Iran coach Slobodan Kovac named his 16 players who will fortify their bid to the 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League
Tehran, Iran, May 24, 2015 – Iran coach Slobodan Kovac finalised the team composition for the FIVB Volleyball World League, after a series of friendlies in Finland and Czech Republic.
The Iranian men had a 14-day camp with five matches in Europe. In this series of friendlies, Iran were able to gain three victories and two losses, but most importantly, coach Kovac was able to assess his players who will make it to the final cut in the World League.
Kovac sees his young player Mohammad Javad Manavinejad, who joined the team in Czech Republic after triumph in the Asian Men’s U23 Volleyball Championship, to be one of the players to watch out for in their squad.
“So many of my players have the potential to be among the main six,” coach Kovac said. “Young players were carefully evaluated during the friendly matches. Manavinejad was late because of the Asian U23 Championship. I tried to evaluate him in the matches against Czech Republic. He is a good player.”
After the friendly matches, Iran will start their World League campaign with 16 players against last year’s winners USA. Iran will be participating in their third season at the World League, and will look into improving their fourth place finish last year.
Iran will play in Pool B of Group 1 with USA, Russia and Poland.
Iran men’s team
1. Shahram Mahmoudi
2. Milad Ebadipour
3. Samae Faezi
4. Mir Saeid Marouflakrani (C)
5. Farhad Ghaemi
6. Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi
7. Hamzeh Zarini
8. Farhad Zarif (L)
9. Adel Gholami
10. Amir Ghafour
11. Farhad Piroutpour
12. Mojtaba Mirzanjapour
13. Mehdi Mahdavi
14. Mostafa Sharifat
15. Abdolreza Alizadeh (L)
16. Mohammad Javad Manavinejad