Exclusive: Charlton Athletic striker happy to discuss new contract

South London Press – LONDON, Reza Ghoochannejhad has revealed he would be happy to talk to Charlton about extending his contract.

The Iranian international, 28, is due to be a free agent in the summer and before a ball was kicked this season it looked as if his time in SE7 was over.

Ghoochannejhad set his own little bit of club history when he became the first Addicks player to score in a World Cup finals – netting the consolation in a 3-1 defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Brazil in 2014 – but then divided the previous campaign on loan at two clubs in the Middle East.

Even when he returned to the Charlton fold and scored against Dagenham & Redbridge in the Capital One Cup in August, you still felt he could be moving on.

But Ghoochannejhad has benefited from the shortage of striker options – largely due to injuries to Igor Vetokele and Simon Makienok – to show his English adventure might not be done and dusted yet.

His left-footed finish at Brighton on Saturday made it three goals in his three starts. And he has looked bright when coming off the bench for Karel Fraeye’s side.

When asked if he would be happy to stay longer in SE7, Ghoochannejhad said: “Yeah, of course. Why not? I’ve got a contract until the end of the season and my situation hasn’t changed.

“I can’t tell you more. All I can say is that I’m happy I’m here and I have a good feeling this team deserves more than the place we are in right now.

“We don’t deserve to be playing relegation football – I look at the squad and we have too much quality there – but that is what we are playing.

“My biggest task right now is to try and help us play decent football and get some points – that’s where I get most joy. After that if the club wants to talk to me then I am always open to that.”

Ghoochannejhad was part of the first influx of players that came over to Charlton from Standard Liege in January 2014 – shortly after Roland Duchatelet bought the Addicks.

He undoubtedly had technical ability but seemed to struggle to adapt to the more physical nature of the English game. Since coming into the side in the 2015-16 campaign he has looked more at ease, especially with some of his link play and drawing fouls out of opposing defenders.

“When I came to England it was all new for me,” said Ghoochannejhad. “A new area, new mentality and new people – I had to adapt very quickly.

“I had a wonderful time in London, and with the club, but it was a little bit tough to get used to a new environment. It is nearly two years ago that I arrived and I feel I’m a different person. I know the mentality of the football more and have more experience. These things have helped me a lot to go forward and improve myself.

“In my first year here I played too often on the wing – that wasn’t really my position. That is not an excuse -even as a winger I could have brought more and done way better. But that is all behind me. There were a lot of things that happened after that to bring me to where I am now.

“I try and improve myself every day. I’m hoping to be more important at Charlton, especially in December. We have got a lot of games coming up now – it will be good if we can get some points and make sure we have a good feeling before 2016.”

Charlton face Leeds tomorrow at The Valley and it was the away fixture at Elland Road in April 2014 that saw Ghoochannejhad score his first goal on these shores – a curling finish he took with aplomb.

“I remember it well – because I haven’t scored many at Charlton,” he said. “But let’s hope I make new history on Saturday.

“I’m very positive about that. That last game against Leeds was a long time ago. No-one cares about that anymore. The most important thing is the match coming up.

“Reza is not important, or Alou [Diarra] is not important – it’s about Charlton. We’ve got Leeds and then Bolton on Tuesday. They are having difficulties and troubles right now and it is an opportunity to get the points to make a small gap between those two teams.”

Charlton’s players had their Christmas party in Brighton last Saturday night – and the celebrations would have been even greater if they had beaten the undefeated Championship high-fliers.

Ghoochannejhad put them 2-0 ahead as early as the fifth minute but a second-half fightback from Albion – aided by Patrick Bauer’s red card – saw them succumb to a 3-2 defeat late on that dropped the South Londoners back into the relegation zone.

“I’m not going to lie – we did have fun after the game,” said Ghoochannejhad.

“The match is over and you can do nothing to change the result. The party had been planned for three months.

“But if we’d won the game there would have been a much better feeling for all of us.

“We played one of our best first halves of the season and it was very satisfying.

“Unfortunately we forget about the second half and forgot the game is 90 minutes.

“We gave everything away and played very badly. We were not at the same level. It was immature.

“If you are winning 2-0 you should at least get one point out of the game. We have to take lessons from that.”