Against a backdrop of brutal Taliban rule and corruption claims, Zohib Islam Amiri sees demoralisation setting in
When Zohib Islam Amiri came back to play in Afghanistan in January for the first time since 2010, he was hoping to make a difference. “I wanted to try to give some of the young Afghan kids some inspiration,” he says. “But as soon as I got there it was clear that things were even worse.”
Amiri, who made his international debut as a 15-year-old in 2005 before serving as captain for more than a decade, became the first Afghanistan player to move overseas when he joined Mumbai in 2011. The defender’s return to play for Abu Muslim in the Afghanistan Champions League – a competition set up in 2021 when the Taliban regained power – was never intended to be the end of his career. But having seen his side crowned champions after a controversial 8-0 victory amid allegations of match-fixing, Amiri decided enough was enough.
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