Getting to know Sardar Azmoun

Playing as a forward for Bayer Leverkusen under Xabi Alonso, he very nearly scored in the 81^st minute of the second leg – a goal that could have taken the match to extra-time – but just missed the target.

The day after missing out on a place in the final to Jose Mourinho’s team, Azmoun made an Instagram post expressing his sorrow about not having reached Budapest himself. Three months later he’s starting all over again with the team that interrupted his European journey.

Here’s what you need to know about Sardar Azmoun.

Career

Sardar Azmoun was born on 1 January 1995 in Gonbad-e Kavus, Iran. His professional career started at Russian side Rubin Kazan.

He went on to wear the jersey of two other Russian clubs, Rostov and Zenit Saint Petersburg. In 2022 he made the move to Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

Type of play and numbers

Right-footed and an agile striker, Azmoun can play anywhere across the front line.

He has scored over 100 goals across all competitions in Russia and Germany.

Six trophies 

Azmoun has three Russian Championships under his belt (2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21), as well as one Russian Cup (2019-20) and two Russian Super Cups (2020, 2021). In total he has won six trophies, all while playing at Zenit.

In 2020 he was the top scorer of the Russian Premier League with 17 goals and in 2021 he was named the best footballer in the tournament.

Two World Cups

Azmoun, 28, has played in two World Cups with his national team, Iran. His first World Cup experience was in Russia in 2018 and he also played at Qatar 2022.

He has made 71 appearances for Iran, scoring 45 goals.

Roma’s third Asian player 

Azmoun is the third player in the club’s history to come from Asia. All three Asian players were born in different countries. 

Hidetoshi Nakata from Japan and Eldor Shomurodov from Uzbekistan came before the Iranian striker.

Leverkusen to Roma

Azmoun is the fourth Giallorossi player to move from Bayer Leverkusen to Roma after Paulo Sergio, Emerson, and Juan.

Social media

Of the current squad, Sardar is the fourth most followed Roma player on Instagram, with over five million followers.

He comes behind Paulo Dybala (57.3 million), Leonardo Paredes (10.1 million) and Stephan El Shaarawy (6 million). Renato Sanches has the fifth biggest following (4.7 million).