Daniel Arzani, Iranian playing for Australia U-17

[aenima_8]

Arzani on possibly being called up by the Socceroos:

"At a Melbourne City pre-season press day he told journalists that it would be a hard choice between Team Melli and the Socceroos ''if I am good enough in the future''.

But nurture might be winning out over nature.

''It would be really exciting if I was included. It would be great to see the Socceroo set up and be a part of it. I have played for the junior national teams but never for the seniors," he said on Monday.

''I think for me I am leaning a bit more towards Australia. I grew up here, I played all my football here and went to the AIS. I have a lot of memories here."

Arzani has always said that his allegience was a difficult choice.

He still speaks Persian at home with his family and will consult with his parents before making a final call, but, he says, ''the decision will be made by me''."

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/a...05-p4yzfm.html

[sedee91]

I like how diverse our squad is becoming, especially if he gets called up for the friendlies.

[Ab-Gosht]

Aussie will obviously soon call him and he will accept but it wont tie him up until he plays a game at the asian cup 2019. i doubt he can make the WC. He's really exciting prospect fun to watch

[eerooni]

IT would be better if he chose Iran , as our squad will have a lot of older players who will not be called up for AC2019 nor the next world cup, players Like Dejagah, Gucci, Shojaee, Haj Safi, etc . So him being 19 will be an amazing addition to a team that is still developing and getting younger....CQ will definitely include him in his plans if he stays....

[RaginG Inferno]

Australia invests on players but later on they get stabbed in the back by the national team selection commitee or coaching staff. It is a known fact and trend that in Australia those who make it as fixed players in the Socceroos are of the following extraction/ancestry: British, Irish, German, Dutch, Italian and Croatian. All others seldom become fixed. There was a time that there were many Greek, Serbian, Turkish, Macedonian and Maltese who were talented and only a few found their place in the Socceroos squad while some other players who were less talented and were Croatian or Italian or of the other ancestry mentioned became fixed.
Specially it has been very difficult for Lebanese, Latin Americans, Africans and others to get invited or if they do they get only a handful of caps. Hence some go and play for the national teams of their father/motherland. For Example: Buddy Farah (went on to play for Lebanon), Abbas Saad (Lebanese only had 4 socceroos caps), Ersan Gülüm (went on to play for Turkey), Kerem Bulut (no caps for Socceroos).
Also current player Mustafa Amini only had 2 caps not even full matches!
It is to Daniel Arzani's advantage to choose Iran as there is a better chance for him to get more caps than he would for Socceroos, although Team Melli is very hard to get a fixed place as well. Amir Shapourzadeh, Omid Nazari, Daniel Davari, Steven Beitashour only managed to get a few caps.

Sorry, I don't think it's true that good players were excluded from the Socceroos based on heritage.

Farah and Saad weren't good enough. Another Lebo, Ahmed Elrich, for example, played for Australia on many occasions.

[jahandoost]

Cap, Cap, Cap the lad.

[shahname]

IT would be better if he chose Iran , as our squad will have a lot of older players who will not be called up for AC2019 nor the next world cup, players Like Dejagah, Gucci, Shojaee, Haj Safi, etc . So him being 19 will be an amazing addition to a team that is still developing and getting younger....CQ will definitely include him in his plans if he stays....

Hajisafi is only 27!!! He will most likely be around until WC2022.

[The]

I say this as a bache Farangi ( even though I left Iran as a teen ), we need to stop inviting bache Farangis. We have a lot of deserving talent in Iran that we should allow to shine.

I don't want Team Melli to become like Algeria in 2014 where their team was basically France's immigrant all Stars, and whenever the commentators talked about them, there was that asterisk of "Many players being French nationals".

[scuderia]

I say this as a bache Farangi ( even though I left Iran as a teen ), we need to stop inviting bache Farangis. We have a lot of deserving talent in Iran that we should allow to shine.

