The Congolese international has played all over the world during his career. Bifouma has played for clubs like Espanyol, West Brom, Stade de Reims and several Turkish, Chinese and Greek clubs. Last summer, he left AE Kifisias after their relegation to the Greek second division and moved to Iran for the first time in his career. The 32-year-old has joined former Gulf Pro League champions Esteghlal Khuzestan, joining the club on a free transfer.
Unbeknownst to Bifouma at the time, this Esteghlal was not actually the club he intended to join.
Bifouma joins the wrong club – because of Ronaldo
As he has now claimed, the striker actually wanted to join Tehran giant Esteghlal FC, who are nine-time Iranian champions and two-time AFC Champions League winners. And it is precisely because of this last competition that he wanted to move to the Iranian capital.
Bifouma claims he intended to join Esteghlal FC for the chance to face Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr in the Champions League. Little did he know that this particular club was not the only club named Esteghlal.
“I had the chance to play in Türkiye, but my wife did not agree to return there”he told the Tasnim news agency. “IHe wants to play against Cristiano Ronaldo before retiring. Given that he is now in Asia and there was an opportunity for me to come to Iran, they told me about Esteghlal’s offer and I looked at the match schedule and realized that they had a match against Al-Nassr.
“I told myself this is where I wanted to go. I didn’t know there were two teams named Esteghlal in Iran.” says the 32-year-old. “When I arrived in Tehran, my compatriot Gael Kakuta called me to ask where I was. »
“ I told him: ‘I’m at the hotel to have medical tests.’ He then asked me: ‘Which hotel are you in? I would like to come see you. An hour later he called me back and teased me, saying: ‘You play for little Esteghlal, while we are part of a bigger team. You defend, and we attack’.
“Anyway, it didn’t matter because we ended up winning the game against them (on August 29), thanks to my goal. »
