Brighton Breaks Club Transfer Record for Jahanbakhsh

Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh made his move from AZ Alkmaar club in the Netherlands to the Brighton & Hove Albion FC in the England Premier League for the club transfer record of $29 million on Thursday.

Not only the club record, Jahanbakhsh’s contract value is the highest for an Iranian legionnaire in the football history of the country as well as the most expensive transfer from and to AZ Alkmaar, IRNA reported.

The move made Jahanbakhsh the third most expensive Asian player after South Korean Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur with $34 million and Japanese Hidetoshi Nakata’s move to Italian club Parma for $32 million. 

Jahanbakhsh’s performance in the Eredivisie last season in addition to his role in Team Melli before and during the 2018 World Cup put him on the radar of the English club.

Scoring 21 goals, he finished the season in the Dutch league as the top scorer. Making 143 shots, he had the second-most shots in the Eredivisie 2017-18 and with 12 assists the third-most assists in the league.

Alireza, 24, is the fourth Iranian to play in the Premier League.

Karim Bagheri was the first legionnaire in the Premier League who played for Charlton Athletic in 2000-01. The second Iranian in the top level of the English football league system was Andranik Teymourian who played in Bolton Wanderers and Fulham between 2006 and 2009. Ashkan Dejagah became the third Iranian in the Premier League when he signed a contract with Fulham in 2012.

There are also two other players from Iran who played in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the England football league. Hossein Kaebi was a member of Leicester City from 2007-09 and Reza Ghoochannejad played for Charlton Athletic between 2014 and 2016.

Jahanbakhsh’s road to success started five years ago when he moved from Damash Gilan FC, the club of his hometown Gilan in north Iran, to the N.E.C. FC in the second tier of the Netherlands football league. For his 55 fixtures with the club he scored 17 goals and was honored as the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 in the league at the age of 19.

In the same year he moved to AZ Alkmaar club in the top flight league where he stayed for three years and scored 34 goals including 21 only at his last season and helped his side finish the league on the third place after Eindhoven and Ajax on first and second places respectively.