Younes Delfi or Mohammad Sharifi - who do you rate more highly, and why?

[Vylela]

Hello all! There's been some talk about there being contacts between an iranian agent and a portuguese player agency, where the aim is basically to find a european club (I imagine a portuguese one) for Delfi and Sharifi to move to. Could be quite interesting.

From what I have gathered they are regarded (along win Taha Shariati) as the two most promising Iranian players, but personally I have never seen them play and know next to nothing about them, so I was wondering: how highly do you guys rate them? What are the main strengths / weaknesses in their game, and to which players would you consider them similar to?

Any info you could give would be much appreciated!

[inarsenewetrust]

The most talented player from our u17 team is not any of the ones you mentioned.

Allahyar Sayyadmanesh is as of now the most talented from that group, a physically crazy Center Forward, who can also play wing, who is starting for Esteghlal at the age of 17. He has captured the interest of many european teams already, and if not for his crazy young age (younger by 1 year than sharifi, shariati, delfi), he would have already moved to europe. Galatasaray and Besiktas were both very serious in their pursuits of him, but Benfica im aware are also interested.Allahyar really has all the talents to be the top CF in Iran for years to come, and a top one in europe, his physique, shooting, speed, pressing, and mental strength are all very impressive. Schaeffer is personally ensuring allahyar develops in the next 2 years to help him succeed when he transfers to europe (which has been his fathers plan, schaeffer's plan, since they decided to get Allahyar in SS). He never actually trained with a team or academy before this, although he was on saipas books, due to some problems with the management. Between Chamanian's camps for U17 in the years before WC, Allahyar trained in his local park to stay in shape. He is really just a crazy natural talent. With proper coaching like schaeffer is giving him there is no limit to what he could do in europe.

After allahyar, I would say Taha shariati is the next most talented. A center back unlike any we have really seen in iran, more technical than even majid hosseini. He is very tall, has great anticipation, and is like a midfielder on the ball. The downside of this is because he is young he still doesnt know when to play it safe and can get himself into trouble dribbling out in the mens game, but against youth opposition in WC he was excellent, and got selected in best 11 of the tournament. He has been injured basically since then though and just returned to saipa training a couple weeks ago. Daei is watching over him closely, he also had one trial at PSV so is definitely attracting interest. If he gets back into form and starts matches for Saipa im sure more euro offers will be on the table. His other main weakness is he is very skinny and needs to get more muscular for a CB.

The two guys you mentioned : Younes Delfi and Mohammad Sharifi. Younes is very technicaly winger, great dribbler, quite good physique (over 6ft), and good crosser and goal scorer. His main weakness is he still doesnt know when and where to dribble, but this is common of wingers his age and will improve a lot if he gets to europe. He had one trial with PSV and is going back for another in the spring. He is currently still a starter for SS Khuzestan, and the more mins he gets the more I think he will improve.

Mohammad sharifi was probably the most talked about player before the u17 WC, but during the tournament the guys I mentioned outshone him. He has good endurance and is a box to box midfielder with eye for goal. He scored two PKs at the WC. He is not very physical but like I said has agood engine and is also a starter in Iranian League for SS Khuzestan. Imo, its hard to say how much potential he has until we see how he physically develops. The issue for midfielders in iran is that most teams dont really play through their midfielders like teams in europe, many of the pitches arent that great, so the young midfielders dont really develop their speed of play that well in Iran. He could develop this if he left sooner rather than later.

IMO, we have young midfielders atm that are maybe 1-2 years older than sharifi but better players like Khodabandelu (Peykan), Shekari(rubin Kazan), etc. Sharifi didnt make Krancjar's TM Omid, but Delfi and Allahyar did. If shariati was fit I think he would have made it too.

I dont really like comparisons for these young players, but Allahyar is really difficult to find a comparision to. He is not just a box forward and is more versatile than that, physically he is insane for his age, there really are not that many comparisions I can think of for him. Maybe somebody else can make one lol.

Shariati is similar to somebody like Mustafi. Takes similar risks but you can see the underlying potential, ability to play out of the back, etc.

Delfi is similar to somebody like Jose Callejon of napoli. Good speed and eye for goal from the wing.

Sharifi is a box to box midfielder. maybe similar to napoli croatian mid Rog.

[Taz]

Their team-mate Vahid Namdari is also an 18 year-old who has broken through to the first team but if you're talking about our best domestic prospects, the SS boys -Allahyar and Ghaedi- are definitely in the mix too.

[inarsenewetrust]

Their team-mate Vahid Namdari is also an 18 year-old who has broken through to the first team but if you're talking about our best domestic prospects, the SS boys -Allahyar and Ghaedi- are definitely in the mix too.

namdari is actually the most underrated guy of the u17 group imo. Very good technical winger.

Ghaedi ofc is a huge talent but is developing well with schaeffer.

