Iran national under-23 football team

Iran under-23
NicknameTeam Melli Omid (The Hope National Team)
AssociationFFIRI
ConfederationAFC (Asia)
Head coachvacant
CaptainMohammad Javad Hosseinnejad
Home stadiumAzadi Stadium
FIFA codeIRN
First colours
Second colours
First international
 Iran 2–1 Kuwait 
(Kuwait City, Kuwait; 3 December 1977)[1]
Biggest win
 Iran 10–0 Afghanistan 
(Busan, South Korea; 28 September 2002)
Biggest defeat
 Iran 2–6 Japan
(Tehran, Iran; 9 February 2001)
AFC U-23 Championship
Appearances5 (first in 2013)
Best resultQuarter-finals (2016)
Asian Games
Appearances7 (first in 2002)
Best result Gold Medal (2002)
Medal record
Asian Games
2002 Busan Team
2006 Doha Team
WAFF U-23 Championship
2015 Qatar Team
2023 Iraq Team
West Asian Games
1997 Tehran Team
2002 Kuwait City Team
2005 Doha Team

Iran national under-23 football team, also known as Iran U-23 or Iran Olympic Team; represents Iran in international football competitions in Olympic Games, Asian Games and AFC U-22 Asian Cup, as well as any other under-23 international football tournaments. It is controlled by the Iran Football Federation.

History

The winner of the gold medal at the 2002 Asian Games, the team was prepared to defend its championship title at the football tournament of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. Despite a suspension by FIFA, preventing Iran to enter any international football competition,[2] the Iran under-23 team was given special permission to participate in the Asian Games,[3] where they won the bronze medal.

Wild cards

Football at the Asian Games has required that under-23 players enter the competitions, but they have allowed three over-age players can be included in the squad. Iran used three players, known as the "Wild cards", in three versions of the games in 2002, 2006, 2010 And 2022:

Competition Wild card 1 Wild card 2 Wild card 3
2002 Asian Games Ali Daei (C) Yahya Golmohammadi Ebrahim Mirzapour (GK)
2006 Asian Games Hassan Roudbarian (C/GK) Arash Borhani Jalal Hosseini
2010 Asian Games Mehdi Rahmati (C/GK) Gholamreza Rezaei
2022 Asian Games Hossein Hosseini (C/GK) Amir Arsalan Motahari

Results and fixtures

Legend

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixture

2025

29 August 2025 Friendly Iran  5–1  Chinese Taipei
3 September 2026 AFC U-23 ACQ Iran  4–0  Hong Kong Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
17:30 UTC+4
  • Jafari 70'
  • Razzaghinia 73'
  • Taheri 86', 90+2'
 Report Stadium: Al Nahyan Stadium
Attendance: 145
Referee: Kim Yu-jeong (South Korea)
6 September 2026 AFC U-23 ACQ Guam  0–6  Iran Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
17:30 UTC+4 Report
Stadium: Al Nahyan Stadium
Attendance: 70
Referee: Sashanka Madushanka (Sri Lanka)
9 September 2026 AFC U-23 ACQ United Arab Emirates  2–3  Iran Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
17:30 UTC+4
  • Al-Kass 45+4'
  • Al-Mansoori 72'
 Report
Stadium: Al Nahyan Stadium
Attendance: 467
Referee: Zaid Thamer Mohammed (Iraq)

2026

3 January 2026 Friendly Iran  1–0  China
7 January 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup GS South Korea  0–0  Iran Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
14:30 UTC+3 Report Stadium: Al-Shabab Club Stadium
Attendance: 127
Referee: Ammar Mahfoodh (Bahrain)
10 January 2026 (2026-01-10) 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup GS Iran  0–0  Uzbekistan Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
17:00 Report Stadium: Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium
Attendance: 140
Referee: Abdullah Jamali (Kuwait)
13 January 2026 (2026-01-13) 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup group stage Iran  0–1  Lebanon Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
14:30 UTC+3 Report
Stadium: Al-Shabab Club Stadium
Attendance: 122
Referee: Faisal Al-Balawi (Saudi Arabia)

Coaching staff

Current coaching staff

As of 03 September 2025
Position Name
Head coach vacant
Assistant coaches Iman Mobali
Hadi Mahdavikia
Goalkeeping coach Ehsan Vajdi
Fitness coach
analyzer
Team Supervisor
Physiotherapist
Team doctor
Team manager Habib Kashani

Manager history

Players

Current squad

2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup squad

The following 23 players were called up for the 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.[4]

