Lost Man City midfielder finally has chance to rewrite career

There probably isn’t a Manchester City player with worse luck than Daniel Arzani.

The Australian joined from Melbourne City in 2018 after an eye-catching World Cup for Australia, and immediately headed out to Celtic on a two-year loan deal.

However, since moving to Europe, Arzani has played just 12 senior games, at an average of 20 minutes per appearance. He hasn’t completed 90 minutes since April 2018 – and only four of his 42 first-team games in his entire career have been a full match.

For a 22-year-old, that’s a shocking record.

Most of his fortunes have been dictated by an awful injury suffered shortly after joining Celtic, which limited his games for the then-Scottish champions to just two outings. After recovering, loans at Utrecht and Aarhus followed, but still no starts and the forward was limited to a fringe role at both clubs.

Now, he has the chance to revive his faltering career as he represents Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic football tournament.

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Arzani has started both of Australia’s group games so far, although has been substituted twice as he will have become accustomed to.

After shining for Australia at the 2018 World Cup, he now has the chance to rediscover his form on the international stage after three awful years at club level.

Arzani must go back to enjoying football and keeping his place – and if playing for Australia is the best way for him to do that, then City could benefit.

No detail was given on the length of Arzani’s contract, but he was named on the Premier League retained lists this summer as under contract at City.

Another loan would surely follow if he is fit next season, and he will hope for a similar boost from his last tournament in 2018. Then, he got a life-changing move to City.

Now, Arzani will be hoping to simply earn a chance to get back to playing regularly again.

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