{"id":55423,"date":"2026-09-23T10:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=55423"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:00:50","slug":"no-bitterness-over-world-cup-omission-azmoun-says-after-iran-recall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2026\/09\/23\/no-bitterness-over-world-cup-omission-azmoun-says-after-iran-recall\/","title":{"rendered":"No bitterness over World Cup omission, Azmoun says after Iran recall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reuters.com – TEHRAN, Iran striker Sardar Azmoun said he bears no bitterness over being left out of the squad for the World Cup and that his recall to the national \u200bteam on Monday stirred the same joy he experienced with his first call-up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Azmoun \u200cis his country’s second-leading scorer of all time with 57 goals in 91 games but was left out of the squad for the World Cup in North America with state news agency IRNA saying he \u200bwas injured.<\/p>\n

However, other media reports said he had upset government supporters by posting \u200ba picture of a meeting with Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler \u2060of Dubai, shortly after the US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

On Monday, \u200bAzmoun was called up to the squad for friendlies against Uzbekistan and Russia as part \u200bof Iran’s preparations for next year’s Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia. The Iranian Football Federation posted a picture of Azmoun smiling during a meeting with its president, Mehdi Taj.<\/p>\n

“From 2014 until today, I’ve lived \u200bthrough so much in this jersey. I came, I went, I was cut, I \u200bcame back,” Azmoun, 31, wrote in a post on social media.<\/p>\n

“I won, I lost, I laughed, I \u200ccried. But \u2060never, not even when I was away, did I ever see myself as separate from the national team.<\/p>\n

“Maybe after all these years and all these games, getting called up to the national team should be routine for me. But it isn’t. Today when I \u200bfound out I was \u200bcalled up again, \u2060my happiness was just like the first time.”<\/p>\n

Iran were eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup after drawing all three of \u200btheir matches.<\/p>\n

Azmoun, who plays for UAE side Shabab Al-Ahli, said he \u200bdid not \u2060resent anyone for leaving him out of the World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

“I’m not upset with anyone, nor do I have anything to prove,” he added. “I’m just happy to have the chance again. \u2060The \u200bchance to fight with all my heart for the \u200bcountry I love.”<\/p>\n

Iran are in Group C with Syria, Kyrgyzstan and China at the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia. \u200bThe tournament begins on January 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters.com – TEHRAN, Iran striker Sardar Azmoun said he bears no bitterness over being left…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":55425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,212,93,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-iranian-legionnaires","category-c22-players-spotlight","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55426,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55423\/revisions\/55426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}