Esteghlal Football Club (Persian: باشگاه فوتبال استقلال;, commonly known as Esteghlal, is an Iranian football club based in Tehran that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League. The club was founded in 1945 as 'The Cyclists' and was known as Tâj between 1949 and 1979. The club is part of the multisport club Esteghlal Athletic and Cultural Company of Iran. They were the first team to reach 1,000 points in Persian Gulf Pro League.
Many sports in Iran are both traditional and modern. Tehran, for example, was the first city in West Asia to host the Asian Games in 1974, and continues to host and participate in major international sporting events to this day. Freestyle wrestling has been traditionally regarded as Iran's national sport, however today, football is the most popular sport in Iran. Because of economic sanctions, the annual government's budget for sport was about $80 million in 2010 or about $1 per person.
The Russia men's national volleyball team is governed by the Russian Volleyball Federation and took part in international volleyball competitions.
The Brazil men's national volleyball team is governed by the Confederação Brasileira de Voleibol(Brazilian Volleyball Confederation) and takes part in international volleyball competitions. Brazil has won three gold medals at the Olympic Games, has won the World Championship three times, and the World League nine times. Brazil is the national volleyball team that has won the most titles overall, and also the team that has won most titles outside their regional competition. The team is sometimes referred to as volleyball's "Dream Team" specially in reference to its winning streak period under coach Bernardo Rezende. Currently Brazil is ranked fifth on the FIVB World Rankings.
The United States women's national volleyball team participates in international volleyball competitions and friendly games, and is governed by USA Volleyball. The current head coach is three-time Olympic gold medalist and retired dominant beach volleyball professional Karch Kiraly.
The Serbia men's national volleyball team is the national team of Serbia. FIVB and CEV considers Serbia the inheritor of the records of SFR Yugoslavia (1948–1991) and Serbia and Montenegro (1992–2006). Serbia won gold at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and bronze at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
The Germany men's national volleyball team represents Germany in international volleyball competitions. It is governed by the German Volleyball Association. Germany won the gold medal at the 1970 World Championship as East Germany and the bronze medal at the 2014 World Championship.
The South Korea men's national volleyball team represents South Korea in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches, governed by Korea Volleyball Association. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has competed in the Olympic Games eight times, but has not featured since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. The national team's best performance at the Olympic Games was 5th place at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, California, United States. The national team at the FIVB World Championship competed nine times, with their best result at 4th place in 1978. On continental level, The national team won three gold medals at the Asian Games in 1978, 2002 and 2006. And at the Asian Championship, the national team won four gold medals, two of these was at home in 1989 Seoul and 2001 Changwon and the other two are in 1993 and 2003. The national team now ranks 30th in the FIVB World Rankings and their current head coach is Im Do-heon.
Paykan Tehran Volleyball Club is an Iranian professional volleyball team based in Tehran, Iran. The team is owned by Iran Khodro, an Iranian automobile manufacturer, and it competes in the Iranian Volleyball Super League. Paykan VC is the volleyball club of the multisport Paykan Sport Club.
Mir Saeid Marouf Lakerani is an Iranian volleyball setter. He was the captain of the Iranian national team. He was named best setter at the 2014 World League and 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic qualifying tournaments, as well as most valuable player at the 2013 Asian Championship. He participated in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He was voted Iranian Sportsmen of the year for (2015–16) of the Iranian calendar by an Iranian
Amir Ghafour is an Iranian volleyball player who plays as an opposite spiker for Iranian club Shahdab Yazd. He is a former member of the Iranian national team.
Armin Tashakori is an Iranian volleyball player who plays for Matin Varamin and Iran men's national volleyball team.
Iran competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's debut in 1948, Iranian athletes had attended in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, with the exception of the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics.
The Asian Boys' U18 Volleyball Championship, formerly known as the Asian Boys' U19 Volleyball Championship, is an international volleyball competition in Asia and Oceania contested by the under 19 men's national teams of the members of Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC), the sport's continent governing body. Tournaments have been awarded every two years since 1997. The top four teams qualified for the FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship. The current champion is Japan, which won its third title at the 2022 tournament.
Ali Shafiei is an Iranian volleyball player who plays as a middle blocker for the Iranian national team and Labaniat Haraz.
Ahsanollah Shirkavand is an Iranian volleyball libero. After playing at the Asian Youth Games, he was invited to the Iran Men's National Volleyball Team and played for it from 1998 to 2000 who finished fourth at the Asian Men's Volleyball Championship. Shirkavand continued playing for the National Team under the coaching of Julio Velasco until 2013, when he was forced to leave national games due to injury.
Mostafa Karkhaneh is a former Iranian volleyball player and coach. He is known for his successful career as a coach, building the Iranian national volleyball team into an international contender. Throughout his career, he managed all national Iranian volleyball teams, including the youth, junior, and senior teams, helping many young players develop their skills.
Mahmoud Afshardoust is the secretary general of the Iranian Volleyball Federation, a former player and coach of the Iran men's national volleyball team. Afshardoust was invited to the national youth team of Iran in 1991, and in 1993 and 1994 he was the captain of the national youth team. In 1994, he became the most valuable (MVP) youth player in Asia. He was invited to the senior national team in 1995, and was in the senior national team until September 2003, won a silver medal in the 2002 Asian Games, and a bronze medal in the 2003 Asian Championship (China). Afshardoust was the coach of the Iranian national team from 2008 to 2010. He won a silver medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, and a silver medal at the 2009 Asian Championships in the Philippines. He was introduced as the Secretary General of the Volleyball Federation of Iran, and resigned from this position in April 2016.
Alireza Jadidi is an Iranian volleyball player. He played for the first time on a national team and got fifth place in the 2005 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship. In 2007, he was once again invited to the national team by Jovica Cvetković and got first place in the 2007 Asian Youth Boys Volleyball Championship. He won the world championship with a junior volleyball team in 2007 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship, in Mexico. He became Asian champion with Iran team 2008 Asian Junior Men's Volleyball Championship and he was the best blocker at that tournament. In 2009 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship. Iran finished in seventh place in Pune, India Alireza Jadidi added 12 points in the victory. Jadidi Became the best blocker on the senior team in 2012 Asian Men's Volleyball Cup. He was named 3rd best blocker among world clubs at 2013 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship, in Brazil. He was chosen as best blocker of Iranian Volleyball Super League for several time years. He was a member of Iran men's national volleyball team.
Erfan Norouzi is a volleyball player from Iran. Norouzi, who started her professional activity in volleyball at the age of 13, after 4 years of amateur activity in this field and achieving success in the youth age group, he was able to become the champion in the city and provincial competitions and became proud.
