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#2 Sardar Azmoun
Many consider Sardar Azmoun to be the best young player in the continent at the moment. The Iranian hitman has a mindboggling record when playing for the national side having scored 23 goals in just 31 appearances for his country. In fact, he is already the fifth highest all-time scorer for Iran.
Already touted as the heir-apparent to the legendary Ali Daei, the striker emerged as the country’s top scorer in the qualifying campaign with 11 goals. He heads into the Russian summer in sizzling form having scored eight goals in his last nine appearances for Iran.
The 23-year-old, who plays for the Russian side Rubin Kazan, is being courted by several top European clubs for his signature. This comes as no surprise with the youngster having another solid season at the club level. Despite having started only 10 games in Kazan's league campaign, Azmoun has caught the eye of many, netting four times and setting up his teammates thrice this season.
Iran is in an extremely tough group that also has the European Champions Portugal, and the 2010 World Cup winners Spain. Though it looks unlikely that Carlos Queiroz’s men will progress past the group stage, there will be a lot of interest about Azmoun’s performance in his first real test on the grand stage.
