Pro Kabaddi League | Iranian players to miss out on starting of PKL due to visa issues
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The PKL season 9 starts on Friday and the 13 Iranians who enrolled with the teams, including some of the league's top players, will be absent for the start owing to visa complications. The Iranians who had traveled to India for pre-season camps returned home for a break before the season began.
The Puneri Paltan camp is dealt a severe setback by the Iranians' temporary unavailability since they invested a significant sum of money to sign up two of the most successful Iranians in PKL, Fazel Atrachali ($1.38 crore) and Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh ($87 lakh).
The most successful foreign player in the PKL so far is Fazel, who has been designated Puneri Paltan's captain. Fazel won the league with U Mumba in PKL2. An outstanding all-around player, Nabibakhsh guided Bengal Warriors to the PKL7 championship.
For PKL 9, the three-time champion Patna Pirates will sadly be without their outstanding defender Mohammadreza Shadloui. The only foreign player to be kept for PKL9 was Shadloui, who was the League's finest defence last season.
Other than that, the Haryana Steelers, who spent $65.1 lakh on the defender Amirhossein Bastami, won't have their top international acquisition.
List of teams with Iranian players
Bengal Warriors - Soleiman Pahlevani
Dabang Delhi - Reza Katoulinezhad
Haryana Steelers - Amirhossein Bastami, Mohammad Maghsoudlou
Jaipur Pink Panthers - Reza Mirbagheri
Patna Pirates - Mohammadreza Shadloui
Puneri Paltan - Fazel Atrachali, Mohammad Nabibakhsh
Telugu Titans - Hamid Nader, Mohsen Jafari
U Mumba - Heidarali Ekrami, Gholamabbas Korouki
UP Yoddha - Abozar Mighani
