Tag: Reading

Saeed Ezatollahi returns to Rostov

The Iranian midfielder Saeed Ezatollahi has returned to his original team Rostov after finishing his loan period with Eupen, since his contract with the Belgian team will expire by the end of this month.

Ezatollahi,  23-year-old midfielder, spent the 2019-2020 season on loan at Upen Belgium. During this time, he has played only six games and provided one assist. Of course, Ezatollahi spent some extended time off the field due to injury and could not play for his team.

His contract with Rostov expires at the end of June, and it is unclear whether Valerie Carpin will need the player in his roster. Rostov has not yet announced any plans in regard to the injury-prone midfielder, and it remains to be seen whether he will stay at Rostov or join another team. Ezatollahi will become a free agent at the end of June unless Rostove renews his contract.

Since 2017, the footballer has played four times on loan at Anzhi Makhachkala, Amkar, England’s Reading and Eupen Belgium, but so far he has not been able to get a secure a starting lineup with any of the clubs he was loaned to or a good position in “Rostov”.

Saeed Ezzatollahi to Join Belgium’s Eupen

Team Melli player Saeed Ezzatollahi is joining Belgium’s K.A.S Eupen on a one-year loan deal, it was announced today

Ezzatollahi one of the most promising Iranian youngsters who was recruited by Atletico Madrid talent hunters during his youth has had a quite disappointing career. Marred by injury and instability in performance, Ezatollahi has never achieved his potential. The unsettled midfielder changed many clubs and hardly spending enough time to establish himself before moving to the another. The Gilani midfielder seemed to be prone to injury spending much time on the injury list at his clubs.

Saeed Ezatollahi has joined the lowly Belgian team which recently had Morteza Pouraliganji on its books, in a one-year loan contract from the Rostov-based Russian club. The 22-year-old has started his career in Malavan Bandar Anzali, Spain’s Atletico Madrid, Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala, Amkar and  English Championship side Reading.

Ezzatollahi has played in 30 matches for Team Melli scoring a solitary goal. He was in Iran’s squad for FIFA World Cup 2018.

Reading concerned with Ezzatolahi’s long absence

Reading face being without Iranian midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi for a further month due to the Asian Cup.

The 22-year-old, who is on a season-long loan switch to Royals from Russian club FC Rostov, has been named in a provisional 35-man squad for the competition.

National team boss Carlos Queiroz will cut that list down to 23 players on Saturday, December 15, ahead of a training camp in Doha, Qatar.

Ezatolahi, who is one of nine midfielders on the provisional list, is currently sidelined for club and country due to a quad injury he picked up while on international duty back in October.

He has played just four times for Reading since joining at the end of August, but caught the eye with some impressive performances in the midfield.

The Iranian is set to be back at full fitness at the end of this month but his involvement in the Asian Cup could prolong his return to Royals.

The competition, which is being held in the United Arab Emirates, takes place between Saturday, January 5 and Friday, February 1.

Reading have four games in that time, along with two either side and a possible FA Cup replay as well.

It means Ezatolahi could miss up to seven games for his club, depending on how far Iran progress in the competition.

Forest Boss is all praise for Karim Ansarifard

While Nottingham Forest forward Lewis Grabban snaffled up his tenth goal of the season as well as three points for the Reds, as they beat previously table-topping Sheffield United 1-0 at the City Ground and the £6m striker grabbed the spotlight again, Forest boss Aitor Karanka is delighted to have further strengthened his attacking arsenal with the capture of the Team Melli Striker, Karim Ansarifard.

Forest had to be patient while working through significant red tape to complete the signing of the 28-year-old, who had his contract with Olympiacos terminated in August, in order to facilitate his move to the Championship.

“I am really pleased to have signed him. I knew that the day would arrive,” said Karanka, who gave the player his debut as a substitute, deep into injury time. “The day has arrived yesterday, which was really good, given that we need him.

“The delay was to do with the work permit. I don’t know the exact details, but it was only ever a question of getting the right paperwork.”
I am just pleased to have him because, even in the two minutes he had on the pitch, he showed that he is crazy to play for this team.”

