{"id":31647,"date":"2018-05-01T11:40:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T18:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=31647"},"modified":"2018-05-01T11:40:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T18:40:21","slug":"arzani-would-choose-iran-if-given-world-cup-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2018\/05\/01\/arzani-would-choose-iran-if-given-world-cup-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"Arzani would choose Iran if given World Cup chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Worlds Game – MELBOURNE,\u00a0Melbourne City rising star Daniel Arzani has revealed he would turn his back on Australia if Iran gave him the chance to play at this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 19-year-old capped off an incredible debut A-League season for City by taking home the NAB Young Footballer of the Year award at last night’s Dolan Warren Awards.<\/p>\n

While the A-League\u2019s most evasive player this season said it would be a \u2018dream come true\u2019 to represent Australia, he refused to close the door on playing for Iran in Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I think the Socceroos definitely for me,\u201d Arzani said when asked what his first preference is.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the thing is there is a World Cup coming up and I wouldn\u2019t be one to pass up the chance to play in a World Cup, it\u2019s an amazing experience.”<\/p>\n

Socceroos coach Bert van Marwijk will name his preliminary 35-man FIFA World Cup squad in the coming weeks and Iran could swoop if Arzani is left out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear the teen sensation is desperate to play for Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean the world,\u201d Arzani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously from being very young, watching the Socceroos play, I\u2019ve always dreamt of playing for them and putting on the green and gold for the first team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think that one day hopefully soon I could be putting on that jersey is just something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Just growing up watching players like Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill that I now know personally and play, it\u2019s just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arzani has previously declared he\u2019s ready for a Socceroos call-up and has played down fears he isn\u2019t ready to handle the physical demands of international football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think physically where I am now, I\u2019m pretty happy with it,\u201d Arzani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the flip side of that is you getting too strong and your kind of losing a little bit of speed as well so I\u2019m happy with where I\u2019m at with that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian football fans will still have the chance to watch the dazzling winger up close and personal next season with Arzani committing to Melbourne City for another season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me right now the best thing would be to have another season with Melbourne City where I know I can develop under the right people,\u201d Arzani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the club has shown me a lot of support and I think that\u2019s where I can improve the most because I know I\u2019ll be getting games there and I can consistently play and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many believe Arzani could follow in the footsteps of Socceroos playmaker Aaron Mooy who made the move from Melbourne City to Manchester City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you look at what the City group have done over the last couple of years around the world its extraordinary and they\u2019re a very powerful organisation,\u201d Arzani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to be a part of that would be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone\u2019s football journey is also different, you never know where it\u2019s going to take you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Worlds Game – MELBOURNE,\u00a0Melbourne City rising star Daniel Arzani has revealed he would turn…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":31648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,89,91,93,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c16-iranian-legionairs","category-c20-other-news","category-c22-players-spotlight","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":2029,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31649,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31647\/revisions\/31649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}