Sports19 September, 20263 min read
Amir Ghalenoei Names Domestic-Only Roster for Friendlies Against Uzbekistan and Russia
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18 domestic league players named for Iran’s post-World Cup camp. Ali Nahmati is the sole foreign-based player in the squad.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Post-World Cup camp
After Iran’s 2026 World Cup campaign, Amir Ghalenoei’s first roster for two friendly matches against Uzbekistan and Russia centers on 18 domestic players joining a new training camp, with the average age of the domestic group described as about 28.7 years. The roster is framed as a shift from the 30-year-old World Cup team, where the 26-man squad’s average age was about 30, and the new domestic list is described as roughly 1.4 years younger. Among the domestic players who were at the World Cup, eight remain in camp: Alireza Beiranvand, Seyed Hossein Hosseini, Payam Nejadmand, Ehsan Haj Safi, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Saleh Haredani, Ramin Rezaeian, and Arya Yousefi.
The same accounts list new faces in the camp, including Mohammad Naderi, Aref Aghassi, Saman Falah, Mohammad-Mahdi Zareh, Milad Sorki, Aref Haji-eidi, Mehdi Limoochi, Mohammad-Mahdi Mahbi, and Amirhossein Mahmoudi, with Amirhossein Mahmoudi described as 20. The federation also emphasized that the names of the legionnaires would be announced later, meaning the camp’s domestic-only age picture is not treated as the final national-team average.
Debate over youth shift
Tabnak questioned whether the post-World Cup list is truly a national team or instead a group of retirees, arguing that the “project of generational change” had been hidden behind “a mountain of promises and excuses.” Tabnak also criticized the roster’s apparent lack of young faces in most positions, saying, “In most positions, practically no young face with a chance to play is evident.” In contrast, vananews described the domestic list as a first step toward youth integration, saying the “internal list’s average of 28.7 years should be considered the benchmark, not the final team age that will face Russia and Uzbekistan.”
Van anews further argued that the camp list is incomplete because the addition of players abroad would change the age mix, and because many potential youth options are with Iran’s U-23 team in Nagoya. The same debate is reflected in how different outlets treat absences, with vananews noting that Danial Iri and Amir Mohammad Razaghina are currently with the Olympic team in Nagoya for Asian Games and are not in the senior squad’s plans.
Who’s in, who’s out
Beyond the domestic group, فرارو reported that the new national-team camp started at the National Football Center with 18 domestic players and one legionnaire, Ali Nomeati, and said Ghalenoei would later select preferred players from among the legionnaires for the upcoming FIFA-friendly window. فرارو also highlighted Rohollah Cheshmi’s absence from the selected players for the Uzbekistan and Russia matches, while noting that Cheshmi had 39 international caps and that he did not play a single minute for the national team at the World Cup. The same set of accounts ties the youth picture to scheduling, with خبرآنلاین describing that Iran’s U-23 team under Hossein Abdi traveled to Japan for the Asian Games in Nagoya and that holding the Asian Games simultaneously with FIFA days limits Ghalenoei’s ability to use some younger talents.
خبرآنلاین also stressed that the list includes only domestic players and that no legionaries have been announced yet, meaning the 28.7-year average cannot be taken as the precise average for the national team in the upcoming FIFA window. Meanwhile, خبر ورزشی reported that Ali Nahmati joined the camp as the only foreign-based league player, after playing for Lusail Club in the Qatar Stars League, and said his role included center-back and left-back deployment in recent weeks against Al-Arabi and Al-Gharafa.