According to Esteghlal FC, the 43-year-old Italian held talks with the club’s President Amirhossein Fathi and Sporting Director Ali Khatir in Turkey on Tuesday.

It has been a remarkable rise for a club that only arrived in China’s top flight in 2013 and have since gone on to to acquire talent of the calibre of Hulk and Oscar, the Brazilian duo who helped inspire them to their maiden Chinese Super League title in 2018 after three successive top-three finishes.

Arguably, however, no one has been more important in their surge to prominence than Wu Lei, who was the league’s top scorer last year before he signed for La Liga side Espanyol at the beginning of 2019 where he has since gone on to become the first player from his country to score in Spain’s top flight.

Births, super star performances, debuts, opportunities and sleepless nights all feature as the-AFC.com reviews our What They Said series from the last four months of action.

The 26-year-old midfielder will join the Abu Dhabi-based club on a season-long loan after making 21 appearances and scoring a goal for Al Dhafra who finished 10th in the league last season.

"In our first deal for the new season, the club announces it has officially signed the Argentine defender Gabriel Mercado to be one of our foreign players for next season," Al Rayyan posted on their Twitter account.

The 45-year old replaces his countryman Henk ten Cate who resigned from the post last month citing “personal reasons”.

On the back of defending their Iran Pro League title, the Tehran-based club achieved a domestic double by also claiming the Hazfi Cup.

The last time Persepolis had achieved such a feat was in 1999.