{"id":17311,"date":"2014-02-13T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T06:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=17311"},"modified":"2014-02-13T23:30:08","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T07:30:08","slug":"ghochannejhad-love-of-iran-lies-in-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2014\/02\/13\/ghochannejhad-love-of-iran-lies-in-my-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghochannejhad- Love of Iran lies in my heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dailymail\u00a0 – TEHRAN, I’m the biggest name in football… but friends call me ‘Gucci’, says Charlton’s Iranian striker Ghoochannejhad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is pronounced \u2018Gooch-an-ee-chad\u2019, in case you were wondering. Charlton Athletic striker Reza Ghoochannejhad boasts the longest surname in English football.<\/p>\n

He will face the likes of Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi and Edin Dzeko of Bosnia and Manchester City at the World Cup with Iran this summer, so we better get used to it.<\/p>\n

Good luck to all commentators, pundits and Sky\u2019s Soccer Saturday panel getting the hang of this particular moniker.<\/p>\n

Ghoochannejhad, 26, is set to make his FA Cup debut against Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow after joining Charlton from Standard Liege in January, one of four imports from the Belgians during the window. Businessman Roland Duchatelet now owns both clubs after taking over at The Valley last month.<\/p>\n

For \u00a312.95 you can have \u2018any name and number\u2019 printed on your Charlton replica shirt, but Ghoochannejhad has opted to wear \u2018Reza\u2019 on his back. He has been nicknamed \u2018Gucci\u2019 in his native Iran, yet seems slightly embarrassed with the connection to the luxury designer brand.<\/p>\n

Charlton fans have already come up with a possible solution: \u2018We\u2019re calling him Dave,\u2019 is the striker\u2019s mooted new song at The Valley.
\n\u2018My last name is . . . very long,\u2019 says Ghoochannejhad, smiling.<\/p>\n

\u2018They gave me the nickname \u201cGucci\u201d in Iran and the people here took it over. It\u2019s not something I made up. Believe me, it has nothing to do with the brand \u2014 it\u2019s just to shorten my name.<\/p>\n

\u2018The lads sometimes make fun of me, but so be it. It\u2019s too long to put on my shirt. Diego Poyet (the Charlton midfielder) told me this morning it\u2019s the longest surname in the history of British football.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s OK, but people can call me Reza. It\u2019s up to the fans to make up chants with Reza \u2014 that\u2019s probably easier!\u2019 He takes it all in good humour, delivering answers in softly spoken, immaculate English \u2014 one of four languages in which he is fluent.<\/p>\n

Ghoochannejhad only gave up reading law three years ago when he moved from SC Cambuur in Holland to Belgian club Sint-Truidense and may pick up his academic studies after football.<\/p>\n

He also enjoys playing Iranian songs on the violin, piano and guitar \u2014 \u2018Not perfectly, though. I\u2019d like to say people saw me as the next Mozart, but it\u2019s not true!\u2019<\/p>\n

Ghoochannejhad was born in Iran, but his football education began in Holland when his parents moved the family to Leeuwarden when the striker was eight and his elder brother Mehdi, now a physiotherapist, was 13.<\/p>\n

Ghoochannejhad represented Holland at Under 15 to Under 23 level, but then came the call from former Manchester United coach and Real Madrid manager Carlos Queiroz, now in charge of Iran.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was a very easy choice to switch,\u2019 says Ghoochannejhad. \u2018I was raised with both cultures but deep in my heart there is also Iranian pride.<\/p>\n

\u2018We had a chit-chat and the manager said, \u201cI think you can help me, if you feel you want to wear the jersey. If you\u2019re proud enough to wear the jersey, give me a call\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018I said, \u201cI don\u2019t need to call you back. I\u2019ll tell you \u2018Yes\u2019 right now\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ghoochannejhad scored in each of Iran\u2019s final three qualification games to ensure his nation\u2019s passage to this summer\u2019s World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Queiroz\u2019s side face Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nigeria in the group stages but, although Ghoochannejhad names Messi as one of his role models, he will not think that far ahead. For now, he insists his priority is to help keep Charlton in the second tier.<\/p>\n

It was Ghoochannejhad\u2019s childhood dream to play in England, yet he joins a side three points adrift of safety in the Championship \u2014 albeit with two games in hand.<\/p>\n

Charlton have not won a league game since Boxing Day, but have knocked Oxford United and Huddersfield out of the Cup. Boss Chris Powell, whose picture as a Charlton player adorns the walls at the training ground, is under pressure, but Ghoochannejhad pleads for time.<\/p>\n

He said: \u2018It\u2019s a boy\u2019s dream to play in England, and also with Charlton, a club where I will have good opportunities to play. That was a very important issue for me. I don\u2019t feel pressure. I\u2019m here to help the other lads out. I\u2019m one of them.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s going to take time to get used to each other \u2014 the players, the gaffer \u2014 and I hope that time\u2019s going to be given. The FA Cup can help, of course. If we can win, it will be good for confidence and I\u2019m excited about playing in it.<\/p>\n

\u2018At this moment I\u2019m only thinking about Charlton. When the World Cup comes, we\u2019ll see. The first thing we must do is make sure Charlton are safe. After that I can enjoy the World Cup because it\u2019s not something that is given to everybody.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dailymail\u00a0 – TEHRAN, I’m the biggest name in football… but friends call me ‘Gucci’, says…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25049,"featured_media":17312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c16-iranian-legionairs"],"views":4907,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25049"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}