The Isuzu UTE A-League welcomes back Daniel Arzani after four years away. But, they were four unfulfilled years, as one of our most precocious talents returns to re-build his career at Macarthur. Where has he been and why is this move so crucial? KEEPUP explains…
It was May 2018, in the searing heat of Antalya, and Bert van Marwijk was putting his Socceroos through a pre-Russia training camp. There were two players the mainstream Australia media clamoured over when they stormed into the training camp on the eve of the World Cup.
Tim Cahill, of course.
Daniel Arzani.
Everyone wanted a piece of Daniel Arzani.
The precocious talent, then still a teenager, had been plucked from the Isuzu UTE A-League by van Marwijk for the 2018 FIFA World Cup squad thanks to the star dust he exuded as a fearless, mercurial winger with precocious dribbling ability; an x-factor with unpredictability the Socceroos otherwise lacked. A game breaker.
Still raw, brash and, lacking experience as a 90-minute player, the Melbourne City youngster was selected by gun-for-hire van Marwijk as a weapon he otherwise lacked in a squad he was hurriedly putting together and re-moulding following Ange Postecoglou’s exit.
Cahill was the star; Arzani was the heir apparent.
READ: Arzani signs with Bulls for 2022-23 ALM season
When he got minutes against Czech Republic and Hungary, and then scored in Budapest, it was becoming clearer Arzani wasn’t just picked as a token legacy selection by the Dutchman. He was part of his plans.
So it proved in Russia; where the likes of Cahill, Jamie Maclaren, Massimo Luongo and Dimitri Petratos were not used, Arzani was – in all three World Cup clashes as an impact player against France, Denmark and Peru.
And the youngest player in the tournament – and the Socceroos’ youngest ever – caught people’s attention.
Four years on, however, those cameos remain not just a glimpse, but the high point.
Arzani sealed a move immediately after the World Cup to Manchester City from Melbourne City, before being loaned out to Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic.
The attacker’s initial stagnation was through sheer bad luck, tearing his ACL on debut.
From there, he bounced around on loan, searching for game time, confidence, and a return to form. It was clear Neil Lennon did not hold the same affection for him as Rodgers, but then, through stints in Holland with FC Utrecht, Denmark with AGF Aarhus and Belgium at SK Lommel – another City Football Group club – the Australian was only seen in fits and starts.
Momentum never built. He was plateauing. Arzani’s peers were going past him and a talent Australian football craved had fallen off the radar.
Speaking on Optus Sport in January 2021, Socceroos legend John Aloisi mused: “I think he should self-reflect first to see why he is not playing and why he has gone quite a few seasons without playing regular football.
“I know he had that bad injury, he is over that now, is he actually showing that he should be before other players in that squad? Is he working harder than the other players? We don’t know, we are not there, but is he making sure the coach has no reason not to play him?
“I mean by doing everything right, turning up to training, making sure you are 100 per cent ready every day in training and being the best player in training. If you’re not playing, you have to prove why you should be playing. Prove the coach wrong.”
A lifeline came via Graham Arnold at the Tokyo Olympics, where Arzani was picked less on match minutes, and on a chance to reintegrate back into the green and gold. Again, there were moments – but also clear evidence of a player underdone.
Speaking in September, Arnold re-iterated the hope he has that the talent can get his career back on track.
“He’s such a great kid, such a beautiful kid that I’m just here to support him and support the rest of the players,” Arnold said.
“Obviously I’ve had a lot of life experiences in football and just trying to help the kid get back on track.”
In the A-League Men, he played 1, 252 minutes as a teenager. Since then, he has played 1, 648 minutes of senior football.
Intriguingly, in an interview with Fox Sports in 2019, Arzani was asked what advice he would give a young kid following his path before heading abroad.
He replied: “I think stay in the A-League for a bit longer.”
And so, he is back where he began, four years on.
His return to Australia with Macarthur, linking with Dwight Yorke, is less about making a late raid for a spot at the World Cup in Qatar, and more about fulfilling his talent, and finally earning the regular game time needed to build his first team career. If he can, everyone knows the talent he possesses.
“It is difficult because for me it can look like I am so far from being somewhere, when I am actually not,” he told Nine last year.
Because when I do get a chance to play and when I do show what I can do then I know things will head in the right direction for me very quickly.
Everyone in Australian football hopes so. And it will hopefully be worth the wait.
