A member  of the National Futsal Team, Mahdi Nawrozi, who accompanied the Afghan squad to the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, says he found Afghanistan to be a good country in terms of chasing his dreams through sport.

Nawrozi says he started playing futsal in Iran but it was hard for him to get anywhere as he was a refugee there.

“Immigration has its own problems. When you are a refugee you cannot play freely everywhere and you cannot play in clubs,” Nawrozi said.

His biggest achievement so far is attending the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games where Afghanistan got fourth position.  

Nawrozi was born in Sar-e-Pul province where he started dreaming about joining the national team.

He says he has many dreams but one of his dreams, he says, was achieved when he was selected for the National Futsal Team last year.  

“Mahdi Nawrozi is very good in technique. In short, he is a technical player and he always tries to improve,” Nawrozi’s coach Abdul Razaq Mamrak said.

His coach said Nawrozi played against Tajikistan in his first international match where heperformed well.

Nawrozi plays in a defense position in the national team. He has played in 13 matches for the national squad in which he has one goal in his record.

“In one of the matches against China, I left the goal and Mahdi defended two goals so I can say that I am thankful for this. He is one of the best players (in our team),” said Ali Reza Qorbani, another member of the national team.  

Nawrozi said that his role model is Aicardo Collantes, a defender in the Barcelona Futsal Club.