Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Inter Milan forward Mehdi Taremi has been stranded in Tehran due to the conflict between Iran and Israel and will miss the start of the FIFA Club World Cup, the Italian club confirmed on Saturday. Taremi was in Iran last week on international duty, scoring in a 3-0 victory over North Korea in a World Cup qualifying game. However, the 32-year-old was unable to get a flight to join his Inter team-mates in Los Angeles due to the ongoing confrontation between Iran and Israel. An Inter source confirmed to AFP that Taremi was stranded in his homeland.
Inter open their Club World Cup campaign against Mexican side Monterrey on Tuesday at the Pasadena Rose Bowl east of Los Angeles. The opener marks the first game in charge of new Inter coach Cristian Chivu, who was named on Monday as the successor to Simone Inzaghi, who left following the club’s 5-0 drubbing against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.
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Speaking at an introductory press conference at the team base in Beverly Hills on Saturday, Chivu said Inter were ready to bounce back from the double disappointment of just missing out on the Serie A title as well as the Champions League final. The 44-year-old former Romanian international said Inter could look back on the season with pride.
“We should’t forget this team’s journey — it was a great season,” Chivu said. “This team has great quality. They got right to the end but they didn’t get the trophies. It wasn’t a failure of a season. We knocked out Bayern and Barca in the Champions League. We were top of the league, one of the best in Europe, for a long time. So we cannot forget this. Failure doesn’t exist in football. Failure is making excuses.”
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