President Aliyev awards national football manager
By Laman Ismayilova
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on awarding Gurban Gurbanov the Shohrat Order for his contribution to the development of Azerbaijani football.
Gurban Gurbanov has played in more than 65 football matches where he scored 14 goals.
He debuted for the national team in 1992. Until 2006, he has scored 14 goals in 68 international matches, which is the national team goal-scoring record.
After the end of his football playing career, Gurban Gurbanov became sports director of the "Inter" football club.
In 2006, he was appointed head coach of Neftchi Baku. From the beginning of the season 2008/09, he was appointed as the head coach of FC Qarabag.
Gurban Gurbanov was named the most successful Azerbaijani manager in European competitions with 16 wins in 2010.
In 2014, he became the second Azerbaijani manager to reach the European Cups group stage, as FC Qarabag qualified for the 2014-15 UEFA Europa League group stage, being the second Azerbaijani team to advance to this stage in European competitions.
In 2017, FC Qarabag became the first Azerbaijan team to reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
It should be noted that President Aliyev earlier praised Gurban Gurbanov for the dignity he showed in one of the football matches.
"Our famous coach Gurban Gurbanov acted with great dignity and said in a situation that could be qualified as a goal that we do not need that, we do not need fake achievements, we do not need undeserved success. Whatever we have earned, we have earned it through hard work. We have also resolved the Karabakh issue with our own hard work, strength and intelligence," he said.
Aliyev stressed that the enemy or a sports opponent should be defeated within the rules, following the principle of dignity.
"Seeing this, I was once again convinced that the future of the Azerbaijani people will continue to be very bright. It will continue to be the case in any sport," he stressed.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lamiva993