Home sweet Home but which one? The story of Reza Ghoochannejchad

He has one of the hardest names to pronounce in the world of football although most of the people just call him Reza and his friends Gucci but other than that, he is having his best season so far in the somewhat late age of 29. The story of Reza Ghoochannejchad (Gooch-an-ee-chad) the returning Iranian.

Reza started playing football at a young age, as a kid he joined LAC Frisia and later Cambuur. At the age of 11, he joined Heerenveen where he played 8 years in the youth team until 2005. He made his senior debut on 16/4/2006 at the age of 18.5 years. Although he was part of The Super Frisians squad for four years he managed to represent, the club only twice in the league and go for a few loan spells in the Eerste Divisie (Second league in 
Holland) where he managed to score five goals for both Go Ahead Eagles and Emmen.

Reza in the Camp Nou of Barcelona, the latest picture he uploaded on the social media

2009 was a turning point for Reza; he has almost retired and folded his contract with the Feas to concentrate on his academic studies of jurisprudence and political theory. It took only a few weeks for the Iranian to meet Ex Ajax, Arsenal and Barcelona player Mark Overmars who used to be a technical director at GAE. The latter appreciated Reza since his loan at the club and offered him to join the club on a permanent basis.  “Marc told me that there was something in my movements which reminded him of a young Overmars."  The thing was that Reza said he will join on one condition – he asked to be allowed to leave the trainings 15 minutes before they end so he can attend to some courses in the university.

After half a year, Reza moved to Cambuur where he played in the youth levels. On his debut, he had equalized Johan Cruyff's record of the fastest goal in Holland – 9 seconds. Before he moved to Sint Truiden in the summer of 2011. He managed to score 15 goals in 37 appearances in the league with Cambuur. In Belgium, although Truiden were relegated to the second division Reza netted 11 goals in 23 games scoring more then 1/3 of the goals for the team. His rise in his first season in Belgium made him progress twice: He was "discovered" by Iran National Team manager Carlos Queiroz. The Portuguese watched him in a game where Sint Truiden beat Lierse 2-0 and Reza was having a great game. After the game, the Ex Man Utd coach called Reza and said: "I think you can help us and if you love your country you must play for it. It doesn’t matter how long you have lived away from your land'.” Reza and his family moved from Iran to Holland when he was 4. He played for Holland's U-15 to U-23. “I think you can help me, if you feel you want to wear the jersey. If you’re proud enough to wear the jersey, give me a call”.

‘I said, “I don’t need to call you back. I’ll tell you ‘Yes’ right now”.

The man who made Reza keep playing football

The second "way" that Reza progressed was that on the last day of the summer, transfer window of 2012 Reza agreed to join the Belgian giants Standard Liege. He moved to the team in January playing half of the season for Sint Truiden scoring six goals in 10 games in the Belgian Second Division. While still playing for Truiden on October 16^th he made his debut in the national team playing 73 minutes as Iran start their qualification campaign to 

Brazil 2014 on the right leg with home win 1-0 against South Korea. Reza was rising in the 

national team after a year and a half since his debut he scored 3 crucial goals in the 3 last qualification matches of Iran to secure the place in Brazil. But on the other hand he couldn’t find his place in Liege Playing 10 games for Liege Scoring 4 goals but starting only 5 times in a full year. In January of season 13/14 he moved to the English club Charlton fc which was owned by the same owner as Liege. 15 games, 10 starts and only 1 goal, that’s what the Iranian had in half a season before the World Cup. It didn't matter much for his place in the starting 11 of Iran was secured. He played 205 minutes combined in Iran's pre World Cup friendlies scoring once against Trinidad and Tobago. Three full games and 1 goal against Bosnia in the World Cup weren’t enough to change Reza's status in Charlton. He was loaned to Al Kuwiat and later Al Warakh before returning to Charlton for a full season but with 10 starts only and 2 goals. His club career kept being shallow compared to his International career where he was the second best scorer in Asia Cup qualifications with 5 goals in 5 games and 2 goals on the main stage of the Asian Cup itself where Iran got knocked out by Iraq in the first knockout round. Reza scored a super important goal in that game after Iran was losing 3-2 in the extra time "Gucci" came and scored on the 119^th 

minute to secure penalties which he himself didn’t take part in

Reza had tough time in England

With the success at the National Team and somewhat failure in the club career Reza, who 

also likes to play the piano and the violin and speaks English, Dutch, Farsi, also likes French, understands German also studied Italian and Portuguese as well he moved back to Heerenveen where he's having his best season till this day.

The Eredivisie has 1 game week left to be played with Heerenveen fighting for Europe Playoff place a big part of that success comes from Reza who scored 19 goals in 33 games placing him second best scorer in the league that is well known for its great strikers. He also scored a hattrick against PSV although his team lost 4-3. That made him the first Iranian to score a hattrick in Europe and the first played since 1970 to score a hattrick against PSV at their home. On the international level reza keeps being a major part in Iran's successful run in the Asian World Cup Qualifications to Russia 2018. Iran are placed on the of group A with 

17 points, Reza playing all the 7 games and scoring once

Reza celebtating, Iran National Team.

As for now, it looks that the future is bright for the 29 year old intelligent striker who also 

likes to have a close connection to his fans on the social media out of respect and not the need for publicity and fame. In that last sentence you could define Reza and after reading the article not being surprised that he came to such heights.