Barely 20 years old , but with a confidence of a veteran.
Sardar Azmoun, the young Team Melli players stunned the football circles all over Iran by being recruited by the Russian Club Rubin Kazan while he was 18 years old. The Russian were tipped by their scouts about this brilliant young Iranian playing for Iran’s national youth team and decided to take him aboard from such early age hoping to produce a quality striker and a big investment.
Azmoun soon found himself in the city of Kazan and way far from home. Unlike countless Iranian footballers who could not truly settle outside their domiciles, Azmoun soon became familiar with the surroundings and liked what he has seen.
Playing for the youth team for almost two seasons, Azmoun was slowly introduced to the full team. The young man did not disappoint either, scoring goals and assisting for his team.
Azmoun was picked by Queiroz in the preparations for the World Cup; however he did not make the final list of 23 players to Brazil. Quite disappointed by this, Azmoun however, did not show any disrespect or contempt for that decision. He said, with confidence that his turn will be coming one day.
No sooner than the next big tournament for Iran, the Asian Cup. Once again Queiroz picked Azmoun for the Asian Cup campaign. Celebrating his 20th birthday in the South African training camp, Azmoun was one of the most hard working player in the camp. Under the professional environment of the Russian league, Azmoun has picked up quite a few things that is giving him a world of good towards his future career and the most important of it is confidence, diligence, professionalism and dedication.
All those attributes are not much good without the talent and skills. Fortunately, Sardar Azmoun has plenty of both. A strong physique, skillful carrier of the ball who has a elusive skills in turning defender, quick thinker, good header of the ball and lethal finisher are some of the skill that Azmoun has and developing. Although Azmoun has not had enough opportunities to display such skills at top level for Iran, it was evident during his earlier years while playing for Iran national youth teams, that he is an exceptional talent and a star in the making.
Azmoun had one opportunity to stake a claim with a big exposure, when he played for Team Melli in their last Friendly against Iraq in Australia. The solitary goal that he scored had the combination of many of his inherit skills and the finishing was simply marvelous for the 20 years old striker.
Carlos Queiroz has already shown that is brave enough to introduce young players at top level, being himself an old hand in training young players and winning 2 world titles for his country’s youth team. Whether he will give Azmoun his real chance in Australia is dependent on several circumstances one of which is the match results. Azmoun accepts the realities “As a young player that with low experience, I and my younger teammates must really work hard to gain the trust of the coach for a place in the lineup.” His expectations are low in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia but ambitions quite high. He is also known to be a enduring character.