Striker Sardar Azmoun was omitted from Iran’s 26-man World Cup roster announced on Monday.
Azmoun has scored 57 goals in 91 national team appearances, but the 31-year-old was dropped from the squad in March. That reportedly stemmed from a social media post that Iranian officials took issue with during the ongoing war with the United States and Israel, and Azmoun was not included on the preliminary long roster list.
Coach Amir Ghalenoei did include Azmoun’s Shabab Al-Ahli teammate Saeid Ezatolahi along with Olympiacos striker Mehdi Taremi. Taremi, 33, has scored 60 goals in more than 100 appearances for his country.
Iran’s training camp is in Turkey and the team has a friendly against Mali on Thursday before their scheduled travel on Friday to their World Cup base camp in Tijuana, Mexico. They received approval from FIFA last week to move from their planned base in Tucson, Ariz.
Their Group G play begins with a match against New Zealand in Inglewood, Calif. on June 15, with a game at the same venue against Belgium six days later. Iran closes out group play against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.
If both teams finish second in their groups, Iran would face the United States in the round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas.
IRAN WORLD CUP ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Alireza Beiranvand (Tractor), Hossein Hosseini (Sepahan), Payam Niazmand (Persepolis)
Defenders: Danial Eiri (Malavan), Ehsan Hajsafi (Sepahan), Saleh Hardani (Esteghlal), Hossein Kanaani (Persepolis), Shoja Khalilzadeh (Tractor), Milad Mohammadi (Persepolis), Ali Nemati (Foolad), Ramin Rezaeian (Foolad)
Midfielders: Rouzbeh Cheshmi (Esteghlal), Saeid Ezatolahi (Shabab Al-Ahli), Mehdi Ghayedi (Al-Nasr), Saman Ghoddos (Kalba), Mohammad Ghorbani (Al-Wahda), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Dender), Mohammad Mohebi (Rostov), Amir Mohammad Razzaghinia (Esteghlal), Mehdi Torabi (Tractor), Aria Yousefi (Sepahan)
Forwards: Ali Alipour (Persepolis), Dennis Dargahi (Standard Liege), Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh (Tractor), Mehdi Taremi (Olympiakos), Shahriar Moghanlou (Kalba)
–Field Level Media
