Roger De Sa, Carlos Queiroz hit ground running in Iran

South African Roger De Sa and his boss Carlos Queiroz have hit the ground running with the Iran national team.

The former Bafana Bafana coach and his backroom team, comprising Roger De Sa, have released a 24-member squad for camp training.

The duo will be in charge of Iran in friendlies against Uruguay and Senegal later this month.

Media reports in Iraq say Iran will face Uruguay on September 23 in Austria before taking on the African champions four days later.

The former Bidvest Wits coach has reunited with Queiroz after the pair worked together with the Egypt national team.

Thanks to Dragan Skocic's efforts to advance to the World Cup, based on the decision of the Football Federation's Executive Board, Carlos Queiroz will be the head coach of Iran's national football team in the Qatar World Cup.#TeamMelli #Iran pic.twitter.com/hKQRSqlZ2S

— محمد جماعت (@JamaatMohamad) September 7, 2022

The Pharaohs loss to Senegal in the AFCON final then the subsequent defeat by the same Teranga Lions in the decisive World Cup African qualifier cost Roger De Sa and Queiroz’s jobs in Egypt.

Now the duo is back in the trenches again with the former Manchester United assistant manager returning to the Iran job.

Iran are playing the friendlies to fine-tune for the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar where they will take on England, Wales and the United States in Group B.

Iran media reports indicate that Roger de Sar is part of the coaching panel as an assistant coach.

Other members of Queiroz backroom team include performance coach Ricardo Silva, Alexandre Lopes (goalkeeping coach), Joao Peixeiro (assistant coach/IT analyst and Micael Moreira (physical therapist).

IRAN’S FULL SQUAD

Goalkeepers:
Payam Niazmand (Sepahan), Hossein Hosseini (Esteghlal), Alireza Beiranvand (Persepolis)

Defenders:
Ramin Rezaeian (Sepahan), Omid Noorafkan (Sepahan), Mehdi Shiri (Foolad), Aref Aghasi (Foolad), Saleh Hardani (Esteghlal), Abolfazl Jalali (Esteghlal), Saman Fallah (Paykan), Armin Sohrabian (Gol Gohar), Mortza Pouraliganji (Persepolis)

Midfielders:
Mehdi Mehdipour (Esteghlal), Mohammad Karimi (Sepahan), Yasin Salmani (Sepahan), Reza Asadi (Tractor), Mehdi Hosseini (Mes Rafsanjan), Mohammad Khodabandehlou (Gol Gohar), Milad Sarlak (Persepolis)

Forwards:
Mohammad Mohebbi (Esteghlal), Mehdi Ghaedi (Esteghlal), Saeid Sadeghi (Persepolis), Mehdi Torabi (Persepolis), Shahryar Moghanlou (Sepahan)