TEAM COMPOSITION

IRI / Iran - Team Composition

Team manager	KHOSHKHABAR Amir
Head coach	VELASCO Julio
Assistant coach	CICHELLO Juan
Doctor	AFROOZI Siyamak
Therapist / trainer
Journalist

	No.	Name	Lastname	Shirt Name	Birthdate	Height	Weight	Spike	Block
	1	Shahram	MAHMOUDI	SH.MAHMOUDI	20.07.1988	198	95	332	321
	2	Saeed	MOSTAFAVAND	S. MOSTAFAVAND	04.02.1983	195	88	340	322
	3	Mohammadhassan	SENOBARI	M. SENOBARI	11.07.1989	189	83	310	300
	4	Mir Saeid	MAROUFLAKRANI	S. MAROUF	20.10.1985	189	81	332	320
	5	Farhad	GHAEMI	F. GHAEMI	28.08.1989	197	73	330	315
	6	Seyed Mohammad	MOUSAVI ERAGHI	M. MOUSAVI	22.08.1987	203	86	348	328
	7	Hamzeh	ZARINI	H. Zarini	18.10.1985	198	98	336	318
L	8	Farhad	ZARIF AHANGARAN V.	F.ZARIF	03.03.1983	165	60	290	271
C	9	Alireza	NADI	A. NADI	02.09.1980	200	90	334	320
	10	Amir	GHAFOUR	A.GHAFOUR	06.06.1991	202	90	355	316
	11	Mojtaba	MIRZAJANPOUR M.	M.MIRZAJANPOUR	07.10.1991	195	88	325	315
	12	Pourya	FAYAZID.	P.FAYAZI	12.01.1993	195	85	330	310
	13	Mehdi	MAHDAVI	M.MAHDAVI	13.02.1984	191	96	320	310
	14	Alireza	MOBASHERI DEMNEH	A. MOBASHERI	10.06.1988	195	90	345	335
	15	Mohammadreza	SOLEIMANI	M. SOLEIMANI	21.09.1983	190	85	310	300
	16	Peyman	KARIMI	P.KARIMI	09.05.1984	198	90	334	320
	17	Reza	GHARA	R.GHARA	31.07.1991	200	87	341	325
	18	Mohammad Taher	VADI	M.T.VADI	10.10.1989	192	72	327	315
	19	Alireza	JADIDI	A.JADIDI	11.02.1989	202	97	309	305
L	20	Yashar	SHAHINI	Y. SHAHINI	11.05.1983	185	80	300	280

C=Captain L=Libero

Team profile

The Iran men’s team has been enjoying a purple patch of form in recent years. After a strong 2009, Iran qualified for last year’s FIVB World Championship, were runners-up at the 2010 Asian Games and triumphed in a four-way tournament with Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland. On top of that, they became Asian champions and finished ninth at last year’s FIVB World Cup with some favourable results.

The Iranians and their federation are under no illusions that they still have progress to make, but are confident of achieving great things under Julio Velasco, who formerly coached the Italian men’s team among others, and assistant coach Juan Manuel Cichello, who was coach of the successful Argentina youth team. Iran expect to continue to play fast volleyball with a variety of tactics under the two new coaches. In fact, Iran is aiming to achieve success across the board, from junior level to the senior team.

Today’s Iran team is composed of both veterans and younger players. There are several promising players, such as Arash Kamalvand, Amir Ghafour, Amir Hosseini and Farhad Zarif. Participating in a number of different tournaments in recent years has helped the side acquire solid experience, helping the confidence ahead of the start of the Olympic Games qualifying process.

Coach profile

The legendary Julio Velasco started playing when he was 15 but became a coach soon after, winning four Argentina Championships (1979-1982) and four Italian Championships (1986-89) before leading the Italian national team to three gold medals at the European Championship. Velasco’s success with Italy (1989-1996) continued with gold in two FIVB World Championships, five FIVB World Leagues, a World Cup and a Grand Champions Cup. The Argentinean also coached the Italian women’s team (1997-1998), the Czech Republic (2001-2003) and Spain (2009-2010).