for a busy few months.
With one eye on the future and the need for a large squad Kolakovic has included three members of the Iran team that reached the Czech Republic 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship. Aliasghar Mojarad (pictured below), Pourya Yali and Meisam Salehi are the three players to make the step up.
The Montenegrin is preparing his team primarily for the Volleyball Nations League that begins in less than a week and runs through till the start of July. Once that is finished their attentions will move to the Italy-Bulgaria 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship that takes place from September 9-30.
“Everyone has the chance to win a place in the main squad,” Kolakovic said. “First they will join the squad, then they can try and become a part of the 14-man squad for tournaments. Young players can take that chance if they show their quality.”
Iran will face Serbia in a friendly before the opening week of the Volleyball Nations League. They begin in France where they take on the host nation, Australia and Japan in Rouen over May 25-27.
Their training camp in Tehran runs till May 16 when they fly to Serbia, and from there they fly on to France.
In week two Iran fly to San Juan in Argentina to play Argentina, Italy and Canada. Iran return to Europe in week three, where they will face Russia, China and Brazil in Ufa, Russia.
Kolakovic’s team re-cross the Atlantic Ocean for week four to play the USA, Poland and Serbia in Hoffman Estates, USA. They then return home to Tehran for the fifth round of matches from June 22-24, where they take on Bulgaria, Germany and Bulgaria, and will aim to wrap up their qualification for the Finals in Lille, France from July 4-8.
In recent years Iran have become one of the growing powers in world volleyball. They reached the quarterfinals at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, the first time Iran had reached an Olympics. They also finished sixth at the Poland 2014 World Championship, won the 2011 and 2013 AVC Asian Championships and finished fourth in the 2014 World League.
Iran Training Squad
Saeid Marouf
Mohammad Taher Vadi
Javad Karimi
Farhad Salafzoon
Seyed Mohammad Mousavi
Saman Faezi
Masoud Gholami
Aliasghar Mojarad
Ali Shafiei
Rahman Taghizadeh
Mojtaba Mirzajanpour
Milad Ebadipour
Farhad Ghaemi
Mohammad Javad Manavinezhad
Morteza Sharifi
Ghasem Karkhaneh
Amir Ghafour
Reza Ghara
Pourya Yali
Mahdi Marandi
Mohammad Reza Hazratpour
Behnam Ebrahimi
Amir Hossein Toukhteh
Saber Kazemi
Meisam Salehi
Mostafa Heidari
