Championships ignite new stars. For a Swedish audience, Yasin Ayari is already a fairly established name, but it was only the other day that the 22-year-old seriously cut through the noise for a global football audience.
The performance in the World Cup opener against Tunisia (5–1) in Monterrey, Mexico, was nothing short of dazzling. In his championship debut, Ayari scored two goals – the first and last of the match – with two long-range shots of the heavier variety.
An incredible player. A magical player. What he does on the field is just incredible, and the goals he scores - you often see them in training, and now he gets to do it in a match too. It's incredibly fun, says national team colleague Alexander Bernhardsson.
You don't sound that surprised?
No, I know what all our players are capable of, and I've seen it in training. He can do those things, it's just a matter of getting it out on the pitch too.
Two rockets
It wasn't just two fancy hits. The sensors in the new World Cup ball Trionda can measure most things, including speed. Ayari's two shots were the hardest in terms of ball speed (120 and 118 kilometers per hour, respectively) that had been measured so far during the championship.
Sweden's national team captain Graham Potter often chooses to highlight the team rather than single out specific players as particularly important. When asked whether world football has now noticed Ayari's qualities, he answers diplomatically:
"He's played a lot of games in the Premier League; it's not like he's unknown. We've got a lot of good players. The challenge is to be a team and find ways to get the best out of all the players," Potter said of the Brighton professional.
Watch him break through
The other national team players find it easier to praise the young midfielder outright. Liverpool star Alexander Isak suspected that Yasin Ayari would show himself to the world at the World Cup.
"It's incredibly fun for him. I've said that I think he's the kind of player who will have a real international breakthrough here," says Isak.
Ayari broke through at AIK where he made his Allsvenskan debut at the age of 17. National team goalkeeper Kristoffer Nordfeldt, still at AIK, has followed his former clubmate's progress with great interest.
"I've had the privilege of being with him early in his career and the development he's had is absolutely fantastic. He really deserves this," says Nordfeldt.
