Piazza calls up Iran’s 30-man squad for Volleyball Nations League
Iran head coach Roberto Piazza has named a provisional 30-man roster for the upcoming FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League.
The Asian heavyweight will get its campaign underway with a daunting test against Brazil in Brasília on June 10. The two sides also met on the opening day of the annual event last year in the Brazilian capital, with the South American powerhouse emerging victorious in straight sets.
In his second year in charge, the Italian coach has again lined up a young squad for the global showpiece, ignoring the so-called ‘Golden Generation’ of Iranian volleyball – namely the veteran trio of Milad Ebadipour, Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi, and Amir Ghafour.
The national team’s first training camp will begin in the northern Iranian city of Noor on May 1, with Iranian champion Foolad Sirjan’s players – who are set to compete at the AVC Men’s Champions League from May 13 – as well as overseas players joining the rest of the squad after concluding their club duties.
Tricky tests will come thick and fast in Week 1 of the preliminaries for Piazza’s men, who will take on Bulgaria – finalists at last September’s World Championships – on June 11, before facing Argentina and Belgium later in the week at the Nilson Nelson Gymnasium.
Iran also played Argentina and Bulgaria in last year’s edition, defeating the former 3-1 before concluding the preliminary phase with a straight-sets win against the European powerhouse.
Iran will then visit Orléans, France, for the second week of action, starting with a mammoth task against the host and reigning Olympic champion France at the CO’Met Arena on June 24. This will be followed by matches against the United States (June 25), Japan (June 26), and Cuba (June 28).
The third and final week of the preliminaries will see the Iranian men go head-to-head with Ukraine in Belgrade on July 15, with further tests against Germany (July 16), Slovenia (July 17), and Türkiye (July 19).
The top eight teams in the 18-team standings will progress to the VNL Finals, which will begin in Ningbo Beilun, China, on July 29. China is already guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals as the host.
Iran will aim to build on a promising first year under Piazza by securing its first quarterfinal berth in four years at the prestigious tournament. After finishing in the bottom three in the two previous editions, Iran staged a late surge in the 2025 preliminaries to place eighth with six wins from 12 matches. However, Piazza’s team ultimately missed out on the Finals, as China’s host status secured the Asian team a quarterfinal spot despite finishing second from bottom.
The following is Iran’s full provisional VNL squad:
Setters: Arshia Behnejad, Emran Kookjeili, Ilshan Davoudipour, Ardalan Seyyed-Abbasi
Opposite spikers: Amirmohammad Golzadeh, Amin Esmaeilnejad, Pouya Aryakhah, Mohsen Delavari, Ali Mombeini
Outside hitters: Ehsan Daneshdoust, Alireza Abdolhamidi, Matin Hosseini, Amirreza Aftab-Azari, Arian Mahmoudinejad, Morteza Narimani, Seyyed Hossein Zamani, Ra’ouf Khoshhal, Mobin Nasri
Middle blockers: Yousef Kazemi, Seyyed Issa Nasseri, Nima Bateni, Armin Qelichniazi, Shayan Mehrabi, Taha Behboudnia, Amirreza Sarlak, Mahdi Jelveh
Liberos: Mohammadreza Hazratpour, Komeil Khojasteh, Morteza Tabatabaei, Hossein Hajikalateh.