According to Imna News Agency, the Sepahan Steel Men's Handball Team was among the contenders in the 38th edition of the country's top handball league last season and finally ended its career by placing in the third place. Sepahan, which is the most proud team in the history of Iran's top handball league with 17 titles, won its 17th championship in the 1403-1404 season and could not defend its championship title last season.
Majid Rahimizadeh is one of the veteran handball figures of Iran and Sepahan, who has many years of experience in the national team as a player and coach, and at one point he was in charge of leading the senior national team of Iran.
During his career in Sepahan, Rahimizadeh has experienced a total of 16 Premier League championships and eight elimination cup championships as a player and coach, and three Asian positions have also been recorded in his record. This history and knowledge of the structure of the club and Isfahan handball provided the grounds for Rahimizadeh's return to the bench of Sepahan's Folad Mobarakeh handball team this season. Sepahan, under the guidance of Majid Rahimizadeh, is looking to return to the championship path and make more use of the potential of young and local players. is itself
In this regard, a conversation with Majid Rahimizadeh, the head coach of Sepahan Folad Mobarakeh handball team We have had it, which you can read below:
Imna: Considering your constant belief in youth, what approach have you taken in recruiting and using young players for this season's transfers?
Rahimizadeh: At the beginning of the work, we tried to maintain the composition of the last season's team and we added some players to the team. Compared to last season, the average age of the team has decreased and the number of non-native Isfahan players has also decreased from 12 to eight. We hope that this year we will be able to reach the position that is worthy of the great Sepahan club and win the best and most beautiful medal.
The issue of youth has always been my concern in the past few years, and in the past few years I have worked with young players. As I said, the average age of the team has decreased compared to last season, and I hope that the trust in young players can be effective in the future. We hope that in the coming years, we can reduce the average age of the team again.
Of course, this issue depends on Sepahan Club's policy in the future, and if this policy continues, we can use more players who are in the Sepahan Novin team. This year, we added about four players from the Sepahan Novin team to the team, two experienced players and three young players from Sepahan Novin were added to the team. A total of five players who were in Sepahan Novin last season and were natives of Isfahan, have been added to Sepahan's Mobarake Steel team this year.
Imna: Considering the many interruptions of the last season and the damage these interruptions caused to the players, how do you evaluate the conditions of the upcoming Premier League and the federation's planning?
Rahimizadeh: The Premier League has not started yet and we are waiting for the time of the draw to be announced to see how the competitions will be held. Last season we had several national competitions and due to the formation of the national team camps, the players were required to attend these camps.
This year, we have to see how the national competitions will be held. If the camps are repeated in the same way, the same issues as last season will probably be repeated. One of the problems is that we have to put the players in a state of readiness.
This issue is twofold for Sepahan, which has a large number of players wearing national team uniforms. On the one hand, we do not have the players in the interval between the camps, and this issue prolongs the Premier League process, and on the other hand, the pressure on the players increases the risk of injury. Of course, this is not a new issue and it has existed since the past, when the national team organizes a camp and calls the players, the player must be present in the camp and the clubs must make the necessary arrangements with the federation.
In the last season, the Federation did a good thing and organized the Premier League in a centralized manner, this method had an important advantage, and that was that the matches ended in a specific period; Of course, the centralized holding increased the pressure on the players and as a result increased injuries, but considering the existing conditions, I think it was a good decision.
In this year, we have to see how the calendar of the federation will be, domestic competitions, Asian competitions and world competitions are somehow related to each other and are affected by each other's calendar; We have to wait for the schedule of the matches to be determined, I think the Premier League will start after the participation of the senior national team in the Japan Nagoya tournament, but the exact time should be announced by the handball federation and let's see what happens next.
Imna: When did Sepahan's trainings start and do you have any plans for preparatory camp and friendly matches before the start of Premier League?
Rahimizadeh: The team's training has been started for about 10 days and now we are working without the national players. When the national players are available to the national team, the players in Sepahan continue their training and when the national players are available to the club, they are added to the team's training.
Currently, we are trying to ensure that the players are not lagging behind in terms of physicality, ball handling, and indoor training, and that they can maintain their condition.
It is likely that before the start of the tournament, we will organize a camp with the coordination of the club so that we can have some preparatory matches. If the conditions are available, we will participate in a tournament, and if it is not possible, we will play some friendly games with Isfahan teams or teams from other cities who are willing to hold matches. The most important issue is to add national players to the team first and then we can create the desired coordination among all players to enter the Premier League with strength.
Imna: How is the team's preparation currently?
Rahimizadeh: As I said, we have started training for about 10 days, at this point our main focus is more on physical work and indoor training has a smaller contribution, we are working on aerobic fitness, physical and muscular systems of the players, and physical training is progressing.
