Azerbaijani football’s bright future begins For the first time ever

The fifth World Minifootball Championship crowned a new champion — after the USA, the Czech Republic, Mexico, and Romania, the Azerbaijani national team has now made its mark in minifootball history.

Although this tournament isn’t held under FIFA’s umbrella like regular football, beach football, or futsal, there’s something special about our national minifootball team: it is entirely homegrown. There are no naturalised Brazilians or players who are “Azerbaijani” only by name, inherited from distant ancestors.

Yes, many of the players are former professional footballers — but the same is true for other national teams competing here. And who can truly guarantee that none of the opposing players ever appeared for professional clubs before, like our own Tamkin Khalilzade?

Yes, minifootball is a non-Olympic sport, but even among other non-Olympic sports—where Azerbaijani athletes have shown strength—team victories have been rare, mostly limited to karate. Take chess, for example, which is iconic for us: Azerbaijani players have been European team champions but never world champions (youth tournaments don’t count). And when it comes to purely team sports, there’s little to boast about. The women’s volleyball team’s best achievement was fourth place at the 2005 European Championship—and that team included several foreign players!

And yet, our minifootball national team became European champions in 2022! They claimed the title on their very first attempt, in their first-ever participation at such a high level. Contrast that with the futsal team, which debuted at the European Championship in 2010, finishing fourth—and with half the team made up of foreign players!

So let’s take a moment to remember the names of OUR GUYS, OUR CHAMPIONS—the footballers who made our national team the best among 32 teams competing in the final stage of the fifth World Minifootball Championship.

These are the names of those who, by defeating Hungary 4–2 in the final, took their revenge for the 3–1 loss to the same team in the third-place match of the previous World Championship. Back then, the Hungarians left us without medals; this time, we left them without gold! Here they are — OUR HEROES: Agasaid Gasimov, Vali Gafarov, Samir Gamzayev, Vusal Isayev, Ravan Karimov, Khatai Bagirov, Mirmehti Rzayev, Museyib Valiev, Tamkin Khalilzade, Eshgin Tagiyev, Kamran Gurbatov, Mirkamil Aliyev, Taleh Babayev, Kamran Abdullazade, Elvin Alizade, Mahammad Khalilov, Ramiz Chovdarov.

Among them, Samir Gamzayev, Vusal Isayev, Ravan Karimov, Mirmehti Rzayev, Elvin Alizade — along with head coach Elshad Guliyev — were also champions of the 2022 European Championship. This means the coach led the team to victory even after reshuffling more than half the squad — again, with no naturalised foreign players.

How can we not recognise the leadership of the Minifootball Federation, which gave the coach full freedom to implement his vision and provided all the support needed for success?

All of this proves that Azerbaijani football—even if it’s “mini”—truly has a future.

By Vugar Vugarli, exclusively for Caliber.Az