New head coach appointed to Azerbaijani national football team

The Football Federation of Azerbaijan (AFFA) has signed a six-year contract with the head coach of the Karabakh club, Gurban Gurbanov. The 45-year-old specialist will train the national team from the beginning of December.

Gurbanov will replace the Croatian specialist Robert Prosinechka as the head coach of the Azerbaijani team. Under Prosinechka’s guidance, the Azerbaijani team scored 10 points in the qualifying tournament of the World Cup in 2018. Nevertheless, the AFFA decided not to renew his contract.

AFFA president Rovnag Abdullayev (who is also the president of the state oil company, SOCAR) said that Gurbanov was elected unanimously. He noted that Gurbanov will remain head coach of the Karabakh club.

“As a rule, we signed 2-year contracts with the former coaches. With the new head coach, we signed a 6-year contract, spanning 3 cycles.”

Abdullayev refused to disclose the details of his contract: “The condition of the contract is service to the Motherland.”

Gurbanov personally thanked the AFFA for this confidence.

“It’s the dream of any trainer to work with the national team. It’s a difficult and responsible job. All the fans’ attention is focused on the team. Everyone wants the first team to be successful. We want to succeed and to improve results. We will have a long-term program, which will be implemented in stages. There will be a lot of work, leadership and I want to handle it,” Gurbanov was quoted saying on azerisport.com.

The leadership of the Karabakh football club has approved the appointment of their coach to the national team.

“I don’t think that the combination of posts on two teams will affect our club’s results. Don’t forget that the base of the national team, consists of Karabakh players,”  Emrah Çelikel, the director of the Aghdam club said.