Amini bound for Europe

[Atomic]

Musty talks on Fox ... http://www.foxsports.com.au/Football/amini-on-move-to-germany/video-e6frf423-1226088348626?subcat=1111112039253&site=FoxSports

Those crowd scenes are awesome! Average attendance of 80K... wow. The local derby day must be insane.

 

[MrCelery]

Those crowd scenes are awesome! Average attendance of 80K... wow. The local derby day must be insane.

Well handled interview Musti - very diplomatic in regards to those questions on the Harry Kewell contract negotiations debacle.

 

[Muppet]

I am glad we have him for the year plus the ACL rounds. With Pelligrino being signed I wonder how much game time he will get this year. That and the fact that he has the U20 WC coming up.

 

[midfielder]

Back on the question of transfer fee ... any idea anyone what it is ...

 

[Atomic]

Back on the question of transfer fee ... any idea anyone what it is ...

I have no details of the exact figure but my source was correct with saying that his transfer was going to be official this week, therefore I have no reason to doubt his pessimism with regards to the transfer fee... i.e. much closer (if not equal to) $135K and no where near $650K.

Also, CCM will be paying Musti's wages this season... but as we know, that is not such a big burden.

 

[midfielder]

Nice story about Musty in today's SMH ...

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/field-of-dreams-awaits-rising-star-20110729-1i44j.html


Field of dreams awaits rising star
July 30, 2011

''Amazing ride'' … 18-year-old Mustafa Amini will be Australia's midfield linchpin when he takes the field in Colombia. Photo: Brendan Esposito
On the eve of the Young Socceroos' under-20 World Cup campaign, Sebastian Hassett talks to Mustafa Amini.

APPEARANCES can be deceiving. Mustafa Amini doesn't look like a footballer - he's short, even a little stocky. Yet they said the same thing about Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.

It is far-fetched to suggest Amini will achieve a fraction of what those two have done but the physical and positional similarities - all three made their name as attacking midfielders - leave something to ponder. This nation is obsessed with being the right size and shape in sport, yet in football such rules just don't apply.

On Sunday, Amini will step into the global limelight for the first time as he takes to the field at the under-20 World Cup for Australia's opening match against Ecuador. Not wanting to stretch an unlikely link further, but Amini wouldn't mind adding his name to the two aforementioned Argentines, both winners of the Golden Ball award for the same youth tournament in 1979 and 2005.

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The comparisons don't stop there. FIFA's website claims his afro hairdo resembles the legendary Carlos Valderrama, and Young Socceroos coach Jan Versleijen says Amini bears an uncanny playing resemblance to former Ajax, Barcelona and Liverpool magician Jari Litmanen. Who knows to whom he'll be compared next by the time he's done in Colombia.

''I can only describe this whole ride as amazing,'' Amini says. ''Going to a World Cup is every kid's dream. Ever since I was young, I've been watching World Cups and thinking, 'One day I want to be there,' and now I'm doing it at the youth level. It's a major step up because this means we're playing against the best teams in the world. Look at Spain, they're packed with the best of Barcelona's youth [six of their 21-man squad]. It's a challenge, but a challenge we want to take.''

As it happens, Amini and his teammates have a date with the Spanish youngsters on August 6, their final group match of the tournament. In between that and the opening match against Ecuador - one of the few teams that won't have any problems adjusting to the altitude of Manizales, where all the Young Socceroos' matches are being played at 2150 metres above sea level - is the clash with Costa Rica.

Regardless of what happens in the next few weeks, Amini's path to stardom has already been mapped out. The 18-year old recently signed a deal with German champions Borussia Dortmund, who he will join permanently a year once he completes the coming A-League season with the Central Coast Mariners. Yet go back a year and the youngster with the Nicaraguan mother and Afghan father had a different perspective.

''It was my first pre-season and the first time I'd really been up against fully grown men. It was a whole different world,'' he says. ''At the start of it, I actually thought I wouldn't play in the A-League for another two or three years. In all honesty, I wasn't that good. I was thinking, 'What am I doing here?' and it was just much harder than what I was used to at the AIS.

''I went on and played youth league for the first nine rounds, and after coming back from the Asian under-19 [championship] I was on the bench in the seniors. Unfortunately, [Patricio] Perez got injured, but that gave me my chance, and I took it with both hands.''

He never looked back, alleviating worries about Perez's never-ending injury battles to make the No.10 position his own, even starting in the grand final against Brisbane Roar. With a move abroad secured, his mum Zahra couldn't be prouder at seeing her boy from Dundas grow up to take on the world.

''He was always really active, right from the start,'' she says. ''He was always running everywhere, and when he started scoring all these goals for his junior teams, we started to realise we had to let him follow his dream. We will miss him when he goes to Germany but we know it will be good for him.''

Amini says this generation of Young Socceroos has been welded together by their age-group experience in Asia, where they went to the final last year, only to lose to North Korea. ''It probably only dawned on me I was a chance to go to a World Cup when we won our Asian championship quarter-final against UAE, which guaranteed us qualification to the semi-finals and also to this event,'' he says. ''It was a pretty tense night. It went to extra time after they twice equalised with us. We ended up winning 4-2, I scored a goal and it was one of the best games I'll ever be part of. All the boys were delighted, even those who didn't get to play. The feeling of us being a team grew so much that day.''

Much of that same squad - 16 of the final 21 - prepared for the World Cup in Denver, Colorado, drawing 1-1 with South Korea and losing to England 1-0. They arrived in Colombia last weekend believing they are not there just to make up the numbers.

''My first thought was, 'Wow, what a tough group,' but you're always going to get that in a World Cup,'' Amini says. ''You always want to be playing against the best, you want to challenge yourself against Spain, and to see where we are at as a team and as individuals. We've got a serious chance of qualifying, we all believe that. This is a great squad, and many of the boys play regularly in first grade. And ultimately, we're not scared of anyone. It's 11 v 11 out there. Their players have two arms, two legs. They're beatable, and we're going there to give it our best

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Note to Amini, I think that Ecuadorian who MONSTERED Tommy Oar all night had three arms and two heads.
What a free kick though.
Certainly one of the best in Green and Gold history that I've ever seen.

Amini started very well, but Jan's shape and selection was a disaster, and soon all he could get his hand on were the odd aerial ball under constant pressure.

Bernie had a moment or two. Sainsbury... Not a great game, by an measure I'm afraid. Better than Warren's mind you.

Anyhow... looking forward to seeing Musti and Antonis on the field at the SAME TIME Jan you nonce.