Gurban Osman oghlu Gurbanov (; born 13 April 1972) is an Azerbaijani

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who manages Qarabag. He played as a forward. Starting out with local club

Kur The ancient Mesopotamian underworld (known in Sumerian language, Sumerian as ''Kur'', ''Irkalla'', ''Kukku'', ''Arali'', or ''Kigal'', and in Akkadian language, Akkadian as ''Erṣetu''), was the lowermost part of the Ancient near eastern cosmol ...

in 1988, Gurbanov had a decorated 18-year career. He scored 178 goals in 399 league matches. With 14 goals in 68 matches, he is also the Azerbaijan national team's all-time leading goalscorer in international matches. From 2017 to 2018 he was the manager of the Azerbaijan national team. Gurbanov has won a total of 21 trophies, five as a player and 16 as a manager.

Playing career

He started his career in

, and has since played for Mertskhali Ozurgeti, Daşqın Zaqatala, Alazani Gurjaani, Turan Tovuz, Neftchi Baku, Dinamo Stavropol, Baltika Kaliningrad, Fakel Voronezh and Volgar Gazprom. The last club he played for was Inter Baku. In the 1996–97 season, Gurbanov was the leading scorer in the

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 ...

for Neftchi with 25 goals. The striker was named Azerbaijan's Player of the Year once, in 2003.

International career

Gurbanov debuted for the Azerbaijan national team in their very first match on 17 September 1992, and as of January 2006 he has scored 14 goals in 68 international matches, which is the national team goal scoring record.

Managerial career

After Gurbanov ended his football player's career, he became sport director of the club Inter. In summer 2006 he was appointed head coach of Neftchi Baku. At the beginning of the season 2008–09 he became

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Qarabağ FK Qarabağ Futbol Klubu () is an Azerbaijani professional football club that competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League, the top flight of Azerbaijani football. The club originates from Aghdam in the Karabakh ( Azerbaijani: ''Qarabağ'') region, ...

to replace

Rasim Kara Rasim Kara (born 10 June 1950) is a Turkish former football player and manager. A goalkeeper, he played for Bursaspor, Beşiktaş and the Turkey national team. Playing career Born in Eskişehir, Kara began playing as a goalkeeper with the yout ...

. In 2010, he became the most successful Azerbaijani manager in European competitions with 16 wins. In May 2014, he guided Qarabağ to their second Azerbaijani league title after 21 years. In July 2014, he became the second Azerbaijani manager to reach the European Cups group stage, as Qarabağ qualified for the

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Eur ...

group stage, beating

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

and being the second Azerbaijani team to advance to this stage in a European competitions. In 2017, Qarabağ FK, managed by Gurbanov, became the first Azerbaijani team to reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. On 3 November 2017, Gurbanov was appointed manager of the Azerbaijan national team. A year later, on 8 December 2018, he resigned.

Personal life

Gurban is the brother of Azerbaijani former footballer Musa Gurbanov. He is the father of Azerbaijan national team player Musa Gurbanli. In 2012, he campaigned to stop

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

Career statistics

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

Managerial statistics

Coaching record

Honours

Player

Turan Tovuz *

: 1993–94 Neftchi Baku *Azerbaijan Premier League: 1996–97, 2003–04, 2004–05 *

Azerbaijan Cup The Azerbaijan Cup () is a major association football competition in Azerbaijan. In its original form, it started in 1936, when Azerbaijan was a republic of the Soviet Union and it was not disputed by Azerbaijani teams in the Soviet league pyramid ...

: 2003–04 Individual * Azerbaijani Footballer of the Year: 2003 *Azerbaijan Premier League top scorer: 1996–97 *

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

all-time top scorer: 14 goals

Manager

Qarabağ *Azerbaijan Premier League: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 *Azerbaijan Cup: 2008–09, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2021–22, 2023–24

References

External links

Career of Gurban Gurbanov
(video on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurbanov, Gurban 1972 births Living people Men's association football forwards Soviet men's footballers Azerbaijani men's footballers Azerbaijan men's international footballers Turan Tovuz players PFC Dynamo Stavropol players FC Fakel Voronezh players FC Baltika Kaliningrad players FC Volgar Astrakhan players Shamakhi FK players FC Alazani Gurjaani players Azerbaijan Premier League players Russian Premier League players Azerbaijani expatriate men's footballers Azerbaijani expatriate sportspeople in Georgia (country) Expatriate men's footballers in Georgia (country) Azerbaijani expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Azerbaijani football managers Neftçi PFK managers Qarabağ FK managers Azerbaijan national football team managers People from Zaqatala District Neftçi PFK players Azerbaijan Premier League managers