{"id":41309,"date":"2021-01-01T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=41309"},"modified":"2021-01-01T09:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T17:33:00","slug":"ten-footballers-from-the-middle-east-who-made-their-mark-in-2020-sardar-azmoun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2021\/01\/01\/ten-footballers-from-the-middle-east-who-made-their-mark-in-2020-sardar-azmoun\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten footballers from the Middle East who made their mark in 2020 [Sardar Azmoun]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Middle East Eye &#8211; LONDON, <strong>Middle East Eye takes a look at some of the stars from the region who had an impact across the world\u2019s leading leagues this year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From buying controversial clubs to announcing new tournaments and securing prestigious awards, 2020 has been a big year for football in the Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The coronavirus pandemic had a major impact, forcing changes in&nbsp;the way the beautiful game was played the world over. Some players had their progress hindered as a result, but others will bow out of&nbsp;the year with much to look back on and forward to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Middle East Eye takes a look at 10 footballers from the MENA region who made their mark across the world\u2019s top&nbsp;leagues this year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sardar Azmoun&nbsp;(Iran\/Zenit St Petersburg)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran is no stranger to producing top footballing talents. Former striker and national team captain, Ali Daie, is the all-time leading goalscorer in the history of men\u2019s international football with 109 goals &#8211; a record currently being hunted down by Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sardar Azmoun, 25,&nbsp; is also breaking records. The forward, who plays for Russian side Zenit St Petersburg, is the youngest Iranian to score in a European Champions League match and holds the record for the most goals scored by an Iranian in a single Champions League season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his first two years at Zenit, Azmoun has already won the Russian league title twice, and picked up the Golden Boot after scoring 17 goals in the 2019\/20 campaign. He\u2019s been scoring for the Iranian national team too, chipping in with a highly prolific 37 goals in 55 games. Watch out Ali Daie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Middle East Eye &#8211; LONDON, Middle East Eye takes a look at some of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":41310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,89,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c16-iranian-legionairs","category-c22-players-spotlight"],"views":1192,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41309","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=41309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41319,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41309\/revisions\/41319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}