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.

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.