Socceroos star Daniel Arzani caught playing amateur football

Daniel Arzani is set to escape punishment from Melbourne Victory after a photo emerged of the Australian international playing for an amateur team in Sydney.

Arzani played for his junior club Coogee United in a sixth division match last Saturday.

Victory declined to comment but told AAP that Arzani’s behaviour would be addressed when players begin returning to pre-season training later this week.

The Eastern Suburbs Football Association (ESFA) also declined to comment but said it was investigating allegations Arzani played for Coogee United as a reserve player. ESFA rules state players must be amateurs and must be officially registered with the league.

Arzani should not be punished for his actions, although Victory’s new manager Patrick Kisnorbo probably took a dim view of his behaviour. It also reflects poorly on Arzani, 25, to be playing for an amateur team on a rain-soaked pitch and risking injury.

The seven-time international player suffered a series of injuries early in his career. He only recently returned to the national team under Graham Arnold, and was called up for June’s World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh and Palestine.

It was Arzani’s first cap in almost six years and he came after a stellar season for Victory in the Men’s A-League. On his recall to the Socceroos, Arzani credited departed Victory manager Tony Popovic for helping him rediscover the form that made him one of Australia’s most sought-after youngsters.

“The biggest benefit I got from working under Popovic this season was the mental aspect of the game,” Arzani said in May. “That really helped me with the team and the environment I was in this year.

“We were very competitive, very professional and a really great group of guys.

“They all surrounded me, they helped me a lot, and I’m in a very good situation right now.”

Arzani hit the headlines as a teenage prodigy, earning a move to Premier League giants Manchester City at the age of 19, just months after becoming the youngest player to feature at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Arzani’s time in Europe was cruelly blighted by injury, however. Manchester City negotiated a two-year loan from Celtic for Arzani upon his arrival in the UK, but the teenager tore his ACL just 20 minutes into his Hoops debut. Almost two years passed before Arzani made another senior appearance – on loan at FC Utrecht in the Netherlands – but, after loan spells in Denmark and Belgium as well, Manchester City did not renew his contract and he returned to the A-League in July 2022.