Omid Noorafkan

Omid Noorafkan (born 9 April 1997) is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as defensive midfielder or left-back for Iranian club Sepahan and the Iran national team.

Noorafkan started his career with Esteghlal and at the time became the youngest ever player to play a game for the club at the age of 18 years and eight months and 12 days.

Noorafkan is an Iranian international, having represented his nation at under-17 and under-20 level.

Noorafkan joined Esteghlal as a youth player in 2012 at the age of 15 and played for their under-19 team.

During his time in Esteghlal's Under-19, his position was shifted from striker to left back.

Noorafkan was promoted to the senior squad before the start of the 2015–16.

Due to the absence of Yaghoub Karimi and Meysam Majidi, Esteghlal's coach Parviz Mazloumi decided to play Noorafakan as left back in order to fill their place.

He made his first senior appearance on 17 December 2015 at the age 18 years and 271 days in a 1–0 win against Saba Qom making him the youngest ever player to appear in a match for Esteghlal at the time.

A record which was broken by Mehdi Ghayedi two seasons later.

His impressive performances lead him to become a regular member of the starting eleven during 2015–16 season.

He finished the season with 11 appearances playing as a left back.

He was placed in the starting line up for the season opening match against Naft Tehran.

However, due to a FIFA imposed transfer ban which lead to Esteghlal's lack of midfield, team manager Alireza Mansourian, tried Noorafkan in his favorite position as a defensive midfielder.

The position which he played with Iran U19 as well.

Following his stunning display in that role, he secured his place in the team's starting line up.

On 27 January 2017, he scored his first professional goal in a 3–2 home win against Paykan.

He scored another goal in a 3–0 win against Machine Sazi the following week.

Earlier in that match he assisted Ali Ghorbani's goal.

On 2 February 2017, he started the AFC Champions League qualifying play-off match against Al Sadd SC which Esteghlal won in a 4–3 penalty shoot-out following a 0–0 draw after extra time.

On 12 February he played his first Tehran derby against city rivals Persepolis assisting Kaveh Rezaei's goal as Esteghlal won 3–2.

Noorafkan was lauded by Iranian media for his display against Persepolis, marking-out creative Attacking midfielder Soroush Rafiei as he played an insignificant role in the match against Esteghlal.

On 4 April he had an argument with his teammate, Yaghoub Karimi after being substituted.

Due to his behaviour Alireza Mansourian decided to ban him from group training.

He was also excluded from the squad to play against Gostaresh Foulad on 4 April.

On 7 April he finally got the permission to join the team training with the rest of the squad.

He was included in the called up squad for the AFC Champions League match against Lokomotiv Tashkent but he sat on the bench during the match.

He returned to the starting line-up in the match against Saba Qom on 15 April which resulted in a 2–1 win for Esteghlal.

On 29 April he scored a stunner from outside of the box with his weaker foot, in Esteghlal's 2–1 win against Padideh.

He ended the season with 3 goals in 18 appearances in all competition as Esteghlal finished the season in second place in the league, were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Hazfi Cup by Naft Tehran and qualified from the group stage of Champions League.

He signed a contract extension through 2019 with Esteghlal on 16 June 2017.

He was named "Persian Gulf Pro League Young Player of the Year" by F.F.I.R.I. at the end of the season.

At the beginning of the season, Noorafkan was banned from playing by the F.F.I.R.I. along with two other Esteghlal players Majid Hosseini and Mehdi Ghaedi as Alireza Mansourian prevented them to join Iran under-23 camp.

After missing the first week of the season, the deprivation from the F.F.I.R.I. was finally cancelled on 29 July 2017 and the players were ready to play for the second week of the 2017–18 campaign.

He finally made his season debut on 4 August 2017 in a 0–0 draw against Esteghlal Khuzestan.

On 8 September 2017, he scored his first goal of the season in a 2–1 win over Gol Gohar in Hazfi Cup.

On 20 December 2017, he was introduced as one of the "100 Best Young Players to Watch in 2018" by outside of the boot website.

His first league goal was the game-winning goal in a 2–1 away victory against Naft Tehran on 29 March.

He finished the season with 1 goal in 24 appearances in all competition as Esteghlal finished the season in third in the 2017–18 campaign, won the Hazfi Cup and qualified for the quarter-finals of Champions League.

He made his senior international debut in March 2018, aged 20, in a friendly match against Sierra Leone.

A native of Rey, Iran, Noorafkan started playing football at Ehsan Rey where he played as striker mostly.