Faysal Shayesteh (; born 10 June 1991) is an Afghan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the wi ...

club

Sreenidi Deccan Sreenidi Deccan Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Hyderabad, Telangana. Established on 1 January 2015 as a football academy at Hyderabad and launched from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh in 2021, the club currently ...

and the Afghanistan national team.

Youth career

Born in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

, Shayesteh moved to the Netherlands and played in the youth academy of

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedes ...

, until he signed with Heerenveen in 2010.

Club career

Heerenveen

Shayesteh, 18-years old then, joined Heerenveen in the summer of 2010. He signed a contract until the summer of 2012.

Etar

In February 2013, Shayesteh joined

Bulgarian A PFG The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

club Etar 1924. On 2 March, he made his league debut in a 2–1 home win over

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute.

Songkhla United

In October 2013, Shayesteh made a transfer move to Thailand football club Songkhla United after his contract expired with Etar. He was given shirt number 10. He left Songkhla after they relegated in 2015.

Pahang

In July 2016, Shayesteh announced on Facebook that he joined

Pahang Pahang (; Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a sultanate and ...

. It was also announced that he will play with shirt number 10. After just 6 months he resigned with

Paykan

In January 2017, Shayesteh signed a one-and a-half-year contract with

Paykan F.C. Paykan Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال پيکان, ''Bâshgâh-e Futbâl-e Peykân'') is a football team based in Tehran, Iran. The team is sponsored by Iran's main automobile manufacturer Iran Khodro and is named after one of it ...

to becoming the first ever

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...

professional footballer in the

Persian Gulf Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League ( fa, لیگ برتر خلیج فارس, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Pro League ( fa, links=no, لیگ برتر ایران, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is the highest division of profe ...

Gokulam Kerala

On 19 November 2017, Shayesteh moved to

and signed with Gokulam Kerala for a season, but appeared in a single match for the side.

Lampang

In June 2018, he moved to Thailand and signed with

Thai League 2 Thai League 2 ( th, ไทยลีก 2), commonly known as the T2, formally called Thai Division 1 League, is the second-tier professional league in the Thai football league system. The top 3 are promoted to Thai League 1 at the end of the ...

side

Lampang Lampang, also called Nakhon Lampang ( th, นครลำปาง, ) to differentiate from Lampang province, is the third largest city in northern Thailand and capital of Lampang province and the Mueang Lampang district. Traditional names for L ...

VV DUNO

In 2020, Shayesteh moved back to the Nederlands and joined VV DUNO in the

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie, formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league is divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunday. This is a result of ...

Sreenidi Deccan

In August 2022,

side

announced the signing of Shayesteh for the 2022–23 season.

International career

On 13 April 2014, Shayesteh made his debut for the national team of Afghanistan in a friendly match against

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

. He played as left fullback. In the 17th minute of the match he missed a penalty. On 14 May 2014, Afghanistan played a friendly match against

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

. Shayesteh scored a beautiful free-kick at the game. On 22 May 2014, Shayesteh scored his first goal with a free-kick from nearly 50 meters against

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the s ...

in the

2014 AFC Challenge Cup The 2014 AFC Challenge Cup was the fifth and the final edition of the AFC Challenge Cup, an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member nations that are mainly categorized as "emerging countries" in the now d ...

. After

Djelaludin Sharityar Djelaludin Sharityar ( fa, جلال‌الدین شریعت‌یار) is an Afghan footballer defender and was the captain of the Afghanistan national football team. His career started in 1998 in Germany when as a youth he played for VfL Wolf ...

retired Shayesteh became the new captain of the national team. He led the team into the final of the 2015 SAFF Championship in Tiruvanantapuram, which was the country's last participation. He scored three goals in that competition but finished as runners-up, as Afghanistan lost 1–2 to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. In April 2016, he was named as Afghanistan's Athlete of the year 2015.

Personal life

He is the younger brother of Qays Shayesteh, who also plays football and represented Afghanistan national team from 2011 to 2017.

Career statistics

Club

:''Scores and results list Afghanistan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Shayesteh goal.''

Honours

Afghanistan *

SAFF Championship The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as ''South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup'' and ''South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup''), is the main international ...

: runner-up

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

Individual * Afghanistan's Athlete of the Year: 2015

References

External links

* *
Profile
at Sportal
profile and statistics
at footballcritic {{DEFAULTSORT:Shayesteh, Faysal 1991 births Living people Afghan emigrants to the Netherlands Afghan footballers Dutch footballers Footballers from Kabul Association football midfielders Afghanistan international footballers Asian Games competitors for Afghanistan Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Faysal Shayesteh Persian Gulf Pro League players I-League players FC Etar 1924 Veliko Tarnovo players Faysal Shayesteh Sri Pahang FC players Paykan F.C. players Gokulam Kerala FC players Faysal Shayesteh Faysal Shayesteh VV DUNO players Afghan expatriate footballers Afghan expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Expatriate footballers in Thailand Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Expatriate footballers in Malaysia Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Iran Expatriate footballers in Iran Afghan expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate footballers in India Sreenidi Deccan FC players