Sardar Azmoun boasts a goalscoring record Robert Lewandowski would be proud of and carries the hopes of his nation like Lionel Messi with the skills to match, but who is the Iran international who will join Bayer Leverkusen from Zenit St. Ali Daei, Mahdi Mahdevikia, Ali Karimi, Vahid Hashemian…Sardar Azmoun? There have been a number of players who have had an impact on the Bundesliga, and there is little reason to think Azmoun will not be adding his name to that elite group.
After breaking through in his native country where he played at the youth academy of Sepahan — one of biggest clubs — he was tempted to join Russian outfit Rubin Kazan in January 2013 aged just 18. It was a bold, left-field move, especially with a number of big European clubs looking at him, but Azmoun was convinced it was the right move by Kazan coach Kurban Berdyen, who could converse with his new signing in Turkmen, a language Azmoun speaks fluently having grown up near the Turkmenistan border.
