Report by our collaborator Mahdiar Ghaffari

Heidarian to save Esteghlal

Two weeks after a member of IRIFF futsal committee announced the exclusion of Esteghlal from the super league due to their delay in submitting the required documents, after many "gossip" about the dismissal of The Blues' futsal team, now some good news are finally coming from Esteghlal club.

Esteghlal disappearance would have been something awful for Mohammad Reza Heidarian, who has started his career in this club, and never tried to play for another team in Iran.

Heidarian spent the last three seasons in the Italian side Ceccano and now is back in Iran to save his favourite team.
Thanks to the valuable attempts of the former Team Melli captain, the man who has conquered the Asian Cup 7 times, Esteghlal is rejoining the Super league.

Esteghlal (The Blues) and Persepolis (The Reds) are the two top Iranian Sports Clubs especially because of their 11-a-side teams. Persepolis futsal was relegated to the lower division at the end of last season. After that, the new club president Mohammad Hassan Ansarifard (former head coach of Iran national futsal team, since 2001 to 2004) announced that his club ended its adventure in futsal.

On past Sunday Saeid Abdollahnejadian, Hosein Niazi, Reza Fallahzadeh, Hamed Hajmehdi and Mojtaba Ahangaran (all played for Persepolis in last season) signed with Esteghlal as new players.

Mohammad Reza Heidarian, the captain, also leads the team. It's his second experience as coach-player of Esteghlal. In 2002 he managed to take the Blues to won their second league title.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com