Idman.biz
Aykhan Abbasov, the head coach of the "Shamakhi" club and the Azerbaijan U-21 national team, will experience another first in his career.
Idman.biz reports that he will lead the main national team as head coach in the match against Ukraine in the qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.
This position has been initially entrusted to the 44-year-old specialist for 1 game. In tomorrow's match against Ukraine, Abbasov will try to make people forget about the shameful 0:5 defeat to Iceland.
Looking at the interim head coach's career, he has come a long way as both a football player and a coach. Aykhan Abbasov started playing football at the age of 7 in a sports school in the village of Buzovna. His first coach was Boyukaga Abbasov. He played for Azerbaijan's youth (U-17 and U-19) and youth national teams.
He came to big football with Buzovna "Khazri". In the 1997/98 season, he played in the main league in the U-18 team. Then he spent 6 years at the "Shafa" club, and in 2002 he was on loan at MOIK.
In 2004-2005 he played for "Turan", in 2006-2007 for "Inter". He started the next season in "MKT-Araz". After the failure of the Imishli representative in the UEFA Cup, the club president released the team, and Abbasov moved to "Qarabağ". The football player, who played for the Aghdam club for 4 years, returned to "Turan" in the 2011/12 season and ended his career there.
As a football player, he is a two-time winner of the Azerbaijan Cup (in 2001 with "Shafa", in 2009 with "Qarabağ" - ed.).
Abbasov started coaching at "Zira". In the 2015/2016 season, the young specialist, who worked here as an assistant, was the head coach of the team for the next 2 years. He was at the "helm" of "Sumgayit" in 2018-2021, and "Turan Tovuz" in 2022-2024.
Abbasov has been the head coach of "Shamakhi" since 2024 and has an agreement until the end of this season. At the same time, on March 14 of this year, he was appointed the head coach of the Azerbaijan U-21 national team. AFFA has reached a 2-year agreement with him.
It should be noted that he will replace Fernandu Santos in this position. Today, the Portuguese specialist was dismissed by mutual agreement with the AFFA management.
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