TEHRAN - Head coach of Iran's U16 handball team, Majid Rahimizadeh, thinks that the physical gap between Iranian and European players has influenced his team's performance in the 2023 IHF Men's Youth World Championship.

Iran's handball team finished 16th in the 2023 IHF Men's Youth World Championship. They started the campaign strong, tying with Sweden and beating Faroe Islands and Burundi in the preliminary round. However, they lost to Saudi Arabia and Germany in Group IV.

Iran also fell short against Brazil and Slovenia.

“Iran qualified for the world championship after 14 years. Although they lacked experience at the world level, they performed admirably against strong teams like Sweden and Faroe Islands,” said Rahimizadeh in his exclusive interview with Tehran Times.

“The team did well against Sweden in the preliminary round, but faced physical challenges in the second round. When I say physical, I'm referring to the noticeable difference in height and weight between our players and their opponents, especially those from Europe,” he added.

“As an example, Amirhossein Kerami, Iranian star, was one of the tournament's best goalscorers but had to face a 120kg, 210cm German opponent - a difficult challenge for him at 185cm and 75kg.” he added.

“Don’t forget that before the match against Saudi Arabia, we suffered a setback by losing two key players due to injury. If we managed to beat Saudi side, it would have been a positive mental boost for us and could have helped us perform better against Germany,” he added

“The absence of a youth league is a significant obstacle in Iranian handball, causing only occasional games in this category. In contrast, European and Asian teams like Bahrain invest heavily in youth handball with regular leagues,” Rahimizadeh concluded.