U23 Football Team Preparing for Jakarta Asian Games

The Croatian manager of Iran U23 national football team Zlatko Kranjcar has summoned 27 players from 14 domestic clubs to training sessions beginning on June 21 ahead of the Jakarta Asian Games.

After their camp in Tehran, they will head to Iraq for friendlies  with the Iraq national team on June 25 and 28, IRNA reported.

The team will head back home after the warm-ups for a recovery period and resume training on August 2. China is the second destination for the young players where they will play a friendly on August 9 with the hosts. No homecoming afterwards. The Iranians will directly go to Jakarta to face Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Myanmar in the group stage matches of Asian Games, August 18-September 2.

Peykan FC with four players has the most number of players among the invitees to the training sessions. Persepolis, Sepahan, and Tractor Sazi each with three come next.

With only four months to the Jakarta Games, Kranjcar was appointed head coach in April with a contract until 2020.

Iran U23 Team won the Asian Games title four times in 1974, 1990, 1998, and 2002 and represents Iran in the Olympics. In their best run at the Olympic Games, the team advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2016 Rio Olympics.