MIAMI, Florida – For Edison Azcona, 2021 will be a year that he will always remember.
On Sunday, May 2, the 17-year-old made his first team debut with MLS side Inter Miami, coming on as a substitute in the second half of the team’s 0-0 draw with Nashville SC.
In some ways, it was the completion of a journey that started in 2007 when his parents arrived to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when Azcona was just four years old.
Since then, football has been his life and it reached the first of many peaks in 2021.
Not only did Azcona make his MLS debut, but earlier this year he played in the 2020 Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship with the Dominican Republic in what was the country’s first ever appearance in the tournament.
Despite his young age, Azcona was one of the top performers in the tournament for the Caribbean side.
The FW started all three matches for the islanders, playing in every single minute and scoring the Dominican Republic’s first ever goal in a CMOQ when he slotted home a penalty kick against host nation Mexico with the calm and poise of a veteran player.
In looking back on last March’s CMOQ, Azcona relished the opportunity to play for his country on such a large stage and believes the time in Guadalajara, Mexico was the perfect place-setting for his 2021 MLS season.
Not only was Azcona a member of the Dominican Republic’s history-making CMOQ squad, but his play had previously garnered the attention of Senior National Team Head Coach Jacques Passy, who handed Azcona his debut in a January friendly versus Puerto Rico, followed by a second appearance six days later against Serbia.
“I feel like he is one of the upcoming players in Concacaf for the next 15 years and I am very happy that I gave him his debut in the Dominican Republic National Team,” said Passy to Concacaf.com. “When you talk about Edison Azcona in two or three years, he will be one of the players in Concacaf who everyone uses as a reference of a top player.”
The experienced Mexican manager has seen his share of young players throughout the Concacaf region and highlighted the work ethic possessed by Azcona in all phases of the game.
“I have not coached someone who is perhaps so complete at this very early age. He’s not only a phenomenal player and has this fantastic potential and is a natural talent, but also someone who is a workhorse. He works like crazy. He is a guy who wakes up every morning and wants to become better. He wants to be a better player, a more complete player. Having the capacity that he has in attacking and his movement, it is amazing to see how good he is at defending as well. He is a very good teammate and his potential is endless,” said Passy.
Yet for Azcona, the genesis of his rise comes from all the years of commitment and dedication to his craft.
“At my age, all the time that I have had playing football at a competitive level, I have had to sacrifice a lot of time for football, so everything I do revolves around football because that is my priority,” said Azcona.
And at age 17, Azcona has fans in the Dominican Republic believing that their future is bright in football.
