Faysal Shayesteh (; born 10 June 1991) is an Afghan professional footballer who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

club Sreenidi Deccan and the Afghanistan national team.

Youth career

Born in

Kabul Kabul 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. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

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

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

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

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, 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 {{Infobox political division , name = Pahang , official_name = Pahang Darul Makmur , native_name = , settlement_type = States and federal territories of Malaysia, State , image_skyline = , imagesize ...

. 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. to becoming the first ever Afghan professional footballer in the Persian Gulf Pro League.

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 side Lampang.

VV DUNO

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

Sreenidi Deccan

In August 2022,

side Sreenidi Deccan announced the signing of Shayesteh for the 2022–23 season. He was part of team that earned qualification for 2023 Indian Super Cup. In the group stage opener, he scored a goal in their 1–1 draw with

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. They maintained their good form in second match when Sreenidi defeated Kerala Blasters by 2–0 on 12 April, but failed to progress to the semi-finals after 1–0 defeat to RoundGlass Punjab in last match.

International career

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

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

. 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, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

, where Shayesteh scored off a free-kick. On 22 May 2014, Shayesteh scored his first goal with a free-kick from nearly 50 meters against

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

in the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup. After Djelaludin Sharityar retired, Shayesteh became the new captain of the national team. He led the team to 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, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. In April 2016, he was named as Afghanistan's Athlete of the Year for 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

International

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

Honours

Afghanistan * SAFF Championship: runner-up

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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 Sportspeople of Afghan descent Afghan men's footballers Dutch men's footballers Footballers from Kabul Men's association football midfielders Afghanistan men's 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 men's footballers Afghan expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Expatriate men's footballers in Malaysia Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Iran Expatriate men's footballers in Iran Afghan expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate men's footballers in India Sreenidi Deccan FC players 21st-century Dutch sportsmen