Iran-born Arzani, who turned 20 last week, made his Australian debut in the 4-0 friendly win over Czech Republic before the 2018 World Cup after rising through the ranks of Melbourne City.

The prodigy arrived at Melbourne from the FFA Centre of Excellence in 2016/17 and was schooled by City coaching staff van’t Schip, Joe Montemurro and Michael Valkanis while Socceroo legend Tim Cahill also mentored the teen talent.

Van't Schip left to join PEC Zwolle in 2017, but when veteran Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk took over the Socceroos in January last year, he was soon on the phone to his fellow countryman for insight into players.

“Bert asked me a few things,” van’t Schip told FTBL while on flying visit back to Australia. "It’s normal he’d ask.

“He asked me what I thought of Daniel and I told him at the time, ‘If you want a player who can do something different, you should think of getting Daniel in.

"'He can change a game in one moment as an impact player as he’s doing with City at the moment. He can have a good role.’

Arzani in action when JvS was in charge at City

“I think he did that in the World Cup as well, so it was good to have that experience. He obviously asked about Aaron Mooy even though everyone knew of him.

"It was more for players that were new and one of them he didn’t know too much about was Daniel.

“I said, ‘Look, I don’t know if you have space in the squad and I would certainly think about taking him. He’s a player that can do something different.’

“That’s what he took with him, he had other people informing him as well and in the end he selected him for the tournament.

“I loved watching Daniel and I tried to get him to Zwolle. At the time, City Football Group didn’t want to let him go. He wasn’t playing in Australia at the time, so I tried to get him.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t come, but in the end, he started playing here for City and got the call-up for the national team.”

Van’t Schip also said Arzani’s City teammate and friend Denis Genreau was another exciting prospect for the future.

Genreau was loaned to Zwolle this season and played 10 games in the Eredivisie under van’t Schip until the former City coach was let go by the club after a run of poor results.

Van't Schip added that the 19-year-old French-Australian had a bright future ahead of him, despite picking up a virus after his call-up for the national team’s friendly against Kuwait in October.

“Denis was one of the many players that were new,” he said.

Genreau at Socceroos camp

"From the start he was very quick in adapting to the way we wanted to play because we had a good preseason.

"Denis was growing into his role at that moment, we had a player injured (Younes Namli) who played there the year before and we put Denis in his position and he played well in the preseason.

“He started the first game in the league and from that moment until October, he played every game, started and had a very good role.

“Since October, he’s been struggling, but hopefully he can get rid of the virus and I’m sure he can have a good impact in the second part of the year with the club.

“He has a bright future, he’s young and has played 10 games in Eredivisie and that says enough. He showed he has the capacity to perform at a high level, he was getting used to the intensity.

"In the beginning he couldn’t cope longer than an hour, but then he was able to get through 90 minute games and had an important role for the team.”