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Araz Aknam

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Araz Aknam

Araz Aghnami Aknam (born 1990 in Tehran, Iran) is a Turkish male American football player. Araz Aghnami Aknam is a member of the Turkey National American Football Team (Team Turkey), and plays wearing number 90 as Right Side Defensive end.

Contents

Aknam is 199 cm (6'6") tall at 128 kg (285 lbs) and played in both Offensive Tackle (gridiron football position) and Defensive end positions. He recently plays in the Koç Rams of Istanbul which competes in the Super Turkish Amerikan Football League (TAFL) and the most recent champions.

Aknam's mother was Turkish and father was Iranian Azerbaijani. He lived in Iran until he was 6, and moved to Istanbul to start his education. Araz Aghnami Aknam moved to United States in 2012 right after he graduated from college. He lived in US for 4 years and returned to Istanbul in 2016.

Aknam is a Civil engineer he was graduated from Yeditepe University in 2012. He speaks English, Turkish, Persian, Azeri fluently and he can speak a bit of German and Spanish

Early sports career

  • After he moved from Tehran to Istanbul in 1996 he started Karate-Do, he developed his skills in Karate and became a Black belt (martial arts). He got one national title and three local titles in Little League Karate between 1996 and 2001.
  • His parent noticed his rapidly growing height so they convinced him to try Basketball in 2000, Araz Aghnami Aknam started basketball in Tekelspor after a couple of years he started to move from a team to a better one, so he played in Tofaş S.K., DSI SPOR, Tubesk, Fenerbahçe S.K. between the years of 2000 and 2008 holding one MVP title, and one Silver Medal in Youth Turkish Basketball Championship.
  • He was also a licensed swimmer between 1998-2002
  • He started playing football after he got into Yeditepe University, due to his huge size players and coaches started offering him to try playing football spontaneously. Araz Aghnami Aknam started playing at Yeditepe Eagles while he was a freshmen in Yeditepe University in 2008. He developed his skills rapidly with American coaching staff of Eagles and became a noticeable player in Turkish League.
  • He is holding 3 times UniLig 1st Division Bronze medal and a Unilig 2nd Division Gold medal titles in his College football carrier.
  • He is also holding 3 times TAFL First Pro-League Championships.
  • He was recruited by the Turkish National Team in 2012 and played in "first official game" ever in the Turkish American Football history, in which Team Turkey defeated Team Romania (61-0)
  • He was Defensive Coordinator of Euroasia Junior Bowl in which his team became second.
  • In May 2016 he has transferred to Koç Rams to play as Offensive Tackle (gridiron football position). He played in IFAF Europe Champions League Final four game in Wroclaw in which a Turkish team became 3rd "first time" In the Turkish American Football history
  • Araz Aghnami Aknam recently plays in Koç Rams and he will be wearing #77 this season in both TAFL Superlig and IFAF Europe Champions League

    • Records and awards

  • 3x Karate-Do Little League of Marmara Championship (1998,1999,2000)
  • Karate-Do Turkish Championship-Little Category, Bronze Medalist (1999)
  • Turkish Youth Basketball League MVP (2006)
  • Turkish Youth Basketball Championship, Silver Medalist (2006)
  • Tekirdag Slam-Dunk Contest winner (2011)
  • 2x Turkish Uni-Lig 1st Division, Bronze Medalist (2009,2012)
  • Turkish Uni-Lig 2nd Division, Gold Medalist (2011)
  • Team Turkey National Player (2012–Present)
  • IFAF European Champions League, Bronze Medalist (2016)

    • References

    Araz Aknam Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA