#2 Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Iran):
Alireza Jahanbakhsh is one of the stars who caught the eyes of several scouts around Europe before featuring in the World Cup. The Iranian forward scored 22 times for AZ Alkmaar last campaign which was good enough to convince Chris Houghton to lure him to Brighton and Hove Albion for a good fee.
The 25-year-old was part of the squad which made it to the Quarterfinals of the AFC Asian Cup last time, losing to the arch-rivals Iraq in the process. He was also part of the World Cup squad which nearly stunned the group which consisted of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.
The hamstring injury has forced Jahanbakhsh into limited action with the English outfit this campaign, and Iran manager Carlos Queiroz said that he would be given every opportunity to prove himself fit for the first game against Yemen on January 7. If he misses out on that game, he is expected to feature in the next two games though.