Mustafa Azadzoy (

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...

: مصطفي ازادزوي; born 24 July 1992) is an Afghan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or a winger for

Atlas Delmenhorst Atlas Delmenhorst is a German association football club from the city of Delmenhorst, Lower Saxony who play in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nord. The club, originally formed in a merger in 1973, folded in 2002 after declaring insolvency but was ...

and the Afghanistan national team.

Early life

Azadzoy was born in Afghanistan to a

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

family, and has five older brothers and sisters. When he was just six months old his family moved to Germany, although his uncle and aunt remain in Afghanistan. Soon clubs started noticing his talent, after spending time with Delmenhorster BV he was recruited by

VfB Oldenburg VfB Oldenburg is a German association football club based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. In the 2022–23 season, they play in the 3. Liga, the third level of football in Germany. History Founded by a group of high school boys as ''FC 1897 Ol ...

who put Azadoy in their youth system.

Club career

After spending his youth career in

he signed for TB Uphusen in 2013.

International career

In 2011, Azadzoy made his debut for Afghanistan national team in the

2011 SAFF Championship The 2011 South Asian Football Federation Championship, sponsored by Karbonn Mobiles and officially named Karbonn SAFF Championship 2011, was the 9th tournament of the SAFF Championship, which held in New Delhi, India. Venue It was originally sc ...

. In February 2013 Azadzoy was called up by Afghan coach

Mohammad Yousef Kargar Mohammad Yosuf Kargar ( fa, محمد یوسف کارگر) is an Afghan football manager who coached the Afghanistan national football team from 20082009 and from 20102014. Career His family set up Afghanistan’s first ski resort, and he became ...

to play for Afghanistan against Sri Lanka encouraged by fellow Afghan-German footballer

Mansur Faqiryar Mansur Faqiryar (born 3 January 1986) is an Afghan former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played in Germany and represented the Afghanistan national team at international level. Club career In 2005, Faqiryar signed for amateur club F ...

. Azadzoy was part of Afghanistan's squad at the

2013 SAFF Championship The 2013 South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly referred to as 2013 SAFF Championship, was the 10th SAFF Championship for men's national football teams organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The tournament took p ...

, in which he scored his first ever goal against

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...

in a 3–0 win in the group stages. He also scored the first goal in the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

against

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, helping Afghanistan to a 2–0 win and handing them their first ever SAFF Championship. Azadoy had the honor of being included in Afghanistan's squad for the

2014 AFC Challenge Cup The 2014 AFC Challenge Cup was the fifth and the final edition of the AFC Challenge Cup, an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member nations that are mainly categorized as "emerging countries" in the now ...

in the Maldives. In the group stages of the tournament Afghanistan claimed their first ever win at the

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that was categorized as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. "Vision Asia", created by former AFC president, ...

with a 3–1 victory over

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the s ...

. Unfortunately after Afghanistan's 0–0 draw with Laos that confirmed their progression out of the group stage, an accident occurred while the Afghan players were being driven back to their hotel. Azadoy had to spend time in hospital over night and is set to miss three weeks, while his teammates

Zohib Islam Amiri Zohib Islam Amiri ( prs, ذهیب اسلام امیری; born 15 February 1990) is a professional footballer from Afghanistan who plays as a centre-back for A.S. Blainville and the Afghanistan national team. Early life Amiri was born on 15 Febr ...

Faisal Sakhizada Faisal Safa Sakhizada ( fa, فیصل سخی‌زاده; born 15 June 1990) is an Afghan association footballer who currently plays for Kingston City FC, football club from Melbourne, Australia. He is also a player in the Afghanistan national fo ...

, Ahmad Hatifi and Balal Arezou all suffered minor injuries. All five players are set to miss the semi-finals against

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

. Former coach

and current coach

Erich Rutemöller Erich Rutemöller (born 8 February 1945) is a German retired football manager and player. Coaching career Rutemöller has headed 1. FC Köln, Hansa Rostock and Bonner SC during his coaching career. He was an assistant coach for the Germany na ...

also suffered minor injuries.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Afghanistan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Azadzoy goal.''

Honours

Afghanistan *

SAFF Championship The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as ''South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup'' and ''South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup''), is the main international ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

References

External links

*
Goal.com Profile
*
football.com profile
1992 births Living people Footballers from Kabul Afghan men's footballers Afghan emigrants to Germany Afghanistan men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Asian Games competitors for Afghanistan Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games Mustafa Azadzoy Mustafa Azadzoy Mustafa Azadzoy Mustafa Azadzoy Mustafa Azadzoy Mustafa Azadzoy Afghan expatriate men's footballers Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand {{Afghanistan-footy-bio-stub