page_title: Sardar Azmoun
section_title: 2016–17 season
hierarchical_section_title: Sardar Azmoun / Club career / Rostov / 2016–17 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Sardar Azmoun
context_page_description: Sardar Azmoun is an Iranian professional footballer who plays for Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg and the Iran national team as a forward.
  Azmoun made his debut for the Iran national team in 2014 aged 19. He has been a regular with Team Melli playing in the 2015 and 2019 AFC Asian Cup as well as the 2018 FIFA World Cup. As of March 2020, he has scored 32 goals in 50 games.
  After Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Azmoun is the second most expensive Iranian player of all-time. He is both the youngest Iranian to score in a Champions League game, as well as the Iranian record-holder for the most goals scored in UEFA Champions League games, having scored 4 goals in the two seasons he has taken part in the tournament.
context_section_description: Initially it was announced that Azmoun would return to Rubin Kazan. However, Rostov triggered the buy out clause in Azmoun's contract. Rubin denied this clause and claimed Azmoun was their player. Rubin lodged a complaint with FIFA. FC Rostov filed a counter-complaint with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and on 22 July 2016 CAS temporarily ruled in favour of Azmoun and he was included in Rostov's UEFA Champions League squad. According to Rostov's lawyer Yuri Zaytsev, the final CAS decision on his status might not be reached until late 2016 or even the summer of 2017.
  Azmoun made his Champions League debut on 26 July 2016 in the first leg of a third-round qualifying round match against Anderlecht at Olimp – 2, coming on for Aleksandr Bukharov at the 56th minute. He started in the return leg on 3 August 2016 and scored his first Champions League goal in the 47th minute, helping Rostov advance 4–2 on aggregate. He scored his second Champions League goal on 24 August 2016 in the return leg of the playoff round match against Ajax, scoring the opening goal in a 4–1 victory which resulted in Rostov advancing to the group stage of the Champions League for the first time. Azmoun scored on 1 November 2016 in a Rostov's 2–1 Champions League group stage loss against Atlético Madrid. In the process, he became the first Iranian to score in the Champions League group stage since Ali Karimi in 2005. On 23 November 2016, Azmoun scored his second Champions League goal in the group stage against Bayern Munich at home, leading Rostov to a 3–2 victory and their first ever official Champions League group stage win.
  After his good performances and goals in the UEFA Champions League, Azmoun drew interest from European giants such as Marseille, Liverpool, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, and Bayer Leverkusen.
  On 6 November 2016, Azmoun scored his first Russian Premier League goal of the 2016–17 season in a 4–1 victory. He scored his second goal of the season on 28 November against Anzhi Makhachkala. On 26 January 2017, FIFA rejected appeals by Rubin Kazan related to Azmoun's transfer to Rostov and ruled that there were no obligations outstanding towards Rubin. On 3 March 2017, in the first league game after the end of the winter break, Azmoun scored twice in a 6–0 victory against FC Tom Tomsk. He scored another brace against his former side Rubin Kazan.
  After the end of the 2016–17 season, Azmoun received interest from Scottish side Celtic, English Premier League club Everton, and La Liga side Valencia.
caption: Azmoun in match against Ajax in 2016
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