Team Melli strikers in Europe, are rewriting the history and reaching feats that their predecessors did not manage or was unthinkable.
Reza Ghoochannejad, Sardar Azmoun , Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Karim Ansarifard the four players who happened to be all playing up front in their teams have done Iran’s football pride by consistently scoring goals in the most competitive of leagues.
Reza “Gucci” Ghoochann
ejad , who had a torrid couple of season in the lower English League and Persian Gulf countries, gradually found his form after transferring to SC Heereneveen in the Eredivisie. Gucci scored his 14th goal of the season yesterday in a 3-0 win against Roda JC Kerkrade .
Sardar Azmoun, the golden boy of Iran has scored 7 goals for his team in various competitions, including 4 goals in one season of the UEFA Champions League. He is the only the second Iranian player to score in this competition after Ali Daei who scored 6 goals in two seasons for Hertha Berlin in the UEFA Champions League.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh who has been playing professional in the Eredivisie for 4 seasons now although he is only 23, has enjoyed a good run with his club AZ Alkaamar. He has already doubled his tally from last season scoring 6 goals so far for the Dutch club.
Karim Ansarifard whose football career was seriously being undermined while warming the bench at segunda Division Osasuna in Spain, made it good after transferring to the Greek league. With Panionios he scored 14 goals in one a half season before being grabbed by the league leader Olympiakos Piraeus in the winter transfer window. Karim already opened his account with Olympiakos by scoring a brace in UEFA Europa league against Turkish side Osmanlispor.
.It has never been so good for Iranian players in European leagues. Household names such as Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi , Vahid Hashemian, Karim Bagheri and host of other Iranian players played in Europe especially after that famous FIFA 1998 World Cup. However, despite the relative success , it is definitely not comparable to the success that the current group is enjoying in Europe despite Team Melli lack of success or achievement.