No surprises as Iran names squad for Volleyball World Championship
There were no surprise additions to the squad as Iran head coach Roberto Piazza named a provisional 25-man list for the upcoming Volleyball World Championship – starting September 12 in the Philippines.
All players will have to report for a first training session in Tehran ahead of the world event next Tuesday.
The World Championship will be a second major event for Iran under the Italian head coach following the recently-finished preliminary round of the Volleyball Nations League.
The majority of the list were part of the team when Iran won six in 12 outings to finish eighth in the 18-team table earlier in July and missed out on a spot in the VNL Finals.
In fact, an eighth-place finish would have been enough for Iran to progress, had China – second from bottom in the preliminary table – not automatically qualified as the host of the Finals, which start with the quarterfinals in Ningbo on Thursday.
Opposite-spiker Ali Hajipour, who missed all three weeks of action in the VNL preliminaries, has been named in the squad, while former Iranian captain and opposite-spiker Milad Ebadipour is yet to receive a call-up by the Italian coach.
Iran will make an eighth appearance at the flagship international event of the sport, with its best result coming in the 2014 edition, when Team Melli finished sixth in Poland.
Iran will begin its Pool A campaign at the World Championship against Egypt on September 14, before facing another African test in Tunisia two days later.
The final round of the group fixtures will se Iran take on the host at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasey on September 18.
The top two in each of the eight groups will progress to the round of 16.
Despite failing to secure a first VNL last-eight spot since 2022, Piazza’s team definitely did enough to win over Iranian fans again with some brilliant performances and results in the preliminary phase – following a dire run of results over the past couple of years that saw Team Melli finish in the bottom three of the VNL table on two occasions and miss out on a berth for Paris Olympics last summer.
Star opposite Amin Esmaeilnejad and outside-hitter Morteza Sharifi will headline the Iranian squad in the World Championship, having enjoyed a prolific campaign in the VNL preliminaries.
Esmaeilnejad chipped in 158 points to stand 13th in the top scorers’ chart, while Sharifi contributed with a remarkable 18 aces for a joint-third place in the best servers’ table.
The following is the Iranian 25-man squad for the FIVB World Championship:
Setters: Javad Karimi, Arshia Behnejad, Ali Ramezani, Omran Kookjeili
Middle blockers: Mohammad Valizadeh, Mahdi Jelveh, Issa Naseri, Matin Ahmadi, Armin Qelichniazi, Yousef Kazemi
Outside hitters: Morteza Sharifi, Amirhossein Esfandiar, Ehsan Daneshdoost, Amir Aftab-Azari, Pouria Hosseinkhanzadeh, Amirhossein Sadati, Alireza Abdolhamidi, Ali Haqparast
Outside hitters: Amin Esmaeilnejad, Bardia Sa’adat, Ali Hajipour, Pouya Ariakhah
Liberos: Mohammadreza Hazratpour, Arman Salehi, Mehran Tavana.