Goal - Iran have called up a number of their European-based stars in their squad of 25 players for three friendly games in August and September.

Team Melli will face Bosnia-Herzegovina on August 12 in Sarajevo, then travel to Manama for a tie with Bahrain on August 31.

Afshin Ghotbi’s men then move to Tashkent for a match with Uzbekistan on September 5.

Iran who failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, are without the retired trio of Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi and Vahid Hashemian.

The three-time Asian champions are using the games as preparation for November’s 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers against Jordan.

Goalkeepers: Seyed Mehdi Rahmati, Vahid Taleblou, Misagh Memarzadeh, Rahman Ahmadi.

Defenders: Khosrow Heydari, Ali Reza Mohammad, Hadi Aghili, Mohammad Nosrati, Hossein Kaebi, Farshid Talebi, Seyed Jalal Hosseini.

Midfielders: Javad Nekounam, Masoud Shojaei, Ferydoon Zandi, Ehsan Hajisafi, Andranik Teymourian, Farzad Ashoubi, Mehrzad Madanchi, Hossein Kazemi, Pejman Nouri, Iman Mobali, Mojtaba Jabbari.

Forwards: Arash Borhani, Mohammad Reza Khalatbari, Mojtaba Zarei

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So kaebi's retirement was a bogus story after all.

And also the bosnians I saw Bosnia's squad and they will come with a strong squad too.

I don't know. As time goes by, I dislike Ghotbi's style more and more. Look at that selection. It just looks like the selction of any of our domestic coaches, trying to keep his job.

What happened to building for the future? What happened to having a new team, new players? Nekounam, Aghili, Hosseini, Zandi, Kazemi, Madanchi, etc. although many of them are fantastic players, they'd be pretty old in the next WC. and you know the expiration date of the iranian players are usually not that high (with the exception of only afew). Why doesn't he try out new young players? After all, this is just a friendly!

Daei was an inexperienced coach and his tactics weren't that unpredictable. But one thing that still makes me to like his style, is the above mentioned thing. He wasn't affraid of trying out new, young players and didn't stick to stars. The latter was Ghotbi's downfall in our remaining WCQ games.