Written by Adam Leatherbarrow @_ldesign
Sardar Azmoun is an Iranian Forward who currently plays for Rubin Kazan in the Russian League. He made his debut in 2014 for Iran and at the age of 22, he is Iran’s fifth most successful goal scorer in history. He has bagged 11 goals during the Russia 2018 World Cup qualification stage to help Iran to top their group for a place at next year’s competition.
After setting the Asian youth leagues alight, Azmoun earned a move to Russia, firstly with Rubin Kazan and then Rostov on loan. After impressing on loan, the deal became permanent and his performances were not forgotten by his previous club who resigned the player this summer.
The 6ft 1” striker is currently market valued of around £10m and has been compared to fellow strikers Liverpool’s Origi, Everton’s Sandro and Huddersfield’s Mounie. His pace and shooting abilities are his main elements to his game, followed by his skilful dribbling which puts him into fantastic goal scoring opportunities. He is no push over on the ball and can out muscle some of Russia’s toughest defenders.
Previously linked with a move to Arsenal, in 2016 he made his champions league debut and quickly made an impact scoring in the group stages for Rostov. He became the first Iranian to score in the Champions League for 11 years and helped Rostov beat Bayern Munich to their first ever Champions’ League group stage win. The performances in the competition that season led to a vast amount of high profile clubs try and get his signature. Arsenal were re-linked with his again and we closely followed by Marseille, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Celtic and Valencia. Despite the interest, Azmoun was keen to stay in Russia to develop under regular game time and resigned with Rubin Kazan. With time on his side, it won’t be long before he heads to Western Europe after the World Cup.
Sardar will be working hard over the remainder of the season as he looks to further impress his national manager to solidify his starting position for Iran on the world biggest stage next summer. With the world cup being held in Russia, he has a slight advantage of the conditions the country will have to offer and playing for a club whose stadium will be used for the tournament.
This season he is yet to net for his club, however the player shows a lot of potential and would be a welcome addition to the West Ham team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
