Friday, August 13, 2021 at 07:54• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 08:03

Alireza Jahanbakhsh played a leading role on Thursday in the reunion between Feyenoord and FC Luzern in the Conference League. The attacker made his first goals in the outfit of the Rotterdam team with the 1-0 and the 2-0 and thus contributed to reaching the play-off round. Downer was his failure before half time with a groin injury, the seriousness of which is not yet clear. The newspapers are positive about the contribution of the acquisition the day after the success in De Kuip.

The Telegraph points out that after his ‘two superior goals’, Jahanbakhsh already has a lot of credit with Het Legioen and that it was initially a matter of waiting to see how he would present himself in the Feyenoord uniform ‘knowing that after the original price tag of almost twenty million euros a hefty sale sticker was stuck on him’. “But in the first half he enchanted the more than 32,000 Feyenoord supporters with magical moves and goals. Two pannas, razor-sharp passes and crosses and especially those cannonballs right down the inside of first the right and then the left post.”

“The way in which he celebrated those goals with the hard core of the Rotterdammers left little to be desired. Jahanbakhsh was euphoric, pointing to the sky and pointing to The Legion ( . . . ) If he manages to show that scoring drive in this league all season long, then Arne Slot and Frank Arnesen will get their hands on it. In that case, they have found a perfect successor for Steven Berghuis – for little money, just over a million euros. But one dive of a rare Iranian swallow doesn’t make a summer.”

According to the General Newspaper for a moment it looked as if Graziano Pellè had suddenly set foot on Rotterdam soil again. “Feyenoord – FC Luzern is approaching halftime when one man gratefully accepts the crackling applause of the Legion. He wears a beard under his dark hooded haircut and who wouldn’t know better, would suspect that he came straight from a movie set. And in a way, he kind of does, two-time goalscorer Jahanbakhsh,” the newspaper points to “the undisputed protagonist.”

“Jahanbakhsh almost forgets Steven Berghuis who left for Ajax against FC Luzern”, it sounds like. “He is the pivot around which the Rotterdam team revolves, the player who personally shapes the heated mind of the red and white players.” Journalist Dennis van Bergen points out that Slot had already warned about possible physical suffering with the acquisition. “Jahanbakhsh is like grandma’s diamond vase on the fireplace. Be careful not to get shards. It is painful to see that this evening.”