Under-23 national team He is a technically sound player who was first called up to the
Iran national under-23 football team in the
2002 Asian Games, although because of his lack of experience he was ineffective. He was also part of the Iranian squad in
Athens 2004 Olympics unsuccessful qualification campaign. Where he was kicked out of the camp when
Mohammad Mayeli Kohan was the head coach because of discipline problems and returned after he left the job and called up again by
Hossein Faraki.
Senior national team After his role in
Esteghlal's
league championship, his former coach,
Amir Ghalenoei, called Akbarpour to the senior
Iran national football team. He made his debut in the
2007 Asian Cup qualification match against
Chinese Taipei in February 2006. His next cap was against
UAE in which he assisted his former teammate
Reza Enayati's goal. He returned to
Team Melli in 2009 under
Ali Daei and played few minutes again South Korea in February 2009 where the match finished 1-1 in
Tehran. ==Beyond football==