Sardar Azmoun Nominated for Asia's Greatest Russian Premier League Player
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - One of the most geographically diverse leagues in football, few domestic competitions outside of the AFC have welcomed so much Asian talent as the Russian Premier League.
With several players joining the league from East, West and especially Central Asia, the competition has been a league of interest for Asian fans since its inception in 1992.
It has played host to star players from some of the continent’s biggest football nations, with League, Cup and European silverware all won by Asian players.
Iran international forward Sardar Azmoun will vie with Mirdjalal Kasimov (UZB), Keisuke Honda (JPN), Kim Dong-jin (KOR), Odil Ahmedov (UZB), Mukhsin Mukhamadiev (TJK), Vitaliy Denisov (UZB), Dmitri Khomukha (TKM), Vladimir Maminov (UZB) and Eldor Shomurodov (UZB) to become the Asia's Greatest Russian Premier League player.
Much was expected of Sardar Azmoun when he was snapped up by Kurban Berdyev’s Rubin Kazan as an 18-year-old, and he has grown to become a superstar of Asian football.
The first Iranian to play in the Russian Premier League, the only Iranian to win the league title and the youngest player from his country to score in the UEFA Champions League, one of Azmoun’s most memorable spells came in the second-half of the 2018-19 season, when he scored 12 goals in 16 matches upon joining title-bound Zenit.
Despite almost daily reports linking him to some of Europe’s biggest clubs, the 25-year-old remains in Russia, where he looks set to lift the Premier League once more at the end of the season.