He wanted to face Cristiano Ronaldo so badly that he signed for the wrong club
The incredible confession of Thievy Bifouma, former Espanyol striker
Cristiano Ronaldo ‘s influence is such that he even helped a modest Iranian club to sign a Congolese international who has played in the Premier League , Spanish League and French League, as well as the main leagues in Turkey and Greece.
A former player for Espanyol , Las Palmas , Almería , Granada , WBA, Reims , Bastia, Bursaspor and Osmanlispor, among others, Thievy Bifouma had just finished the season at Kifisias in Greece when he received an approach from Iran last summer.
“I had an offer from Turkey, but my wife didn’t want to go there. I wanted to play against Cristiano Ronaldo before I retired, and as he is now in Asia, they told me about an offer from Esteghlal. I looked at the calendar and saw that they were going to face Al Nassr. I said to myself that I wanted to go there,” said the 32-year-old Congolese player.
“When I arrived in Tehran, my compatriot Gael Kakuta called me to ask where I was. I told him I was at the hotel undergoing medical check-ups. He asked me which hotel I was staying at and that he wanted to meet me. An hour later he called me and made fun of me: ‘You’re going to the small Esteghlal. You defend, we’ll attack’,” Bifouma recalled.
In reality, Kakuta plays for Esteghlal Tehran, which has ten Iranian championship titles, and which has already won the Asian Champions League, a competition in which, this season, it faced not only Al Nassr, with Cristiano Ronaldo (and Otávio), but also Al Hilal with Jorge Jesus, Rúben Neves and João Cancelo.
Thievy Bifouma signed a contract with Esteghlal Khuzestan, from the city of Ahvaz, champion in 2015/16, but which was relegated to the second tier between 2019 and 2023.
The Congolese forward did not fulfil his wish to face Cristiano Ronaldo, but he scored the winning goal for Esteghlal Khuzestan against Esteghlal Tehran, in the third round of the championship, and eight rounds later his team remains ahead of their namesake in the league table.
