‘Just felt right’: Melbourne Victory playmaker Daniel Arzani’s long road back to happiness

It might have been a dance routine. Or an out-there outfit. He rocked in one day with an all-beige tracksuit that Macklemore may have thought too outlandish.

Or, what has become a common occurrence straight after training.

As players head off the pitch, Arzani has been known to strip off, in full view of all, and rip into a Mr Olympia routine, flexing and posing, like he’s trying to impress judges in a strong man competition. Not a care in the world.

“I work hard in the gym, got to show it off. What do you want me to do?!” Arzani says wryly, but not shyly.

Yes, Daniel Arzani is different. Sharp, quick with a ball. Sharp, quick-witted in everyday life.

All of which, though, is just the facade.

Happiness has been much harder to find than a cheap laugh.

A footballer’s life can change for the better in a split second.

Or for the worse in a series of split seconds. Ball lost. Reaction poor. Opinions formed on an inability to react the right way.

That was the knock on Arzani. As good as any Australian with the ball. Drops his bundle when it’s gone.

Arzani has “it”. But does he want “it”?

Sport is littered with brilliant ones who tend to fold when adversity sets in like a thick fog to cloud the mind.

For Arzani, it’s taken six years for the fog to clear.

“This season is the first time in a long time I’ve started to enjoy my football again, enjoy my life outside it,” Arzani, now 25, tells CODE Sports.

The “long time” is well documented.

A boom created at the 2018 World Cup went bust in four injury-riddled, depressing years overseas, bouncing between clubs; touched on in a chat with CODE Sports in August 2022, just before his return to the A-League with Macarthur.

“I haven’t lived up to my own expectations,” Arzani said. “Constantly reminded of it, mostly by myself. It’s constant.”

Soon after that interview, Arzani showed glimpses of his rare talent with Macarthur. But they were only glimpses.

Manager Dwight Yorke left the club. The spark fizzled.

Not everything was going right on the pitch, so Arzani would slink back into the funk that beset him in Europe. Spare time spent overthinking, that damn fog unable to clear.

There had to be a way to find happiness, Arzani thought.

The search sent him to a curious next stop.

Melbourne Victory, coached by Tony Popovic. Away from home again and way out of a comfort zone. Choosing a club with Popovic at the helm is choosing a route without shortcuts.

Popovic is no tyrant. He’s actually quite personable, but there is a golden rule: players have to be all in, or you’re left right out.

“I knew the boss had a reputation for getting the best out of players that had reset potential,” Arzani says of why he chose Victory last winter.

“Just felt right. Was keen for a new adventure and Melbourne seemed perfect.”

Even when he first burst on to the scene with Melbourne City in 2017, Arzani’s reputation was one of two wildly different settings. Brilliant one second, blind to the dirty work the next.

Arzani knew that wouldn’t be allowed at Victory.

Popovic and his assistants wouldn’t cop a player who dropped his bundle the moment adversity was involved.

“The boss (Popovic) helped me with that a lot. Let things go. It’s done. It happened,” Arzani says.

“Sometimes I get caught up in a bad ref decision. But now it’s like, whatever, shit happens. Have to get on with it.”

And then there’s the club’s senior players. Leigh Broxham, who is about to retire after what feels like 80 years in a Victory shirt. Damien Da Silva, Roderick Miranda, Adama Traore, old heads who have played at the top level in Europe.

“I can’t count how many times after the first bit of a session, Adama has pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey you! Pull ya head in, switch on’,” Arzani says. “I like it to be honest!

“Players hold each other to really high standards.

“Even on those disgusting pre-season sessions, you’re in on a Saturday morning in winter, freezing cold, no balls out and you’re just f--king running, everyone is pushing each other.”

The result for Arzani has been his best season as a professional.

He’s played more than 30 games in a campaign for the first time, clocking more than 2000 match minutes; more than a third of his total career game time.

The highlights reel has been sprinkled with a few extra clips. Not many, if any, with an Australian passport has Arzani’s one-versus-one ability. It’s frustrating to think we don’t have more of them.

More personally satisfying for Arzani is that his bad games aren’t as bad these days, or as regular.

“Consistency doesn’t mean every game you have to be nine out of 10,” he says.

“Just means you don’t fall below a six and next week back to where it should be.

“It just comes with age, being mature as a player and a person.”

Arzani, of course, wants more.

He has it. He does want it.

Whether “it” is perennially chasing success with Melbourne Victory, or another overseas adventure which he knows he’s more equipped to deal with this time – or back in a Socceroos shirt – is really up to him.

“I want to achieve more,” Arzani says. “And live up to my potential.

“But I don’t want to be in the headspace of not enjoying my football. That’s the worst place to be.

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“Don’t play well, and you’re miserable off the pitch. I’ve now been able to separate the negativity of football sometimes and not let that seep into everyday life.”

The Daniel Arzani facade, the posing, the flexing, generating laughs, is one thing. Another, though, is a simple thought, that in the grand scheme is rather important.

“I’m really happy, man.”