Karanka says Ansarifard is fit and ready to go – but says he will need some time to adapt to the Championship.

“He is fully fit and ready to go, but he will need time to settle in, having arrived in this league from another country,” said Karanka. “But he is a professional and he is a winner. I am positive.”
“He scored 17 goals for Olympiacos and he has quality. He is a good finisher.

“To score goals we need to get the ball into the box and you need players to be arriving into the box at the right time.

“We have good players and we are arriving at the right time. We have very good strikers. We have Lewis, we have Daryl (Murphy) and now we have Karim as well.

“Now we have another alternative. He is a good player and another player who is a very good person and a good teammate for the changing room.

“He only played one or two minutes, but the run he made in the last seconds can show you how hungry he is; how much he wants to help the team. “He is a good man and a good player, so I am really pleased with him.”

Karim made the cameo appearance with the minimal of preparation in the 90th minute of the game.

Three team Melli players play in the English leagues. Apart from Karim, Alireza Jahanbakhsh plays for Brighton and Saeid Ezatolahi plays for Reading in the Championship.

Saeid Ezatolahi finally expected to arrive at Reading

From Rostov to Reading, via Belgium, Uzbekistan and France.

The deal to bring Saeid Ezatolahi to Reading has been far from straightforward, but the Iranian international is set to finally arrive in England this weekend.

The 21-year-old completed his season-long loan move from Russian outfit FC Rostov on August 31, the final day of the summer transfer window.

But he is yet to arrive at Hogwood with all previous stages of the deal completed elsewhere across the globe.

“He hasn’t reported yet,” explained Reading FC boss Paul Clement.

“As we speak (on Thursday afternoon), he is in Paris.

“He was on international duty with Iran and they played Uzbekistan. He played a good, significant amount of the game and he set up the goal, so that’s good.

“He is in Paris to get his visa. Everything is in place now, the visa has been approved and we’re just waiting for it to be collected. Ezatolahi has spent a few days in Paris
“So he’s got to go back to the office to collect it, that’ll probably be on Friday and then he’s free to travel to the UK.”

“We expect him to arrive here either Friday or Saturday. He’ll do some light training on Saturday, on Sunday the players are off and he’ll start fully with everybody on Monday.”

Clement added: “After the World Cup he had some rest time. He did go back to Russia, Rostov for a couple of weeks where he was training and then there has been a period where he hasn’t been there and he’s been back in Iran.

“He lost a little bit of time but fortunately during this period where he was with the national team, clearly he’s been training and he’s already played a game.

“So he might need a bit of time, but I don’t think he’ll need that much. I’ll assess it as soon as I see him.”

Paul Clement insists there are no problems behind the scenes at Reading

The announcement of Ezatolahi’s arrival came as a surprise to many, with the deal accelerated during the final week of the transfer window.

Reading had been chasing Swansea City midfielder Jay Fulton on a permanent deal, but when that fell through they moved to snap up Ezatolahi on loan.

But Clement hopes that could turn into a longer term deal.

“I hope he has a long future here,” said the Reading manager.

“The situation with the deal at the moment is he’s on a loan for the season because when we signed him, it was obviously outside the period where we could do a permanent, so it’s on an initial loan.

Paul Clement is hoping Ezatolahi will be here for longer than one season
“Hopefully he does really well and it’s a long-term thing.

“It was brought to my attention late in the window. We had a week. During that week it was about gathering as much intelligence as possible, speaking to people he had worked with.

“A really complicated deal.”       – Paul Clement

“Fortunately I was able to have a good conversation with Carlos Queiroz (Iran’s national team boss), who spoke really highly of him.

“Then I spoke to the player and got a really good feel about him and we’re really pleased to get it over the line.

“It was a little bit complicated. You’re dealing with Russia, you’ve got the situation where he’s Iranian so you’ve got the visa issues, international clearance and those type of things.

“He had his medical in Belgium at Roeselare because it was difficult to get him here to do the medical because of the visa, but in the end we got it over the line.

“A really complicated deal.”

“We’re looking forward to working with him. I think he’s going to be a good addition to us.”

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