But can I ask the opening poster, what teams are potential destinations? We had some agents that took a few mediocre iranian talents to crappy portuguese teams in second or third division that was bascially a joke/waste of time. Are these top portuguese teams?

[Vylela]

@inarsenewetrust thank you very much for the summary, very insightful! Great stuff. What you said about Allahyar Sayyadmanesh sounds especially exciting, but sadly I couldn't find any decent video to get a better feel for his game...

I imagine Queiroz has played a relevant role in this new wave of Iranian talent. As a coach he has his shortcomings, and his personality can be extremely difficult to deal with; but in terms of organisation, method and just knowledge about the game, the man is up there with the best. If my country (Portugal) is a top 10 NT itw nowadays and not some kind of modern day Hungary, it's very much down to the foundations and the structure he built back with 89 to 91 generations. Perhaps he could even have a role in "opening the door" for Iranian players in Portugal? Could be interesting for the Iran NT. It's a competitive league but not a top league, so game time would be attainable, and player development (to sell them at a profit) is basically Portuguese club's MO.

Regarding the team itself, I was only told they are first division teams. More I don't know, and I'm personally not involved in it so can't enlighten you further on the issue. But yeah, definitely not Barreirense or crap like that like what happened to Amir (although tbf, the players you mentioned in this thread are of a different tier and status than other iranian players that moved here)

Note: it may be in the players best interest to not move to a portuguese top team. There they could get thrown in the B / u23 squads and get crystallised there, happened to quite a few highly rated youngsters (Gauld, Willock, Jovic, Dawidowicz, Vitor Andrade, Rubio, LIchnovsky, Fede Varela), took a step too far for their own legs. I reckon it would be best for them to move to a team like Tondela, Moreirense or Santa Clara, teams that play positive football but would guarantee them first division minutes. If they have the quality they'll move on from those teams fast

[inarsenewetrust]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQ5IX3G5yM
this is a good vid of Allahyar's u17 highlights.
He also got chosen by the Guardian as one the top 60 talents of his age group just a couple months ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...world-football

But again, this guy is being trained by Schaeffer, specifically to go to be ready to go to big european team/league. Benfica I know are interested in him and Delfi, but Allahyar also has serious offers from Galatasaray and Besiktas. But I think with Schaeffer's help, we could easily see Allahyar in Bundesliga. physically he is just a beast, never stops running, pressing, can shoot with both feet, head. A really direct power player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEskNWUFDoI

here is really good vid of taha shariati.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PxwydZ4m7U

delfi.

[Sly]

I also agree that about Allahyar Sayyadmanesh!

He's better than all of them and to me it would be criminal if any player of that team went to a decent team in Europe before him at this age!

[Tehranto]

Probably the most unheralded out of all of these is Mohammad Reza Ghobishavi.

He is a fantastic distributor and ball winner. He outplayed Mohammad Sharifi in the 2017 U17 World Cup.

[Ali Doust]

Probably the most unheralded out of all of these is Mohammad Reza Ghobishavi.

He is a fantastic distributor and ball winner. He outplayed Mohammad Sharifi in the 2017 U17 World Cup.

Ghobishavi was the captain of that team. Correct?

[Tehranto]

Mohammad Reza Ghobishavi scored today for Sanat Naft Abadan in the Persian Gulf Pro League vs. Saipa.

[Leicester City]

Hello all! There's been some talk about there being contacts between an iranian agent and a portuguese player agency, where the aim is basically to find a european club (I imagine a portuguese one) for Delfi and Sharifi to move to. Could be quite interesting.

From what I have gathered they are regarded (along win Taha Shariati) as the two most promising Iranian players, but personally I have never seen them play and know next to nothing about them, so I was wondering: how highly do you guys rate them? What are the main strengths / weaknesses in their game, and to which players would you consider them similar to?

Any info you could give would be much appreciated!

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/140994/...-Mar%C3%ADtimo

Thanks for making this possible!

[teammelli91]

That U-17 Team Melli was pure Gold. I’m closely following their individual performances too and luckily they aren’t doing too bad for themselves.

Of course we all want them to go to Europe but it’s unfortunately not that easy for Iranian players these days. Even though they beat Germany and Mexico in the World Cup. But hopefully that trend will change and European leagues start scouting our league too.


I always wonder what comes out of Mehdi Taj signing all of these agreements with all these European football federations. I wonder if it’s just for Team Melli, if our league will benefit from these signed agreements, or if it’s just for poz and chos. We always see photos of Taj and presidents of other federations, but we don’t see any action taking place. If we sign agreements with say Eredivisie for example, shouldn’t we see friendly matches taking place between clubs of our league vs the Dutch league? And I’m not talking about having a pir o paataal friendly where Gattusso comes to Iran with Clarence Seedorf to play vs Pot Belly Minavand and company. I’m talking about real competition which will benefit our league and specially our younger players.