Emin Cəbrayıl oğlu Mahmudov (born 27 April 1992) is an Azerbaijani professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League (), also known as Misli Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Azerbaijan and the highest level of the Azerbaijani football league system. It is contested by twelve ...

club Neftchi Baku and the Azerbaijan national team. He is

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the national team. He was selected as the player of the year in Azerbaijan in 2021 and 2022.

Club career

Saturn Ramenskoye

Mahmudov was born in Saatly, Azerbaijan in 1992. As a child, he moved to Russia with his family and started playing football in the youth academy of

Saturn Ramenskoye FC Saturn Ramenskoye () is a Russian professional football club, based in the town of Ramenskoye in Moscow Oblast. It is also sometimes referred to as FC Saturn Moscow Region (). History The club was founded in 1946. Although the club is based ...

. During the 2010 season, he became the player of the senior team. Mahmudov made his debut in

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

on 24 April 2010, in a match against Dinamo Moscow, at the age of 17. He scored his first goal at the senior level against Anzhi on 20 November. Mahmudov played a total of 22 matches during his first season in the Premier League.

Spartak Moscow

After the dissolution of Saturn, Mahmudov signed a long-term contract with

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

as a free agent on 15 January 2011. He played 90 minutes against Rostov in the first game of the 2011–12 season. Mahmudov appeared in a total of 12 matches during the season for Spartak, however despite a successful start, he was not able to become the player of the main squad. During the three seasons between 2012 and 2014, Mahmudov played on loan for Premier League teams

Tomsk Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...

and Krylia Sovetov and also played for the reserve team of Spartak.

Krylia Sovetov

After a one-year loan, Krylia Sovetov purchased Mahmudov from Spartak on 31 January 2014, for €250,000. The same season Krylia got relegated from the Premier League. However, the 2014–15 season Krylia Sovetov became the champions of

Russian Football National League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

and won the promotion to Premier League again. He missed most of that season due to a fractured leg injury that he received in September 2014. Mahmudov made his comeback to the Russian Premier League on 9 August 2015, during the game against his previous team Spartak Moscow. On 31 August, it was announced that he would play on loan at

Mordovia Saransk FC Mordovia Saransk () was a Russian association football club from Saransk, Republic of Mordovia. In its current state it was formed in 2005, through the merge of Biokhimik-Mordovia and Lisma-Mordovia. History The club was founded in 1961. In ...

until the end of the 2015–16 season. Mahmudov made his debut for Mordovia on 20 September and soon became one of the regular members of the starting squad.

Boavista

On 21 July 2016, Mahmudov signed a two-year contract with Boavista. Mahmudov debuted for the Boavista in

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

match against

Sporting Lisbon Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

on 26 November 2016. On 23 December 2016, Mahmudov scored his first goal for the club, away against

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

, in Primeira Liga.

Neftchi Baku

On 18 September 2017, Neftchi Baku signed with Mahmudov until the end of 2017–18 season. He made his

debut for Neftchi Baku against Gabala on 24 September 2017. He scored his first goal for Neftchi Baku in an Azerbaijan Premier League match against Gabala on 19 November 2017. On 17 June 2018, Mahmudov a new contract with

Neftçi PFK Neftçi Peşəkar Futbol Klubu, known simply as Neftçi () or Neftchi Baku, is an Azerbaijani professional association football, football club based in the capital Baku, that plays in the Azerbaijan Premier League, the highest tier of Football ...

until the end of the 2019/20 season. In summer of 2019, after the departure of

Ruslan Abishov Ruslan Abishov ( Azerbaijani: Ruslan Ibrahim oğlu Abışov; born 10 October 1987) is an Azerbaijani former professional footballer who played as a defender. Career Club Abishov can be considered a product of the Neftchi Baku youth system. H ...

, he became the new captain of club. After finishing the league with second place for two consecutive seasons, Mahmudov greatly contributed to Neftchi's championship in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season of the Azerbaijan Premier League. Due to his performance at both Neftchi and the national team, he was selected as the player of the year in Azerbaijan during the vote at the end of 2021.

International career

As a dual citizen of Azerbaijan and Russia, Emin was eligible to play for both countries. Mahmudov played for Azerbaijani youth national teams until 2007, and played for all youth levels of Russian national team until 2014. Mahmudov twice became the champion of

Commonwealth of Independent States Cup The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup () is a defunct annual regional association football tournament, recognized by FIFA. The tournament was initially established for football clubs of the former Soviet Union republics in 1993 (a year late ...

in 2012 and 2013 with the Russian under-21 team. Mahmudov decided to play for the

Azerbaijan national football team The Azerbaijan national football team () is the national association football, football team of Azerbaijan and is controlled by Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan. It represents Azerbaijan in international football competitions. ...

in 2016. He made his debut in a 1–0 win over

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

in the

2018 World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

. In 2021, Mahmudov set multiple new records for the national team by becoming the first player to score 7 international goals in a single year and 4 goals in a single qualification event, as part of the 2022 World Cup qualification tournament. He is currently the second highest goal scorer in the history of the national team with 13 goals.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Azerbaijan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mahmudov goal.''

Honours

Neftchi Baku *

Krylia Sovetov *

: 2014–15 Russia U21 *

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Individual *

Azerbaijani Footballer of the Year Azerbaijani Footballer of the Year is an annual title awarded to the best Azerbaijani football player of the year. The award has been given since 1991, and the winner is elected by authorized journalists from the leading Azerbaijani sport media. ...

: 2021, 2022

References

External links

* *
Profile by the Russian Football Premier League
*
Profile at FC Saturn website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmudov, Emin 1992 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Azerbaijani men's footballers 21st-century Azerbaijani sportsmen Azerbaijan men's international footballers Russian men's footballers Russia men's youth international footballers Russia men's under-21 international footballers Azerbaijani expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Azerbaijani expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Russian Premier League players Primeira Liga players Azerbaijan Premier League players FC Saturn Ramenskoye players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Tom Tomsk players PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara players FC Mordovia Saransk players Boavista F.C. players Azerbaijani emigrants to Russia Naturalized citizens of Russia Neftçi PFK players 21st-century Russian sportsmen