Sabah FC (Azerbaijan)

This article is about the Azerbaijani professional football club. For the Malaysian professional football club, see Sabah F.C. (Malaysia).

Sabah Football Club (Azerbaijani: Sabah Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani professional football club based in Masazır. The team plays in the Azerbaijan Premier League, the top tier of Azerbaijani football.

Sabah

Full name	Sabah Futbol Klubu
Nickname(s)	Bayquşlar (The Owls) Tələbələr (The Students)
Founded	8 September 2017; 7 years ago (2017-09-08)
Ground	Bank Respublika Arena
Capacity	13,000
President	Magsud Adigozalov
Manager	Vasili Berezutski
League	Azerbaijan Premier League
2023–24	Azerbaijan Premier League, 3 rd of 10
Website	sabahfc.az
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

Sabah were formed on 8 September 2017, joining the Azerbaijan First Division for the 2017–18 season, in which they finished 5th. After the four teams above them in the league failed or declined promotion, Sabah were granted a license to participate in Azerbaijan Premier League on 12 May 2018.^[1] Sabah's first game in the Azerbaijan Premier League was against Keşla on 12 August 2018, a game they won 1–0 thanks to a Marko Dević goal. Sabah went on to finish their first Premier League season in 7th position, avoiding relegation.^{[citation needed]}

On 16 September 2019, Elshad Ahmadov resigned as manager, with Igor Ponomaryov taking over on an interim basis.^{[citation needed]}

On 26 November 2019, Sabah announced that Željko Sopić had been appointed manager on an 18-month contract.^[2] On 3 July 2020, Sopić resigned as manager.^[3]

On 10 July 2020, Sabah signed 2 year contract with Vicente Gómez.^[4] On 11 March 2021, Gómez left his role as Head Coach by mutual agreement, with Ramin Guliyev being placed in temporary charge.^[5] At the end of the season, Guliyev was confirmed as the club's new Head Coach on a two-year contract^[6] Guliyev resigned from his position on 21 October 2021,^[7] with Murad Musayev being appointed as the club's new Head Coach on 30 October 2021, signing a two-year contract.^[8]

On 1 February 2024, Sabah announced that Murad Musayev had left his role as Head Coach after his resignation had been accepted.^[9]

On 5 March 2024, Sabah announced the appointment of Krunoslav Rendulić as their new Head Coach, on an 18-month contract.^[10] Rendulić left Sabah on 25 November 2024 by mutual agreement, with Vasili Berezutski being appointed as his replacement on the same day to a two-and-a-half year contract.^[11][12]

Domestic history

Season	League									Azerbaijan Cup	Top goalscorer		Manager	Manufacturer	Sponsor
	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P		Name	League
2017–18	2nd	5th	27	11	7	9	41	33	40	Second round			Arif Asadov	Joma
2018–19	1st	7th	28	7	6	15	20	41	27	Quarter-final	Marko Dević	8	Elshad Ahmadov	Macron
2019–20	1st	6th	20	5	6	9	19	27	21	Quarter-final	Ulysse Diallo Amadou Diallo Hendrick Ekstein	3	Elshad Ahmadov Igor Ponomaryov (interim) Željko Sopić		Bank Respublika
2020–21	1st	5th	28	7	8	13	28	38	29	Round of 16	Ramil Sheydayev	6	Vicente Gómez Ramin Guliyev (interim)	Nike
2021–22	1st	5th	28	12	5	11	42	34	41	Quarter-final	Joy-Lance Mickels	11	Ramin Guliyev Murad Musayev
2022–23	1st	2nd	36	25	6	5	75	24	81	Quarter-final	Joy-Lance Mickels	17	Murad Musayev
2023–24	1st	3rd	36	17	7	12	50	40	58	Quarter-final	Davit Volkovi Anatoliy Nuriyev	6	Murad Musayev Ruslan Qafitullin (interim) Krunoslav Rendulić
2024–25	1st									Quarter-final			Krunoslav Rendulić Vasili Berezutski

European record

As of match played 8 August 2024

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Europa Conference League	7	4	0	3	12	10
Total	7	4	0	3	12	10

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2023–24	UEFA Europa Conference League	2Q	RFS	2–1	2–0	4–1
		3Q	Partizan	2–0	0–2 (a.e.t.)	2–2 (4–5 p)
2024–25	UEFA Conference League	2Q	Maccabi Haifa	3–6 (a.e.t.)	3–0	6–6 (3–2 p)
		3Q	St Patrick's Athletic	0–1	0–1	0–2

Colours and badge

Sabah's badge features rays of sunshine encased in a shield.

