Tag: Gonbad-e Kāvus

Azmoun suitors.

No doubt that the global lockdown and ceased football activities have deprived the media of reporting on football’s numerous competitions and actions on the field thus denying the journalist and reporters from vital sources of material to fill pages and pages of newspapers or electronic media.

To compensate for that, the media has found an alternative source of news off the field and mostly focused on the transfer market.

This subject has always been doggy, to say the least as the countless number of false and fabricated news that has marred transfer market news has relegated such reports to the dustbin department with the significant majority of the fans losing interest in them. The fabricated news, many times originated by some of the players themselves for self-serving purposes or forcing their demands on their clubs, has left a bad taste in the mouths of true football fans.

 However, What do you know as the subject of transfer news is suddenly alive and right at the top on the football news by the virtue of one COVID-19 endemic.

In this neck of the woods, the player who has been constantly in the limelight is no one but Sardar Azmoun.

The Team Melli and Zenit St. Petersburg striker, has been the subject of all sorts of transfer targets which neither the player himself or the club has ever confirmed.

After the English, then Scottish clubs’ interest, the focus shifted to Napoli of Serie A who were supposed to be the front runners in the race for Azmoun. However, it seems that Napoli must wait in turn as others are supposed to be interested as well.

Somewhat at this, it seems that La Liga club Sevilla FC is seeking to recruit him as well.  Sardar Azmoun has spent his entire professional career in Russia, between Rubin Kazan and Rostov, until January 2019 when Zenit paid 12 million Euros for his transfer and signed him to a contract until 2022.

Now, the Saint Petersburg club, given the number of suitors who are linked to their player, would be asking for no less than 25 to 30 million, according to ‘Breakingnews’. The suitors, which includes Sevilla FC in a list of five clubs, are interested in the 25-year-old forward, who in the current season added 14 goals and 7 assists in his 29 official matches, currently being assessed by Transfermakt at 14.5 million euros, although his value a few months ago was 18 million.

 

KAZAN, RUSSIA – JUNE 20, 2018: Iran’s Sardar Azmoun (L) and Spain’s Gerard Pique in a First Stage Group B football match between Iran and Spain at Kazan Arena at FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. Sergei Bobylev/TASS (Photo by Sergei BobylevTASS via Getty Images)

The rivals of the Sevilla FC club would be West Ham, Atlético de Madrid, Fiorentina, and Nápoli, who seem most interested in closing the signing of Azmoun as soon as possible and could present a formal offer shortly to avoid the auction that could stand out when the market opens, according to the aforementioned source.

‘Breakingnews’, adds that it is the intermediary Fali Ramadani who is in permanent contact with the Spanish director of Zenit, the Spanish Javier Ribalta, as well as with the footballer’s family to evaluate all possibilities.

The premier league side West Ham are one of several clubs in a ‘fierce competition’ to sign Sardar Azmoun according to http://sportwitness.co.uk/

As on many other fronts, therefore, competition would be high if Sevilla FC decided to move for Azmoun, the protagonist of a curious story because before deciding on football, he played volleyball and went international for his country in several age level teams without playing a single match in the domestic Persian Gulf Professional league.

Azmoun, a Turkmen born in Gonbad-e Kavus has scored 32 goals in 50 matches at the international level for Team Melli.

He is perhaps the most valuable player in Team Melli who missed the FIFA World Cup 2014 by a whisker when Carlos Queiroz, despite his strong admiration of Azmoun’s talent,  decided to exclude him from the squad heading to Brazil because of his young age.

Football Management of Iran !

Much has been said about the weaknesses of management in Iran’s football circles. The endless tales of failures by management of the football federation and clubs in Iran, is becoming so intolerable to the extent that the state-controlled and highly conformist Iranian media is becoming increasingly critical of the poor showing and embarrassingly appalling performance and decisions of the men in charge of football in the country.

Lack of proper selection and appointment mechanism of directors and personnel in Iranian clubs, dearth of experienced and skilled managers in football, poor international influences and relations building strategy, non-existent public relations , lack of vision , deficiency in  commercial activities and marketing skills , and absence of long term strategies are just a few of a long list of shortcomings that mars the working of football management in Iran.

It is quite safe to say, that without the government financial backing, none of the major clubs would be in existence and would have been bankrupt. That includes the major big clubs such as Esteghlal and Persepolis the two giants of Tehran, Zob Ahan and Sepahan of Esfahan and all the way to clubs in the South and North of Iran. Simply said these clubs could not run successfully and independently because there are very few capable, experienced and qualified football management running these clubs. The fact that government handouts is readily available, makes the situation even worse because these managers do not need to work hard to generate revenue to sustain the clubs activities.

 It is believed that Sepahan is one of the best run and most successful clubs in Iran. That is all relative, of course, as other clubs believe that the generous contribution by the state owned steel industry has been the main factor behind Sepahan’s success by pouring money into it.

However, it is prudent to review Sepahan and Sardar Azmoun episode

The prolific Team Melli young striker comes from the Turkmen region and was born in Gonbad-e Kāvus ,  of Golestan province on the New Year’s eve in 1995. He played football in various small provincial clubs before the scouts of Sepahan club spotted him in 2010 and invited him to join the youth Academy for development of talented player. It was definitely a fine move by the Esfahani club.

In the 3 years that Azmoun was registered under Sepahan, he was selected to represent Iran at several age Teams. He was always excellent and full of potential. However, Sepahan failed to see his real potential and opted to put on the sideline until a club from far away land of Chechnya decided that there is an enormous potential in this young Iranian lad that is worth investing in.

Sardar Azmoun, arguably, the best Iranian talent in the past two decades, left to Rubin Kazan without playing a single match for Sepahan senior team, not in the league nor in the cup.

Furthermore,  Sepahan Management never thought of protecting their investment by binding the player to a contract or writing a clause in it for future, like most other professional clubs do. Clauses to claim part of future transfers as their share of development of the player. So, after 3 years of work by Sepahan coaches at all levels, the boy left to Russia without Sepahan getting anything of significance.

Today, Azmoun’s current market value is close to £11.05 million, which FC Rostov will be getting from his sale to any club interested in the 22 year old striker; Those clubs include Première league Liverpool and Arsenal.

What about Sepahan? They will get zilch, no development right fees and no percentage of transfer fee, simply because amateurs’ are running the commercial departments of the clubs. People short of vision and devoid of ideas and strategy.

One can only imagine how bad & chaotic the business is conducted in clubs like Esteghlal and Persepolis, who are getting the lion-share of the public funds and government handouts without producing single Iranian young talented players in the last two decades.

 

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