While the one goal scored by Iran in the World Cup along with two defeats, did not impress any European clubs and we failed to see any real interest from even second tier Europeans, it was believed that the scorer of the lone Iranian goal would find a better fortune than a lower tier league club in England and stand a good chance in getting a decent club playing top-level football.
Reza Ghoochanejad was not a happy man at Charlton Athletics, a club that struggled for survival and eventually scraped through and maintained it English Championship league status for the next season. Even in this frail team, Reza did not manage to find a fixed starting role. He was hardly used and only managed to score one goal. The writing was on the wall that Reza would seek out of this fortunes elsewhere, but very few predicted that he will fly 7 hours east and precisely to Kuwait to continue his professional career.
After Nekounam left Al Kuwait SC, Reza Ghoochanjed has repacked him. The news is still not official by Charlton Athletics yet, but it seems that it is a pretty done deal.
Why Al Kuwait SC?
The Kuwaiti league is one of the poorer leagues in the Persian Gulf region. It had no representation in the Asian Champions League for many years although the next edition will see of the Kuwait clubs playing in the ACL. The overall standard of the Kuwait league is way behind the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran , Qatar and UAE. The Kuwaiti clubs do not get the generous government support that the other Gulf Arab countries get and even much less that Iranian clubs , which are mostly government-owned anyway. As such , the financial structure of the Kuwait clubs and football league is pretty feeble to moderate at best. The infrastructure and the facilities are also of a lower standard than the rest of its neighbors. It seems since the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and the ensuing liberation war , Kuwait has completely forgotten about investment in football.
So , who is it that they can afford the likes of Nekounam and Choochannejad?
Kuwait has many foreign players from as far as Brazil , plenty from the African continents and quite a few Arabs, whoever , these are mostly seventh or eight grade footballers. You would never hear of a player in the stature of Raul Gonzales, the ex-Real Madrid Captain heading to a Kuwaiti club , for example.
With the exceptional and relatively immense wages that Nekounam was getting in Esteghlal , Al Kuwait SC must have either matched or improved on it for Iran’s Captain to be tempted. It would be the same situation with Ghoochannjad who had offers from Qatar and Iranian clubs as well. Al Kuwait is quite obviously, the richest club in Kuwait , although not the most popular one. That title goes to AL Qadisiya and Al Arabi.
On the bright side of this transfer is that Al Kuwait SC will be one of the country’s representatives in the 2014/15 AFC Asian Champions league and many Iranian will be able to see him play. The chances are pretty strong that Al Kuwait will be playing in a group along with an Iranian club.