Karim Ansarifard, the Iranian striker of the Greek side, AEK Athens, has created a situation that is leading to a confrontation with the Club. The Team Melli Captain has been placed on the surplus list of the Greek club, even though he has a contract with this team for one more season. Ansarifard has been on the surplus list since before the end of last season but has not yet chosen a new team.
Ansarifard would earn nearly half a million Euro according to his contract with AEK Athen, however, the club is unwilling to pay such a sum to a player who is out of favor and a benchwarmer. This issue has caused the surprise of the Greek media in addition to the anger of the AEK club. The betcosmos site stated that Karim Ansarifard is the hardest case of the players on the black list of AEK, and wrote: “AEK wants to get rid of the payment of half a million euros in the last year of Ansarifard’s contract. Since the beginning of the summer, this Iranian striker has been notified to find a team, but no progress has been made so far. What is surprising is the attitude of Ansarifard himself. We are in the year of the FIFA World Cup and finding a team is the only hope of this striker to be in the national team of his country, but he is not entertaining any offers that come from inside and outside Greece.”
The article in this media adds: “Reports in Iran indicate that Persepolis made continuous offers to him, but his answer was always ben negative. It seems that he is not interested in playing in Iran. This Iranian striker attracted the interest of two clubs in Lamia and OFI, but it seems that Lamia got tired of waiting for him and strengthened their attack line with the purchase of Richmond Boaki. Staying in Athens seems to be the absolute priority of Ansarifard. Here an important question arises for AEK. Will the club continue to pay a player exorbitant money to sit on the bench, or will they find another solution? Several Media outlets such as sportdog and sportime that have published this news claimed that AEK club is angry with their Iranian attacker’s attitude!
Ansarifard is married to a Greek lady and wants to remain in the Capital City. A big question mark is in front of Ansarifard in regards to his career in Team Melli. He has been a fringe player that makes cameo one or two appearances at the end of each game. He is way down the pecking in the forward line that is dominated by Azmoun and Taremi, as top picks. Players like Sayyadmanesh, Ghaedi, Hosseinzadeh, and Alipour also make a strong case for inclusion in the Team Melli squad. However, it is not only his playing standard that has suffered as Ansarifard is one of those who started the rebellion against Dragan Skocic. His chances of making the 26 players’ squad for the FIFA World Cup are quite slim.