I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y DECEMBER 20, 2018 SPORTS 15

Infantino offers Ali Gholizadeh doubtful for condolence AFC Asian Cup SPORTS — international midfielder deskAli Gholizadeh looks set to miss his country’s 2019 AFC Asian Cup due to a foot injury. over death of The Charleroi midfielder suffered an ankle sprain after a duel with Antonio Milic in Anderlecht match on Dec. 9. Iraj Danaeifard Gholizadeh left Belgium to join the Iranian delegation in after consulting with SPORTS TEHRAN — FIFA Presi- World Cup. the doctors. deskdent Gianni Infantino ex- Danaeifard equalized the match in the “Ali went to to be tends his deepest sympathies to the family second half and secured Iran’s first ever World treated in a world-renowned and friends of Iranian football player Iraj Cup point, and their last for 20 years till a center, where his national Danaeifard who passed away last week. famous win over the United States. team is currently staying to Danaeifard died of a cardiac arrest in After the Asian Cup in in 1980 he prepare for the Asian Cup,” Shiraz’s Namazi Hospital at the age of 67. announced his retirement from international Pierre-Yves Hendrickx, Gen- “I wish to extend my deepest sympathy football with 17 caps and 3 goals for Iran. eral Secretary of Sporting to Danaeifard’s family and Iranian football Danaeifard played for Iranian football Charleroi told dh.be. fans. Our thoughts and prayers go out to giants Taj from 1970 to 1972. He also Gholizadeh must be fit two weeks before the start of the his family,” said Infantino in a letter to Iran played for Iranian football clubs Oghab tournament. Football Federation President Mehdi Taj. and Pas. Iran national football team have been drawn with Iraq, Yemen Danaeifard was the scorer of the first In 1980, he moved to the United States and in Group D of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. official goal for Iran national football team and started playing for the NASL team, the The competition was scheduled to take place from Jan. 5 to in the FIFA World Cup. Tulsa Roughnecks. He remained in the club Feb. 1 in the UAE. He scored against Scotland at the 1978 until 1984 when the league folded. Siamand Rahman decided Branko Ivankovic praises Iranian not to go for world record: celebration of Yalda Paralympic SPORTS TEHRAN — football team Year) have their roots in ancient traditions,” Ivankovic desk TInternational Committee Paralympic (IPC)’s website has pub- head coach Branko Ivankovic praised told Tehran Times. lished an article about the world’s strongest powerlifters who the Iranian festival Yalda Night, saying the feast brings “These kinds of traditions have always brought the secures slots for the Tokyo 2020 . the Iranians together. Iranian families together and make sense of friendship,” The world’s strongest Paralympian Siamand Rahman decided “Yalda,” a Syriac word which means birth was incor- the Croat added. not to go for the world record this time but still easily won the porated into the Persian language. A celebration of the Persepolis are going to win the Iran Professional men’s over 107kg after clearing the bar at 285kg. Winter Solstice according to the solar calendar which League (IPL) for the third time in a row, Ivankovic said, Rahman finished first at the -Oceania Open Pow- this year falls on Friday, Dec. 21, considered the shortest “I’ve already said Persepolis want to win all the trophies. erlifting Championships which took place in Kitakyushu, day of the year. We’ve previously won IPL twice and want to defend it Japan in September. “Iranians have preserve their customs and traditions for the third time. We’ve won Super Cup and we want to The 30-year old Paralympian broke the 300kg barrier in the for thousands of years. Yalda and Nowruz (Persian New win Hazfi Cup and AFC Champions League.” men´s over 107kg at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, lifting an unprecedented 310kg. Al Somah: This is ’s time to shine (Source: Paralympic.org) has urged his Syrian netted over 100 times in four seasons with tralia might not be important, but we always teammates to make the most of a once ’s Al Ahli club. play to win in every match.” in a generation opportunity and produce “We started a new era, a more serious one. Unable to play matches on home soil, Iranian woman cyclist Dehghan a performance to remember at the AFC Everyone knows the importance of the Asian Syria have struggled somewhat in friendly Asian Cup UAE 2019. Cup and we are not there just to participate, matches staged in West, East and Central joins MEXX–Watersley The Qasioun Eagles have never survived we want to compete for the title. Asia during their build-up to the Finals, with the group stage at the Continental Finals, “The team has developed and become recent wins in and Kuwait their TEHRAN — Mandana Dehghan from Iran joined the Nether- but the current Syrian side is one with ample better since the World Cup Qualifiers, espe- first since Stange’s appointment in January. land’s MEXX–Watersley International Women’s Cycling Team. reason to believe they are capable of going cially with the new coach. Everyone noticed But, with four international goals to his She is the first ever female Iranian rider