According to Amirhossein Fathi, the caretaker of the club, Gonçalves has departed for Turkey and will join the team in Tehran on Monday.

No detail about the fee of the contract has been published yet.

Also called ‘Isma’, the 27-year-old winger and striker has played for various teams during his senior career, including Nice, Apoel, Veria, Al-Ettifaq, and Pakhtakor Tashkent.

In his international career Isma has represented Portugal in U17 level but made his debut for the senior team of Guinea-Bissau in March 2018.

Esteghlal ranks fifth at Iran Professional League with 25 points, being 6 points behind the leading Sepahan. The team is also drawn along Al-Duhail, Al-Hilal, and Al-Ain in the 2019 AFC Champions League in the competition’s ‘group of death’.

Esteghlal has lacked a ‘killer’ striker in the previous season and fans hope that Isma could best replace the well-liked Mame Baba Thiam, who left the club in 2018 after an amazing half-season in which he scored 12 goals in 13 appearances.