Brighton smash transfer record to sign £17m Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Brighton and Hove Albion have broken their transfer record to complete the £17m signing of Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
The Iranian international winger arrives on a five year deal from AZ Alkmaar having previously turned down a move to the Albion in the summer of 2015.
On that occasion, Jahanbakhsh toured both the Amex and the training ground after the Albion had a bid accepted by Dutch side NEC Nijmegen. He turned down a move to England in order to stay in the the Netherlands, moving to AZ instead for around £1.5m.
Since then he has plundered 37 goals in 95 games for AZ. 21 of those came last season as he ended the season as the top scorer in the Eredivise. That made him the first Asian player to finish a season as top scorer in a major European league.
Jahanbakhsh began his career in his native Iran. He made his debut in the third tier for Damash Tehran in 2010 at the age of 16, playing 12 times for them before being moved to their big brother affiliate club, Damash Gilan.
He became one of Gillan’s youngest players when making his debut for them at 17, making 44 appearances and scoring 10 goals over the course of two top flight seasons in Iran. That attracted the attention of NEC, who bought him to Europe in 2013. His two seasons at Goffertstadion yielded 19 goals in 64 games and a Dutch second tier title in his final campaign before moving to AZ.
Jahanbakhsh’a arrival brings to an end one of the biggest circuses surrounding a new signing we’ve ever seen. In something that began to resemble the plot of a Liam Neeson film (just without a fit daughter), we had Albion fans scouring social media for clues. Supporters were hanging on his every Instagram post to see where he was.
There was one moment that even the writers of ‘Taken 17’ would have deemed farfetched. Jahanbakhsh uploaded a photo to his Instagram of him on a private jet. One Albion fan was then able to identify the make of plane from said photo of its interior. They then began searching flight and air traffic control records, finding that that make of plane was flying from Paris to Biggin Hill. What happened to spending a Tuesday night drinking 2-4-1 cocktails in Be At One before going to Coalition?
Clearly, the excitement levels are through the roof, which seems to be driven largely by the price. Our last few signings from the Eredivise hardly inspire confidence, with Jurgen Locadia yet to do much to justify his fee. Elvis Manu left the building within two seasons and no goals and Danny Holla’s only contribution was having a name that means “Hello” in Spanish.
It’s a notoriously difficult league to buy from. For every Luis Suarez, there is a Ricky van Wolfswinkle, a Vincent Janssen and a Memphis Depay. Jahanbakhsh’s scoring record should inspire confidence, but coming from the Netherlands means there are question marks.
The fact that Leicester City viewed him as a Riyad Mahrez replacement is encouraging though. Napoli were also interested, so to steal a player wanted by the 2016 Premier League champions and a side who regularly compete in the Champions League is impressive.
Goals from out wide were also sorely lacking last season. Jose Izquierdo chipped in with his fair share but otherwise, the Albion were extremely reliant on Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross. Jahanbakhsh should address that problem.
And if he is a flop? If the surge in followers of our We Are Brighton Twitter account is anything to go by, we’ll have gained thousands of new supporters out of it anyway. Now, how do you Tweet a joke about David Stockdale’s weight in Persian?