to join a European team. to the knockout stage and beyond. that during the friendly matches. name in 2018, there have been few complaints Mandana has joined MEXX–Watersley from the UCI Wom- Prolific striker Al Somah and 2017 AFC “The team is complete, no one is missing, the World Cup. They have developed from about Al Somah’s individual contribution, en’s Team, Al Asayl Cycling Team. Player of the Year Omar Khribin are the and we promise our fans that we will play the match we played against them, but also and the goal machine said there are no ex- She finished in 7th place in the 2018 held in spearheads of a talented Syrian squad, which in a way to make our country proud and our team has developed a lot, it is not the cuses for his team come January. , . went within 180 minutes of qualifying for happy, and we will not settle for less than same side who played against Australia in “Our team is complete, we are not missing “MEXX–Watersley is happy to announce we have signed the 2018 FIFA World Cup before losing a the semi-finals.” and Sydney (in September 2017),” anything,” he declared. “We thank the Syr- Mandana Dehghan. We are proud to support her to develop play-off thriller to reigning Asian champions Syria’s Matchday Three clash with the he explained. ian Football Association who hired a good as a rider in 2019,” the Dutch club announced on its website. Australia 3-2 over two legs. Socceroos is the one which leaps off the page “Our schedule will be against Palestine, international coach who has a modern style Syria are set to face the Australians again when assessing Group B, which also features then Jordan, then Australia, so our concen- of play and has developed the team a lot in in the UAE but Al Somah isn’t interested Jordan and Palestine. tration will be on the first match, then after a short time.” in looking back, preferring to focus on a Head coach has said Syria’s that the second match, and we hope we will “As I said, we are not going to play just Mohammad Naderi close to competition he believes his side are capable World Cup exit will serve as extra motiva- go to the match against Australia with six for participation, but also to compete for of winning. tion in that clash, but Al Somah stressed points, and already qualified. the title.” joining Persepolis in January “The match against Australia in the the important of remaining focused on one “The coach knows the team, and the most Syria’s AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 cam- World Cup qualifiers is from the past, game at a time. important thing is to qualify to the second paign begins against Palestine on January 6. PLDC — Iranian center back Mohammad Naderi has been re- it is gone,” said the striker, who has “Everyone saw the Australian team in round. At that stage, the result against Aus- (Source: the-afc) portedly linked with a move to Persepolis football team. The 22-year-old defender currently plays in Belgian club K.V. Kortrijk. India said no to Iran friendly match, says coach Constantine Persepolis should pay 70,000 euros to the Belgian first division India national team head coach has who are playing in the Asian Cup,” said Constantine. team to sign him on loan. claimed that he turned down a request from Iran head “We couldn’t manage more matches, but it wasn’t for Iranian media reports suggest that the player’s agent has coach for a friendly match between the the lack of trying,” he said explaining how such practice reached an agreement with Persepolis and the 22-year-old two sides ahead of the AFC Asian Cup 2019. matches are scheduled. “Most of the times, it is the coaches player will most likely join the Iranian giants in the January India will make an appearance in the Asian Cup at who let know if they are interested. I had a call from Iran transfer window. the (UAE) after missing out on coach Carlos Queiroz asking me if we were interested in Naderi has started his playing career in Tractor Sazi in 2016 the 2015 edition held in Australia. And Constantine’s playing them on December 30,” Constantine said. and has also played in Nassaji Mazandaran. Blue Tigers are set to fly to for two weeks of “But we already had scheduled on December 27 and intense training ahead of their opener against Thailand December 30. And hence, couldn’t. But we still played on January 6. strong teams like Jordan and will play the likes of Oman However, a lack of practice matches has been a concern in the buildup to the tournament,” said the India coach. World chess official for the Indian team and the English coach addressed India are also expected to play Syria in another friendly the issue during a press meet held in New Delhi after before the tournament. meets head of Iran’s the launch of the national team’s new kits for the up- The former Nepal and Rwanda coach also said that chess federation coming competition. qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup 2019 is in itself a major be proud,” he said. “We will have two weeks in Abu Dhabi to acclimatize to achievement for India. “I remember the exact moment Constantine also reported that defender Jerry Lalrin- the conditions. As far as preparations are concerned, we we mathematically qualified for the Asian Cup after a zuala has