Sardar Azmoun scored 57 goals in 91 international appearances. He is Iran's third-highest scorer of all time. He is 31. He plays regularly for Shabab Al-Ahli in the UAE. He is fit.
He is not going to the World Cup.
Azmoun was dropped from Amir Ghalenoei's squad in March — not for form, not for fitness, but reportedly for a social media post that Iranian officials deemed disloyal during the ongoing conflict with the United States and Israel. He was not included on the preliminary roster. Iran's vice president, Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, publicly called for his reinstatement. The coach did not comply. Azmoun's club teammate Saeid Ezatolahi was selected. Azmoun was not.
There is no precedent in recent World Cup history for a player of this caliber being excluded for these reasons. Fifty-seven goals. Ninety-one caps. Available. Omitted.
Taremi
The squad Ghalenoei built instead
The 26 players who will represent Iran in Group G reflect the peculiar circumstances of Iranian football in 2026. Seventeen play domestically — in a league that has been inactive since February because of the regional conflict. Their clubs have not played competitive matches in nearly four months. Nine are based abroad: five in the UAE, two in Belgium, one in Greece, one in Russia.
The captain is Mehdi Taremi of Olympiacos, and the weight of Azmoun's absence falls entirely on him. Iran arrive at the World Cup with their two greatest strikers of the modern era on opposite sides of the story — one carrying the attack, the other absent from it. For nearly a decade, Taremi and Azmoun defined Iranian football together. Now Taremi carries it alone.
He is 33 and probably playing his final World Cup. His career has followed an unusual trajectory for a striker of his quality — five prolific seasons at Porto, a difficult year at Inter Milan in which he scored three goals, then a €2.5 million move to Olympiacos in August 2025. He scored 10 goals in 15 qualifying matches. Iran's all-time leading scorer, 59 goals in 103 caps. Whatever else has gone wrong around this squad, Taremi has not.
Behind him, the spine is experienced. Alireza Beiranvand of Tractor — the goalkeeper who saved Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty at the 2018 World Cup — has more than 80 caps. Alireza Jahanbakhsh, the former Brighton winger now at Dender in Belgium, provides width alongside Taremi. Rouzbeh Cheshmi of Esteghlal, whose stoppage-time goal against Wales made the 2022 World Cup briefly beautiful for Iran, is in midfield. The veteran Ehsan Hajsafi of Sepahan remains in the defensive group, one of nearly a dozen players with 50 caps or more.
The depth, though, is largely domestic. Players from Persepolis, Esteghlal, Sepahan — names that resonate across Iranian football but carry no recognition in North America. This is by design and by constraint. Iran's overseas pool has always been small. The exclusion of Azmoun makes it smaller.
The fourth consecutive
Qualifying was not straightforward. Iran topped their group in the third round of AFC qualifying, winning seven of 10 matches with Taremi providing the decisive moments. The clinching result came in Tehran on March 25, 2025: a 2-2 draw with Uzbekistan at the Azadi Stadium, Taremi scoring twice — a volley in the 52nd minute and a close-range finish in the 83rd. It was enough to secure a fourth consecutive World Cup.
The preparation has been harder than the qualification. Visa issues forced Iran to abandon a planned training base in Tucson, Arizona, relocating instead to Tijuana, Mexico, with FIFA approval. The federation chief, Mehdi Taj, had his own Canadian visa canceled over prior affiliations with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The team trained first in Antalya, Turkey, before traveling west. They will play all three group matches in the United States — two at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and one at Lumen Field in Seattle — as guests of a country their government is at war with.
The group
Iran have qualified for four consecutive World Cups and never advanced beyond the group stage. The opportunity is familiar. The breakthrough is not. Four consecutive qualifications have turned World Cup participation into an expectation. Advancement remains elusive. Iran have spent twelve years proving they belong at this tournament and twelve years failing to survive it.
They are three-time Asian Cup champions and semi-finalists at the last two editions of the continental tournament. The quality has never been the question. In Group G, they face New Zealand on June 15, Belgium on June 21, and Egypt on June 26. Iran have received harder draws than this and produced weaker squads than this. The seventh attempt begins with something no previous squad has carried: the absence of a player who should be there and the weight of a reason that has nothing to do with football.
If Iran and the United States both finish second in their groups, they would meet in the round of 32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Nobody in either country has forgotten what happened the last time they played at a World Cup.
The squad
Goalkeepers: Alireza Beiranvand (Tractor), Hossein Hosseini (Sepahan), Payam Niazmand (Persepolis)
Defenders: Danial Eiri (Malavan), Ehsan Hajsafi (Sepahan), Saleh Hardani (Esteghlal), Hossein Kanaani (Persepolis), Shoja Khalilzadeh (Tractor), Milad Mohammadi (Persepolis), Ali Nemati (Foolad), Ramin Rezaeian (Foolad)
Midfielders: Rouzbeh Cheshmi (Esteghlal), Saeid Ezatolahi (Shabab Al-Ahli), Mehdi Ghayedi (Al-Nasr), Saman Ghoddos (Kalba), Mohammad Ghorbani (Al-Wahda), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Dender), Mohammad Mohebi (Rostov), Amir Mohammad Razzaghinia (Esteghlal), Mehdi Torabi (Tractor), Aria Yousefi (Sepahan)
Forwards: Ali Alipour (Persepolis), Dennis Dargahi (Standard Liège), Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh (Tractor), Mehdi Taremi (Olympiacos), Shahriar Moghanlou (Kalba)
Coach: Amir Ghalenoei | Group G: Belgium · Egypt · New Zealand
Fixtures: Jun 15 v New Zealand — SoFi Stadium, Inglewood · Jun 21 v Belgium — SoFi Stadium, Inglewood · Jun 26 v Egypt — Lumen Field, Seattle
Fifty-seven goals. Ninety-one caps. Fit. Available. Not selected.
Iran's seventh World Cup begins without Sardar Azmoun.