I don't want Team Melli to become like Algeria in 2014 where their team was basically France's immigrant all Stars, and whenever the commentators talked about them, there was that asterisk of "Many players being French nationals".

I'm not comparing but Algeria did very well in 2014. They made it out of the group ahead of South korea and Russia which by no means is an easy task.

[RaginG Inferno]

I say this as a bache Farangi ( even though I left Iran as a teen ), we need to stop inviting bache Farangis. We have a lot of deserving talent in Iran that we should allow to shine.

I don't want Team Melli to become like Algeria in 2014 where their team was basically France's immigrant all Stars, and whenever the commentators talked about them, there was that asterisk of "Many players being French nationals".

Why should we care about commentators? As long as they love Iran, and they are the best players for the position, they should play.

[ali alipour]

I say this as a bache Farangi ( even though I left Iran as a teen ), we need to stop inviting bache Farangis. We have a lot of deserving talent in Iran that we should allow to shine.

I don't want Team Melli to become like Algeria in 2014 where their team was basically France's immigrant all Stars, and whenever the commentators talked about them, there was that asterisk of "Many players being French nationals".

Most people don't seem to care about that. Morrocco is almost all players born and raised abroad but it's rarely mentioned so that wouldn't be much of a problem. The problem with Iran is that the majority of Iranian diaspora live in places that won't develop very good players (like North America and Australia). So although people here get really excited about them, majority of Iranian diaspora haven't been good enough or at least not better than domestic players. If Arzani was in Germany, France, like the Algerian and Morrocan players are, then for sure he'd be a call up and deserving. But he's in country where realistically there's no reason to believe he's any better than the likes of Namdari, Delfi, Azadi etc.

Seeing as Queiroz waited until Ghoddos proved he was better than other options with his Europa league performance to call him up, it's really unlikely Arzani would ever be considered until a move to Europe.

[The]

I'm not comparing but Algeria did very well in 2014. They made it out of the group ahead of South korea and Russia which by no means is an easy task.

Yup, They did great, but there was always that side factor of half of their team being born in France.

I don't know maybe it's that big of deal since other countries do it. I just think with the exception of Ghoddos and pre-2016 Dejagah Iran has better local talent.

[RaginG Inferno]

Yup, They did great, but there was always that side factor of half of their team being born in France.

I don't know maybe it's that big of deal since other countries do it. I just think with the exception of Ghoddos and pre-2016 Dejagah Iran has better local talent.

Seems to be universal now (e.g. Pepe, Deco, Diego Costa, Enzo Zidane, Simeone Jr etc).

[Rooyintan]

Sorry, I don't think it's true that good players were excluded from the Socceroos based on heritage.

Farah and Saad weren't good enough. Another Lebo, Ahmed Elrich, for example, played for Australia on many occasions.

Thanks. Yes Ahmed Elrich was perhaps the luckiest Arab to have socceroos caps for close to 20.

Saad was good. He was a fine Olyroo and then overlooked for the Socceroos recieving 4 caps far below what he truely deserved. Let's see if Mustafa Amini, Mabil, Ikonomidis, Giannou will feature for the Socceroos for the World Cup or will they not be there or only a benchwarmers or 1-minute subs. I honestly believe coaching staff are not in full control of player selections and a secretive lobby or group force the selection onto the Head Coach. I encourage anyone to view the past World Cups Socceroos squads and see how many Croatians, Italians were in the squad or how the squad was dominated by Anglo-Irish-Dutch-German heritage players.

Anyways Arzani needs to be alert and make the right choice for himself. He should not be maliciously tricked or pushed to choose Socceroos.

Amini could have been a superstar for Afghanistan and would have had 20 or so caps by now. Currently he has been a benchwarmer in Socceroos with only 2-late sub appearances!

[irani8perspolis]

Hajisafi is only 27!!! He will most likely be around until WC2022.

wouldn't be surprised to see him in 2026, and also wouldn't be surprised if he broke nekounams record