joined Nishu Kumar on the injury table for the IRNA — Special Assistant to the President of the World are okay. But, we could have had a few more matches. We 2-2 draw with Myanmar. It is a fantastic achievement Blue Tigers. Chess Federation (FIDE) Berik Balgabayev met in Tehran tried contacting a lot of teams and wanted to play nations and everyone associated with the national team should (Source: Fox Sport Asia) on Wednesday the president of Iran’s Chess Federation Mehrdad Pahlavanzadeh. During the two-hour meeting, the two sides discussed bilat- The retired legends who will be missed at AFC Asian Cup 2019 eral cooperation. The meeting follows an agreement reached between FIDE and FOX Sports Asia football editor Gabriel Tan say-die attitude endeared him to many a fan, giants to the final of the AFC Champions a greater impact at the World Cup than the the Asian Chess Federation two weeks ago to join three Iranians looks at five iconic players who will be sorely even those in the opposition camp, and he League, having netted a couple of crucial Asian Cup but still played a key role in their to the World Federation Commissions. missed at AFC Asian Cup 2019 after they re- finished his international career having played goals in the knockout round against Al Jazira 2011 triumph. cently called time on their international careers. in four World Cups and three AFC Asian Cups. and Al Duhail. Honda has shown he still has plenty to offer Asian football’s biggest competition has The last of those saw him help the Soc- 3) Taisir Al-Jassim (Saudi Arabia) with the storming start to life he has made in the arrived once again with 24 of the continent’s ceroos win their maiden Asian Cup title on A true legend of Saudi Arabia, Taisir A-League with Melbourne Victory, although Three Iranian Greco-Roman best teams set to converge in United Arab home soil in 2015, and his departure – al- Al-Jassim has spent his entire career at his international involvement now comes in Emirates for AFC Asian Cup 2019. though he still plays at club level with Indian Al Ahli apart from three loan spells at Al the form of being Cambodia coach after he teams to attend in World The tournament has long served as a plat- outfit Jamshedpur – has left a big hole to Gharafa, Qatar SC and Al Wehda. ended his Japan career after Russia 2018. form for Asia’s finest players to shine but, fill in the Australia attack. The visionary playmaker made his Asian 5) Makoto Hasebe (Japan) Wrestling Clubs Cup with a four-year gap since the last edition in 2) (Iran) Cup debut in 2007, where he played a key Where Honda provided the spark for 2015, some all-time greats have since retired Having won 116 caps over 11 years, Jalal role as a 22-year-old in helping the Green Japan in the past decade, Makoto Hasebe IRNA — Three Greco-Roman teams from Iran are scheduled and will not be gracing the stadiums in Abu Hosseini retired from international football Falcons reach the final. certainly provided the spirit. to attend the upcoming World Wrestling Clubs Cup, according Dhabi, , and . as Iran’s fourth highest-capped player behind Al-Jassim was part of a formidable genera- The central midfielder was always a calm- to the director of Sports and Youth Department of Iran’s north- Here, FOX Sports Asia looks back at five three illustrious names in , tion of Saudi Arabian talent, which also included ing influence in the middle of the park and western province of Ardebil. Asian legends that will be sorely missed at and , which should be Yaseer Al-Qahtani, Salman Al-Faraj, Osama still gets the job done in the with Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on United Arab Emirates 2019. testament to how good he was even if he Hawsawi and Mohammad Al-Shalhoub, that , even as he is about to Tuesday, Bahram Aghakhani said that the Iranian teams attending 1) Tim Cahill (Australia) never made the move to Europe. will be sorely missed in the years to come. turn 35 in January. the event are Ardebil’s Bimeh Razi, Ardebil’s Defenders of Holy Arguably Australia’s greatest-ever foot- At 36, Hosseini is still going strong even 4) (Japan) Hasebe’s finest hour for the Samurai Blue Shrine and Izeh’s Sina San’at. baller with 50 goals in 108 caps, it is a shame if he just failed to make the final cut for the Although Japan have had no shortage of came in 2011 when he captained them to the He added that six non-Iranian teams from , Russia, that Tim Cahill did not get to star at one final 2018 World Cup, having been included in outstanding talent throughout their history, Asian Cup, but he also showed he can match Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan will also be present at major tournament after being restricted to Carlos Queiroz’s preliminary squad. Keisuke Honda will undoubtedly go down it with the world’s best in three consecutive the competitions. a bit-part role at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The Persepolis centre-back enjoyed a as one of their all-time greats. World Cups from 2010 to 2018. 2018 World Wrestling Clubs Cup will be hosted by Ardebil Cahill’s all-action style of play and never- strong finish to the year by guiding the Iranian Interestingly enough, he arguably made (Source: Fox Sport Asia) on Dec 20-21.