The players are in good condition in terms of initial preparation and are professional in this sense, some players also follow their specialized training and specific programs, our goal is to reach the desired level of preparation for the team and make the preparation process better every day compared to the previous day.
Imna: The senior national team continues its activities with a new head coach; What is your assessment of the conditions of the national team and the upcoming matches?
Rahimizadeh: The national team is also following its training, and the new head coach has been working for about three months, he has laid his foundation on youth, the competition is at the end of September, I hope the national team will perform well in the upcoming competitions, advance from the group stage and even be able to be on the podium.
The quality of this head coach should be mentioned after the tournament because they are not an easy group, handball in Asia has made a lot of progress in recent years, Arab countries have invested significantly in this field, and in East Asia, countries like Japan, South Korea, and China have good conditions, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong are also progressing, and West Asian teams like Iraq and Jordan have also been more active.
Therefore, the work in Asia is not easy and different teams have invested and planned, I hope our players will perform well in their group, advance from the group stage and be able to win the title; This will be very valuable for Iranian handball and I am sure that the players and technical staff will do their best.
Imna: What do you think about the performance of the basic teams and especially the Iranian youths who won the quota for the world championships?
Rahimizadeh: The junior players performed very well and managed to achieve valuable success in the World Championships, this is very brilliant for the handball community and I hope that this success and presence will continue in the World Championships.
We can have something to say about Iran's handball status when we reach stability. It means that participating in the World Championships will become a regular event for us, and then we can think about the fact that in addition to participating in the World Championships, we will also have a plan to win a medal and be on the podium.
This is very difficult and cannot be done in the short term, all teams are working, especially at the grassroots level, when a country builds strong foundations, it can secure the future of its senior national team for 10-15 years.
In the youth category, the investments of other countries are also very high, they organize camps continuously, have internal and external preparatory competitions and participate their teams in various tournaments so that they do not leave the optimal conditions in terms of preparation and coordination, these issues are the result of a long-term planning.
There have been no suitable conditions for our national teams during this period, we were constantly violated and attacked and we did not have the necessary stability. Despite these conditions, the fact that we were able to participate in the competitions and perform well is an important event. The youth team also held its competitions about a month ago and the youths were also able to achieve valuable success in the first stage of the world championships.
Considering the conditions we had, the federation, players and coaches made a lot of efforts so that the teams could participate in the competitions. I hope this process will continue and we will see the shine of these players in the coming years, because it is these players who will shape the future of the senior national team in the next eight to 10 years and an important part of the senior national team berth will be from this generation of teenagers and young people. I hope that these players will go to world competitions to get a place and a platform, and this is very important.
In this way, the performance of the federation should be appreciated. In the difficult conditions that arose, even the venue of the competitions, the training ground and the dormitory were also damaged, and the federation was faced with such conditions twice. The players took advantage of the available opportunities and even a few matches were held between the youth and senior teams. I hope this process will improve every day and we will be able to raise a generation that will guarantee the future of Iranian handball for 10 to 15 years.
Imna: In the situation that after the war and the damage caused to Foulad Mobarakeh, the continuation of the team in various fields was faced with ambiguities, what is your view on the support of this group for sports and the continuation of Sepahan teams?
Rahimizadeh: About two months ago, a meeting was held with the presence of the managers and coaches of the Premier League teams and different teams of the Sepahan club. At the same time, we saw the conditions of the factory with PowerPoint. After the aggression of America and Israel and the damage to the factory, a large part of the complex was damaged, but with the efforts of the managers, the reconstruction was done in about 45 days and the complex was put into operation again. I know that they are still working hard and trying to compensate for these damages.
We are really indebted to this group and the support of Foulad Mobarakeh for sports has provincial and national value, Sepahan has teams in different disciplines, in different age groups and in the women's and men's section, and it is a kind of a big sports group that is present in many top leagues of the country.
It is an important event that Mobarakeh Steel did not abandon sports in such a situation and continued to have a team. Sepahan has many national champions and national players in various departments who can be a support for the country's national teams. I hope this process will continue with more strength in the future.
Perhaps few people thought that Sepahan would be able to continue running a team with this strength after the conditions created for Foulad Mobarake, but we saw that the group maintained its activity and even new teams were added to the group, which shows that the support of the province and the country is still important.
At the head of this collection, I would like to thank Saeed Zarandi, CEO of Foulad Mobarakeh Group and Manouchehr Nikfar, CEO of Sepahan Foulad Mobarakeh Club. We are really indebted to these nobles and we hope to fulfill our religion by winning a title and a championship and by winning a beautiful medal. Any success we achieve will compensate a part of their efforts and support.
