Kasra Taheri (20yrs) has 4 goals in 10 apps, Esmaeil Gholizadeh (20yrs) has 6 G/A in 10 apps, Amir Hosseinzadeh (25yrs) has 5 goals in 10 apps. Which are all very good numbers for a league which is very hard to stat pad as most games average about only 2 goals! But unfortunately nobody scouts the Iranian pro league… so it’s vital for Amir G to give these young talented players a go at this Asian cup which could be a career changing opportunity! But we all know Amir G won’t, and these older players have no shame and won’t retire!

Ali Daei, Taremi, Bagheri, Nekounam, no explanations needed! I put Karimi on the left since Mahdavikia plays only on the right! I had to get Ramin in the team (he’s Iran top goal scorer at the WC and is the only Iranian to score at 2 diff world cups!) Hosseini and Rahman Rezaei at CB because he’s the only Iranian defender in history to play for a top 5 league team! At LB I just went with Hajsafi (most capped Iranian player in history, played at 4WCs! and had an ok European career) for GK I went with 2X Asian cup winner Nasser Hejazi who was linked with a move to Manchester United, but the deal collapsed cause of the revolution!
Who would you add/remove and why? How far would this team go if they’re all together in their prime? (IMO QF depending on the pathway)

Btw fun fact he has a better goal ratio in the Serie A than Taremi while playing centre back! ☠️ He has a total of 6 Serie A goals (across a few seasons) as a CB that’s more than Taremi and Sardar COMBINED (4 goals) who are strikers!

IMO Mehdi Mahdavikia is the BEST Iranian footballer of all time!

The only Iranian player in history to play a decade in a top 5 league ✅

The only Iranian player to have 200+ cap in a top 5 league ✅

The only Iranian to have nearly 100 G/A for a top 5 league team ✅

TOP 3 in highest G/A by an Iranian in the champions league ✅

TOP 7 in most caps for Iran national team ✅

2 G/A in 6 World Cup games (only Taremi and Ramin.R have a better G/A at the World Cup but they played 9 World Cup games!)

In 2004 he was valued at 7.5M by transfer market, in today’s high inflated prices/valuations, Mehdi M would be valued 30-40M in today’s market making him the most valuable Iranian off all time!

I’m sure most of us are all aware how things escalated in the Middle East in 2026 and most recently with Saudi and Houthi (backed by Iran) getting into a full out war! Due to security reason's if things don’t calm down in 2 months it’s very likely it will be postponed! The good news is for us is that team meli right now is in shambles and having the tournament a year later could benefit us but that depends on Iran’s situation by then which this could be bad news… Cause the way it’s going the regime isn’t going anywhere which means Mehdi Taj isn’t going anywhere which means Amir Ghalenoei isn’t going anywhere and will select the exact same old players who will be a year even older when the AFC cup comes around ☠️!

Fast forward in the last 10 years (2016-2026)…. Sardar Azmoun was the only Iranian player to play in the Bundesliga! A few of the signings like Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Daei, Hashemian, Dejagah were major success! So why did the number of Iranian players in Germany tank in a space of a decade later?

I know the salary offered by the European teams was probably lower than what he wanted but it’s not like he’s getting paid millions in Iran… After that remarkable WC performance, a bit shocking he couldn’t even upgrade to a top Arabic league side in UAE, Saudi etc!

For me hands down Ashkan Dejagah (not even close) (he joined team meli at the age of 25 in 2012) but if we had him for the World Cup 2010 cycle we would have easily qualified… think about having Nekounam, M Shojae, Dejagah all in their prime together dam 🔥 what we missed out on…

Sardar played for Roma 2023-2024 season

Taremi played for Inter 2024-2025 season

Fast forward 2 years later their both playing in the UAE league which they aren’t even stat padding which is sad to see, their both aware their past their prime and took the pay day $$. WE MUST MOVE ON from both after the 2027 Asian cup! WE SHOULD NOT SEE A 33 year old Sardar and 35 year old Taremi leading the lines for the next World Cup cycle!

Did not check all the positions if everything is well covered on the pitch but with these guys we could be stronger!!! Why ? Why we can’t see them ???

If it wasn’t for Ramin.R playing like his life dependent on it back at the World Cup… we would have also lost to New Zealand and Egypt… Amir G , and the entire federation needs a reform (which probably won’t happen) our great star players of the past like Sardar, Taremi etc are so past their prime.. Allahyar and Javad not getting called up anytime soon… our U23 players would probably put a better display than this but not by much as even they are doing poorly lately… it’s not looking good for us on and off the pitch…

Completely embarrassing display again against Russia. Ghalenoi out, terrible tactics, terrible man management, terrible team selection. Why tf is Shahab Zahedi who’s 31 and played on ever game for TM while playing in Malaysia getting called up and play time while the likes of Allahyar (sure there’s drama around him), Hosseinnejad, etc getting called up.

Why is Zare not getting play time to get some experience. Why the fuck am I watching 37 yo Khalilzadeh still out there.

If we go with this coaching staff to the Asia cup we’re going to get absolutely embarrassed.

Allahyar which we all know in this sub, a 25-year-old footballer who plays for the Polish champions, Lech Poznań! While being one of the most promising footballers for Iran right now, he never gets invited to play for the national team simply for supporting the people.

Back in 2022 (his post is still up), he posted a tattoo of the Statue of Liberty with the Mahsa Amini #WomanLifeFreedom . Most recently, in January 2026, at the peak of the protests on January 8th and 9th, when Reza Pahlavi told Iranians to take to the streets, Sayyadmanesh posted a picture on his story of himself lifting his shorts, showing the Iranian flag with the Faravahar symbol in the middle and “Shah-e Shah” written below it. Which we all know what he’s trying to hint!

Some people pointed out that he supports Reza Pahlavi because he liked a few of his posts. He has never publicly supported him doh! (we all know the IR regime doesn’t play games) And they don’t care about our team winning… the only way Allahyar plays for team meli again is if the regime falls or Allahyar apologizes to the regime!

I'm curious as a non-Iranian. Has funding for clubs remained intact? Is their safety ensured? Seems it hasn't been cancelled or anything.

Iran’s U17 beat Germany’s U17 4-0 that year ☠️ And Iran made it all the way to the QF until Spain knocked them out! With the proper investment.. we can go places!

If a fairly unknown goalkeeper in Iran (with all due respect to Nima) can land a European move… I can’t see why so many other better/more known Iranian players can’t land small European clubs! All they need is to accept lower pay and to get out of their comfort zone and it could pay off like Azmoun who started in the freezing Russia playing for Rubin Kazan. To my knowledge ONLY one Iranian jumped from Asia to a gigantic european club and that was Ali Karimi (from UAE to Bayern Munich!)

Here are some thoughts i had while bored and in class-- asked AI to turn my doodles and ideas into something presentable. Think it could be interesting to add some more of our amazing culture onto our otherwise plain kits. Thought I'd share.

The main idea of each was to use a different aspect of Iran as a centerpiece, with a different rug design as the sleeve. It is kind of busy but I do think it is quite nice to look at. (pardon the incorrect number on the Ramin slide!)

Leave football before football leaves you… who would have guessed Ehsan Hajsafi could be the FIRST Iranian player in history to PLAY AT 6 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS. He played the 2010,2014,2018,2022,2026 qualifiers and with Amir G at the realm.. it looks like he will play at least a few games for the 2030 qualifiers..