Azeem at work
Background
Football mad Azeem Anwar is 20 years old and lives with his family, 4 brothers and 2 sisters in Willesden. Although Azeem comes from a large family, not many have seen him play. His dad has never seen Azeem play football – he is supportive, but believes that education should come first. Azeem used to work in his father’s soft furnishing shop with his brothers but left to concentrate on his football.
Football
Azeem started playing football at a young age with his older brother Nadeem and his cousin Majid. He has always played for his school football teams and when he joined University of Westminster he was chosen to play for the 1st team. He has now been in the 1st team for two years. He is also extremely quick and has smashed the speed trial records for the footballers at his University.
Azeem feels that being Asian he is stereotyped against playing football and people will think he’s not a good player because he’s Asian, so he finds it a battle to win people over. He even emailed Zesh Rahman (1st Asian Premier League player) to ask him for advice on how to deal with it.
Most Wanted preparation
In preparation for the Most Wanted trial Azeem has increased his training to incorporate more running, he’s on a strict training diet, which he is finding quite hard to stick to and is weight training to improve upper body strength. On an evening Azeem will be at his local park practising the Nike running and drills with his cousin Majid. Azeem is looking forward to taking part in Nike Most Wanted – he sees it as an opportunity of a lifetime. He is taking this opportunity seriously.
When up to £60m is on the line, players can quickly become heroes or zeroes
