FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
Uttiyo Sarkar
Ashley Westwood has convinced PSG B goalkeeper Keyvan Mottaghian to play for the Afghanistan national team. The 21-year-old has been named in the Afghanistan squad for their upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Qatar and Kuwait in June.
Mottaghian is actually a French-born goalkeeper who has spent his entire professional career in Europe. The 6 ft tall goalkeeper can represent the Afghani squad thanks to his mother, who is from the country. In the past, he had expressed a desire to play for the Iran national team and also in the Iranian Premier League, with his father being from Iran.
However, Keyvan Mottaghian has chosen to represent Afghanistan instead after having a chat with Westwood. The ex-Bengaluru FC coach had actually invited the 21-year-old goalkeeper to attend Afghanistan’s training camp back in January when they prepared for the World Cup qualifiers against India. He didn’t get selected in the squad then, but was won over by the tactician and agreed to be available for selection for the Lions of Khorasan.
Mottaghian has had an interesting career so far. He spent his youth years in France before moving to Cyprus club APEP Pitsilia in 2022. He spent a short period there, before moving to Swedish club Vrigstads IF in February 2023. Mottaghan’s performances in Sweden were clearly noticed by PSG’s scouts and he joined the Ligue 1 heavyweights in September last year.
He has since been playing for their reserves side and trying to improve his skills as a part of the French champions. Keyvan Mottaghian, however, was not able to make a competitive appearance for PSG B last season as he spent most of the campaign working with their coaches to develop his traits and being the competition for 19-year-old goalkeeper Louis Mouquet.
Mottaghian will bring in decent experience to the Afghanistan squad, having spent his career in Europe. However, he’ll need to produce some really extraordinary performances in training to win over Westwood and displace Owais Azizi from the goalkeeper’s role.
Azizi was excellent in the two games against India in March, earning a clean-sheet and only conceding one goal in two games. Apart from calling up Mottaghian, Afghanistan have also been boosted by the return of exciting winger Hossein Zamani and midfielder Najim Haidari to their squad for the games against Qatar and Kuwait.
For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.