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Club
1GK Mohammad Khalifeh (2004-08-19)19 August 2004 (aged 21) Aluminium Arak
1GK Amir Mehdi Maghsoudi Sepahan
1GK Pouria Rafiei Sepahan
2DF Bahram Goudarzi (2005-10-20)20 October 2005 (aged 20) Aluminium Arak
2DF Arshia Vosoughifar Fajr Sepasi
2DF Danial Eiri (2003-10-26)26 October 2003 (aged 22) Malavan
2DF Mohammad Mahdi Zare (2003-01-24)24 January 2003 (aged 23) Akhmat Grozny
2DF Masoud Mohebi Kheybar
2DF Farzin Moamelehgari Shams Azar
2DF Seyed Mehdi Mahdavi (2005-09-30)30 September 2005 (aged 20) Aluminium Arak
3MF Amir Mohammad Razzaghinia (2006-04-11)11 April 2006 (aged 19) Esteghlal
3MF Pouria Latififar Gol Gohar
3MF Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad (captain) (2003-06-26)26 June 2003 (aged 22) Dynamo Makhachkala
3MF Mahdi Jafari Malavan
3MF Amirreza Sheykhirad Nassaji
3MF Mahdi Goudarzi Kheybar
3MF Abbas Habibi Malavan
4FW Yadegar Rostami (2004-01-02)2 January 2004 (aged 22) Fajr Sepasi
4FW Hamid Reza Zarouni (2005-10-08)8 October 2005 (aged 20) Kheybar
4FW Reza Ghandipour (2006-01-13)13 January 2006 (aged 20) Al Wahda
2DF Erfan Jamshidi Paykan
4FW Mohammad Askari Sepahan
4FW Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi (2004-03-28)28 March 2004 (aged 21) Persepolis

Previous squads

AFC U-23 Asian Cup
Asian Games

Honours

Continental

Gold Medal (1): 2002
Bronze Medal (1): 2006
4th place (1): 2010

†U-23 teams were favoured by AFC and the IOC since 2002 Asian Games.The Senior team competed in the games before 2002.

Regional

Winners (1): 2015
Runners-up (1): 2023
Champions (1): 1997.
Runners-up (1): 2002.
3rd place (1): 2005.

Other

Competitive Record

Olympic Games

Summer Olympic Games Qualification
Year Result Rank M W D L GF GA GD Squad M W D L GF GA GD Link
1908–1988 See Iran national team See Iran national team
1992 Did not qualify 8 5 2 1 19 6 +13 Link
1996 4 2 1 1 9 4 +5 Link
2000 4 1 1 2 3 6 -3 Link
2004 6 3 0 3 22 9 +13 Link
2008 6 1 2 3 6 7 -1 Link
2012 4 1 1 2 1 5 -4 Link
2016 Via AFC U-23 Asian Cup
2020
2024
2028
Total — 0/9 – – – – – – – – 32 13 7 12 53 36 +17 Link

AFC U-23 Asian Cup

AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qualification
Year Result Rank M W D L GF GA GD Squad M W D L GF GA GD Link
2014 Group Stage 9th 3 1 1 1 6 5 +1 Squad 5 4 1 0 13 2 +11 Link
2016 Quarter-finals 6th 4 2 0 2 6 7 -1 Squad 4 3 0 1 15 2 +13 Link
2018 Did not qualify 2 1 0 1 2 3 -1 Link
2020 Group stage 9th 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 Squad 3 2 1 0 6 1 +5 Link
2022 12th 3 0 2 1 3 4 -1 Squad 3 3 0 0 9 2 +7 Link
2024 Did not qualify 3 2 0 1 7 1 +6 Link
2026 Group stage 14th 3 0 2 1 0 1 -1 Squad 3 3 0 0 13 2 +11 Link
Total 5/7 16 4 6 6 18 20 -2 — 23 18 2 3 65 13 +52 Link

Asian Games

Asian Games Record
Year Result Rank M W D L GF GA GD Squad
1951 to 1998 See Iran national team
2002 Champions 1st 6 4 2 0 16 2 +14 Squad
2006 Third Place 3rd 6 4 1 1 10 6 +4 Squad
2010 Fourth Place 4th 7 5 0 2 14 8 +6 Squad
2014 Group Stage 22nd 2 0 1 1 2 5 -3 Squad
2018 Round of 16 13th 4 1 1 2 3 4 -1 Squad
2022 Quarter-finals 6th 5 3 1 1 9 1 +8 Squad
2026 To be determined
Total 7/7 - 30 17 6 7 54 26 +28 —

WAFF U-23 Championship

WAFF U-23 Championship record
Year Result M W D L GF GA
2015 Champions 4 3 1 0 8 3
2021 Not a WAFF member
2022
2023 Runners-up[a] 4 1 3 0 5 3
Total 2/4 8 4 4 0 13 6
  1. ^ Not a WAFF member, participated as invitee.

West Asian Games

West Asian Games record
Year Result M W D L GF GA
1997 Champions 4 3 1 0 8 4
2002 Runners-up 4 1 3 0 5 4
2005 Third place 4 3 1 0 10 2
Total 3/3 12 7 5 0 23 10

Islamic Solidarity Games

Islamic Solidarity Games record
Year Result M W D L GF GA
2005 See Iran B national team
2010 Cancelled
2013 Did not enter
2017
2021 Group Stage[a] 3 0 0 3 0 9
2025 To be determined
Total 1/4 3 0 0 3 0 9
  1. ^ Iran withdrew before the start of the tournament. However, all results were announced as 3–0 in favor of Iran's opponents.

See also

References

  1. ^ "اولین تیم امید تاریخ (عکس) :: ورزش سه" (in Persian). Varzesh3. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  2. ^ "FIFA suspends Iran Football Federation". FIFA. Archived from the original on 2 January 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
  3. ^ "FIFA President announces temporary lifting of Iran ban". the-AFC.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
  4. ^ "فهرست ۲۳ نفره تیم ملی امید برای اردوی امارات و جام ملت‌های آسیا". Iranian Football Federation (in Persian). 23 December 2025.

Head-to-head record

The following table shows Iran's head-to-head record in the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

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