The exodus of Russian coaches in Azerbaijani sports: Five departures in the last year

There has been a mass exodus of Russian specialists from Azerbaijani sports in the past year. Since May of last year, five Russian coaches working in both national teams and clubs have parted ways with their positions.

Idman.Biz reports that the latest example of this trend is the change of head coach in the Azerbaijani men's national weightlifting team. It became known a few days ago that Maxti Makkayev had left the team and was replaced by Sardar Hasanov.

A similar situation occurred in wrestling at the beginning of 2026. In January, the Azerbaijani national Greco-Roman wrestling team parted ways with head coach Alexander Tarakanov by mutual agreement. The team replaced Tarakanov with the well-known Iranian specialist Mohammad Bana.

Previously, similar changes also took place in Azerbaijani football. In the summer of 2025, head coach Vasili Berezutski, who led the "Sabah" team to win the Azerbaijan Cup, left the club. Already in September, the club also parted ways with goalkeeper coach Aleksey Antonyuk, who was part of his staff.

Basketball completes the list. At the "Sumgayit" club, Russian specialist Alexander Mikhailov was removed from the post of head coach in December 2024. Although he remained in the club's structure for some time, on May 1, 2025, the parties completely stopped cooperation.

Thus, in a fairly short period of time, five Russian coaches have left Azerbaijani sports, two of whom took this step at the beginning of 2026.

Nevertheless, Russian specialists continue their activities in a number of areas. Currently, the Azerbaijani national futsal team is led by Evgeni Kuksevich. And for the second season, the Russian-Turkmen specialist Gurban Berdiyev has been working as the head coach of the "Turan Tovuz" football club.

In addition, another Russian specialist, Anton Melnikov, continues to lead the Azerbaijani national diving team.