{"id":39858,"date":"2020-07-31T08:44:51","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=39858"},"modified":"2020-07-31T08:44:51","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:44:51","slug":"iran-were-fighting-with-donald-trump-and-i-was-entering-a-warzone-ayanda-patosi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2020\/07\/31\/iran-were-fighting-with-donald-trump-and-i-was-entering-a-warzone-ayanda-patosi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Iran were fighting with Donald Trump\u201a and I was entering a warzone\u2019: Ayanda Patosi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DipatchLive – AHVAZ, Ayanda Patosi has described his unusual surrounds in Iran\u201a where he arrived in what was shaping up as a \u201cwarzone\u201d in January\u201a gets paid in Dollars in cash\u201a and pre-Covid-19 played in front of crowds of 80\u201a000.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following six-month stints at Esteghlal FC\u201a also in Iran\u201a and FC Baniyas in United Arab Emirates\u201a Patosi (27) signed for Foolad as part of series of loan deals from Cape Town City to clubs in the Middle East on January 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was seven days after the US had assassinated Iranian national hero General Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike on January 3\u201a leaving that country\u2019s government and American President Donald Trump sabre-rattling at each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I signed with Foolad Iran were talking about a war with America\u201a and they were fighting with Donald Trump\u201a and I was entering a warzone\u201a\u201d Patosi told an online press conference of the SA Football Journalists\u2019 Association from Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I had no choice because at the end of the day I\u2019ve got a family to feed\u201a and they are depending on me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patosi admitted his playing career has turned to the Middle East because of the lure of the US Dollar. He could\u201a however\u201a have earned more from clubs making offers in UAE but chose Iran because the life and football are better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not getting a huge salary. But Iran are ranked second-best in Asia\u201a so the league is good\u201a\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNormally\u201a outside Covid-19\u201a there can be 80\u201a000 at a game. And that makes the football more exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in Emirates for six months and didn\u2019t enjoy it that much. The football there is not as good\u201a and with a handful of people in the stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Iran I\u2019m more respected because I played for a top club before and did well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m at a team that\u2019s organised. They have excellent training fields\u201a a gym \u2013 everything a footballer needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur coach [Javad Nekounam] played in La Liga [for Osasuna]. Hopefully I can stay longer here. We are talking for a permanent deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patosi scored four goals in 13 league matches in his six months last season at Tehran-based Esteghlal\u201a this past campaign\u2019s runners-up in Iran\u2019s Persian Gulf Pro League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had bright start at Foolad\u201a who finised sixth\u201a with two goals in four games. Then Patosi got stranded on a trip home to Cape Town by the global shutdown of air travel\u201a eventually getting back to Iran via repatriation flights two weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was stuck in Cape Town for four months. They cancelled three or four flights that I had to take to come back\u201a\u201d Patosi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Iran I don\u2019t get paid with bank cards. They give me cash and some other ways\u201a sometimes they pay cheque. I get paid in Dollars and they [the Iranian players] get paid in their currency. So I didn\u2019t get paid for four to five months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m taking it back to South Africa. Life is cheaper this side. You can spend just $100 to $200 for two months on food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercurial attacking talent Patosi\u201a who has 12 caps for Bafana Bafana\u201a began his career as a teen prodigy in Belgium\u201a playing six seasons there for Lokeren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DipatchLive – AHVAZ, Ayanda Patosi has described his unusual surrounds in Iran\u201a where he arrived…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":39859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,164,136,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-ipl","category-iran-first-division","category-c22-players-spotlight"],"views":716,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39858","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\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39860,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39858\/revisions\/39860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}