Iran NT 2022

  • The new coach Ataei announced his wide list of 25 players for 2022 season (at least for 2022 VNL)


    Setter: Javad Karimi, Ali Ramezani, Taher Vadi, Fazel Pajouman

    Libero: Mohammad Reza Hazratpour, Abolfazl Gholipour, Mohammad Reza Moazzen

    OP: Saber Kazemi, Amin Esmaeilnejad, Pourya Yali, Bardia Saadat

    MB: Ali Asghar Mojarrad, Amir Hossein Tokhteh, Reza Abedini, Mehrab Maleki, Mehdi Jelveh, Amir Reza Sarlak
    OH: Milad Ebadipour, Amir Hossein Esfandiar, Esmaeil Mosafer, Mojtaba Mirzajanpour, Amir Hassan Farhadi, Morteza Sharifi, Meysam Salehi, Ehsan Daneshdoust


    lots of new names, no sign of Ghafour, Mousavi and of course Marouf. Marouf retired from the NT after the Olympics (even though I wasn't and still isn't sure if it's real) and coach claims Mousavi and Ghafour are big players and they only should play in big matches! that's a weird explanation. does it mean they will come back for the World Championship? I don't know


    from this list, Javad Karimi, Meysam Salehi and Asghar Mojarrad (all starters in last year's Asian Championship) are recovering from knee or shoulder surgeries and most probably will miss the VNL.


    new coach, new team. it will be a tough year

  • Where did the new coach come from? Who did he handle prior to the NT?

    he is a well known coach in the local league but not one of my favorites. his club which finish 2nd in the regular season got eliminated in the QF (losing twice to the 7th seed) and his assistant in the NT won the league with his club!


    he also used to coach the U21 team in past few years. had mixed results. 5th, 9th and a 1st place finish which actually made people think he is a great coach. but most players (Yali, Sharifi, Hazratpour, Esfandiar, Toukhteh) in that U21 team in 2019 which won the World title were in the senior team already, I wouldn't give huge credit to the coach for winning the gold medal with that team. those players won the 2017 World U19 title with another coach as well.


    btw he already coached the senior team at the Asian Championship and beat a non-full squad Japan in the final. (the same team that eliminated Iran at the Olympics) his friends in media made it sound like a huge huge success. so his job is safe for now.

  • Where is Ali Shafiei? He is out of roster for a while. I think he's pretty good middle blocker.

    I believe his NT career is over, Alekno dropped him from the squad before the OG and the new coach didn't invite him back


    interestingly he played last season for the same coach's club and obviously didn't satisfy him to get the call.

  • Why Iran doesn't play Ali Ramezani? He's tall and good setter. I watched him played the Asian Championship last year. He's pretty good.

    because he is simply bad :) just watch the last point of Iran-Brazil's 2nd set when he came in to play just one point and he gifted the set to Brazil.

    from what I heard he will be replaced by another setter for the 3rd week.


    he rarely played at the Asian Championship, maybe you mean Javad Karimi who was the main setter during that tournament.

  • because he is simply bad :) just watch the last point of Iran-Brazil's 2nd set when he came in to play just one point and he gifted the set to Brazil.

    from what I heard he will be replaced by another setter for the 3rd week.


    he rarely played at the Asian Championship, maybe you mean Javad Karimi who was the main setter during that tournament.

    Yes. Javad Karimi was good and tall. Why he's not playing?

  • Kazemi seldom played in this VNL. What's his current condition?


    When did Karimi, Salehi and Mojarad pick up their injuries, and how's their recovery now? They seemed to be healthy at Tokyo last year.

    Kazemi claims he was a bit injured (and needs 1 months rest) and that's why they sent him home after the 1st week but rumors say he wasn't really injured, just out of shape and tired (he played in Qatar after the Iranian league and had too many matches in club season)


    not sure "when" Salehi got injured, I think he was feeling pain in his shoulder for a while and finally decided to go through the surgery


    for Mojarrad it's achilles tendon rupture, it happened in pre-season before the start of the Iranian league


    and Karimi got injured during a CEV CL match, it was against a Russian club (Dynamo Moscow if I'm not wrong), very early in the match.


    Mojarrad is almost recovered and is fully training now. it's not impossible to see him in the final round. (unlikely though) but Salehi and Karimi still need 1 or 2 months to be able to play. they are expected to fully recover in time for the World Championship but you never know.

  • Is there any plan for Ghafour and Mousavi to return to NT? IIRC, they didn't announce retirement from NT.

    no they are not retired. before the NT season our coach said "Mousavi and Ghafour are big players and they only should play in big matches"

    I don't know how we can read this but there is no update about them. personally I think the plan was to rest them for VNL and bring them back if necessary for the World Championship. Mousavi is surely missed, I think there is a good chance to call him back. not sure about Ghafour. Iran looks pretty good without him in OPP position.

  • What did Ebadipour say in this interview? mosi


    first he thanks the fans for not giving up and always supporting then he blamed "the enemies inside the country" saying we don't care about them, because even if we win the Olympic gold they would say that was just a lucky win. (not sure who he is talking about but in general there are some so called volleyball experts who question everything, always nagging)


    he also thanks players for always pushing 100% of their capabilities and about the final round, he says this is a very young team and they are here to gain experiences, no matter what happens in the final round

  • first he thanks the fans for not giving up and always supporting then he blamed "the enemies inside the country" saying we don't care about them, because even if we win the Olympic gold they would say that was just a lucky win. (not sure who he is talking about but in general there are some so called volleyball experts who question everything, always nagging)


    he also thanks players for always pushing 100% of their capabilities and about the final round, he says this is a very young team and they are here to gain experiences, no matter what happens in the final round

    Thanks for your translation.

  • first he thanks the fans for not giving up and always supporting then he blamed "the enemies inside the country" saying we don't care about them, because even if we win the Olympic gold they would say that was just a lucky win. (not sure who he is talking about but in general there are some so called volleyball experts who question everything, always nagging)


    he also thanks players for always pushing 100% of their capabilities and about the final round, he says this is a very young team and they are here to gain experiences, no matter what happens in the final round

    I wonder if he's shading Saeid Rezaei. Rezaei is known to overly criticize the NT since last year. Much of it are unfounded so a lot of fans think that he's just being bitter after not being called back to work as coach in the NT after 2019.

  • coach Ataei called up 16 players for the World Championship,

    Setter: Karimi, Vadi

    Libero: Hazratpour, Moazzen

    OP: Esmaeilnejad, Kazemi

    MB: Mousavi, Mojarrad, Jelveh, Toukhteh

    OH: Ebadipour, Esfandiar, Sharifi, Salehi, Manavinejad, Homayounfar


    I don't know if this list is final or not. this is a bit early to cut your list to just 16 players. specially because we are not sure about some of those injured players, only Mojarrad is cleared to play. Salehi and Karimi are still doubtful


    good to see Mousavi back. he was surely missed in VNL. and I'm surprised Abedini is not here, he was the starting MB before the VNL and those two guys (Toukhteh and Jelveh) didn't shine in VNL to grab his spot. I wonder what happened.