Nazir Niazi - International Under-23s Footballer

Nazir Niazi (October 2025)

We were delighted to learn last week that Nazir Niazi (Year 13) played for the Afghanistan under-23 football team in their qualifying tournament for the Asia Cup. This is a particularly astonishing achievement as Nazir is only 17. He was kind enough to write a short reflection below:

In the summer, I received a shock call from the Afghanistan Federation to call me up for the under-23 Afghanistan national team. I had the opportunity to go back home to take part in the camp for 10 days, meet family and enjoy myself. Then, I flew to Myanmar (Burma) to take part in the Asia cup under-23 qualifiers. We had a difficult group: Japan, Kuwait, and Myanmar. The thought of being able to play against Japan, the back-to-back champions of the Asia Cup and champions of Asia, was amazing. I had opportunities to play in all three games and show that a 17-year-old can easily fit in within a bunch of 22-23-year-olds which was a great experience from start to finish.

Just last year, Nazir was playing in the Afghanistan under-17s, showing how highly rated he is. We are so proud of him, and look forward to hearing more of his experiences over the coming months.

Nazir is a great example of how the school supports all aspiring athletes in balancing the demands of sporting excellence with daily academic requirements. While students need to develop a deep understanding of the key contributing factors to their chosen elite sport, it is also vitally important that school recognises and responds to the various pinch points in the respective performance seasons. If your child is on an elite performance pathway, please let us know so that we can support them with their sporting and academic journey.