There's an irony to Finn Azaz being linked with a Premier League move, considering he spent so much of his career at top flight clubs.
West Brom were yo-yoing between England’s top tier and the Championship when Ireland’s newest star was first making his way in the professional game.
A loan at Cheltenham helped him along before joining Aston Villa in 2021, only to be loaned out for the next two-and-a-half years, at Newport County and Plymouth Argyle. There’s no doubt it was good grounding for the attacking midfielder, but it also reaches a point where an opportunity at your parent club wouldn’t go amiss.
While Azaz was expecting to at least train with Villa’s first-team on his return, it never happened and that’s when he knew it was the end of the road for that venture. Now one of Middlesbrough’s best performers, he’s dreaming of a top flight return even though Boro have a bit of work to do, sitting three points outside the playoff places.
There’s a contingency plan in operation though, as Azaz’s football is suddenly doing the talking for him on the international stage.
Fast becoming a favourite of Heimir Hallgrimsson, the 24-year-old of Irish and Israeli heritage was watched by Crystal Palace in Sunday’s win over Bulgaria in Dublin. The Eagles scouts liked what they saw, as he teed up Evan Ferguson for an overdue goal and then played a key role in the build-up to Adam Idah’s late winner.
And when assessing a solid week’s work, don’t forget the Westminster-born ace also scored his first Ireland goal in Thursday’s first-leg win away in Plovidiv. Not that Eamon Dunphy was purring about Azaz, noting in his Irish Daily Star column: “There may be a media love-in about Finn Azaz. Well, I’m not joining that gang. He is overhyped.”
Clearly, Hallgrimsson doesn’t think so and a week before the first game against Bulgaria, he invited a small group of football journalists into the FAI boardroom. It was the day of his squad announcement and the standard questions and answers session with print media was about to begin, but first Hallgrimsson opened his laptop.
He connected it to a big screen and proceeded to run through various slides and stat packs he had put together for the Irish management team, and players. It was broken down into positions on the pitch, with a Cluedo-like headshot of every squad player and also those hovering around the fringes.
To illustrate the detail involved, Hallgrimsson picked Azaz from the 50 or so players and clicked into his particular page, with a breakdown of his stats and attributes. At the time, it looked like a random selection when any name would have done. But two weeks on, it’s probably no coincidence as Azaz has left an impression on Ireland fans, not just the manager.
“He’s a very special talent,” said Ireland assistant John O’Shea, who briefly worked with Azaz with Ireland’s U21s, where he won his one and only cap against Israel. “He’s into double figures in terms of his club form, his goals and assists. It’s great to see him progress and hopefully he’s an important player coming forward for Ireland.”
O’Shea only needs to pick up the phone to his former Manchester United team-mate Michael Carrick to get the lowdown on this versatile playmaker. The Middlesbrough manager doesn’t tend to shower too many of his players with individual praise, preferring instead to always address the collective team effort. So when he hailed Azaz as “the whole package” before Christmas, you sit up and take notice, and so do Irish fans starved of a creative spark since Wes Hoolahan.
"We know his quality, his eye for a pass and for finding spaces to create for others,” said Carrick. "He’s an intelligent player and he can score goals as well. He did so before he came here and it was one of the reasons we bought him. “He’s got the whole package really and he’s having a really good spell, but there’s loads more to come from him still.”
While Azaz is going from strength to strength at Middlesbrough, it was his loan spell at Plymouth Argyle that was the making of him. But not just on the pitch, off it too, during that 18-month spell. Argyle players had every Wednesday off and Azaz had no intention of just sitting around the house.
He volunteered at St Luke’s Hospice, a specialist end-of-life and palliative care service in the area, performing various duties from fundraising to operating the drinks trolley. But mainly he spoke to the patients.
Azaz never sought publicity and didn’t raise it in any interviews while at Argyle - and only mentioned it in a social media post once he had left the club for Boro. Speaking to The Athletic a year ago, Azaz said: “I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just wanted to make an impact off the pitch. I had the day off, so why not?
“It was my mum’s idea because I’d spoken about it and she pushed me to come out of my comfort zone. I wondered if I could give money, but my mum told me that if I gave my time, that would be even more impactful than any money. I will give money in the future, but giving time is something special.”
Back on the pitch, Ireland are hoping that Azaz can be something special, too, in the green shirt. Two decent performances against a really poor Bulgarian team has to be taken in context, but Azaz is making steady strides since his competitive bow in Helsinki.
O’Shea was first to blood him at senior level - this time last year against Switzerland - when he was interim manager. But Hallgrimsson pitched him in against Finland in October, a game where Ireland first developed this knack under the Icelander of coming from behind to win.
“He has been playing really well with Middlesbrough, in a role probably that we needed. He is the guy that can have the final pass, seeing the runs,” said Hallgrimsson. “We had some really good runs in behind against Greece at home in September, but we didn’t see these runs or use them. He’s a clever guy on the ball and that was the thought process to have a player a little bit deeper than Evan Ferguson, to find these runs and these pockets.”
Premier League clubs might yet be dipping into their own pockets for a player who is starting to turn heads.
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