The team's main colours are black-pink, with their kit being made by Spanish clothing company Joma during their first season, and Macron from the start of the 2018–19 season.

Shirt sponsor and kit manufacturer

Years	Manufacturer	Sponsor
2017–2018	Joma	none
2018–2020	Macron	Bank Respublika
2020–	Nike

Stadium

Main article: Bank Respublika Arena

View of Alinja Arena

The club play their home games at the Bank Respublika Arena in Masazır, which has a capacity of 13,000.^[13]

Players

For a list of all former and current Sabah FC players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Sabah FC (Azerbaijan) players.

Current squad

As of 28 January 2025^[14]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  AZE Yusif İmanov 2 DF  AZE Amin Seydiyev 3 DF  ESP Jon Irazabal 5 DF  AZE Rahman Dashdamirov 6 MF  AZE Abdulakh Khaybulayev 7 DF  BIH Bojan Letić 8 MF  AZE Ayaz Guliyev 9 MF  AZE Anatoliy Nuriyev 10 MF  AZE Namiq Ələsgərov 11 MF  JAM Kaheem Parris 12 MF  LUX Vincent Thill 13 MF  CRO Ivan Lepinjica 17 DF  AZE Tellur Mutallimov

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 FW  SVK Pavol Šafranko 20 MF  GER Joy-Lance Mickels 22 DF  AZE Abdulla Rzayev 33 MF  UZB Umarali Rakhmonaliev (loan from Rubin Kazan) 40 DF  BRA Ygor Nogueira 44 DF  MAR Sofian Chakla 55 GK  AZE Nijat Mehbaliyev 70 MF  NGA Jesse Sekidika 77 MF  AZE Shakir Seyidov 88 MF  AZE Khayal Aliyev 92 GK  KAZ Stas Pokatilov 94 GK  AZE Ravan Mirzammadov 99 FW  SRB Njegoš Kupusović

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2024.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  AZE Rustam Samigullin (at Neftçi) — DF  AZE Fakhri Mammadli (at Shamakhi)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  AZE Rauf Rustamli (at Shamakhi) — FW  AZE Jamal Jafarov (at Kapaz)

Reserve team

Main article: FK Sabah-2

Sabah-2 plays in the Azerbaijan First Division from 2018.

Club officials

Management

Position	Staff[15][16]
Founder	Yagub Huseynov
President	Magsud Adigozalov
Supervisory Board Member	Yagub Huseynov Firudin Gurbanov Igor Ponomaryov Rahman Hajiyev Rauf Khalilov
Chief executive officer	Ramin Hasanov
General Manager	Nasimi Musayev
Director of sport	Igor Ponomaryov
Press secretary	Elnur Hamidov

Coaching staff

Position	Name[17]
Head coach	Vasili Berezutski
Assistant of head coach	Dmitry A. Smirnov Aleksandr Nagorny
Goalkeeping coach	Aleksey Antonyuk
Fitness coach	Domagoj Peric
Video analyst	Oleksandr Panchuk Nikita Vasyukhin

Club records

Most appearances

As of match played 22 February 2025

	Name	Years	League	Azerbaijan Cup	European	Total
1	Amin Seydiyev	2020–Present	139 (4)	10 (1)	8 (0)	157 (5)
2	Elvin Camalov	2021–2025	98 (2)	9 (0)	6 (0)	113 (2)
3	Bojan Letić	2022–Present	96 (4)	6 (0)	8 (2)	110 (6)
4	Aleksey Isayev	2020–2024	98 (11)	6 (0)	4 (1)	108 (12)
5	Joy-Lance Mickels	2021–2023, 2024–Present	82 (37)	8 (3)	6 (2)	96 (42)
6	Yusif Imanov	2020–Present	80 (0)	6 (0)	8 (0)	94 (0)
7	Anatoliy Nuriyev	2022–Present	78 (10)	6 (0)	5 (0)	89 (10)
8	Jon Irazabal	2022–Present	75 (5)	2 (1)	7 (0)	84 (6)
9	Tellur Mutallimov	2022–Present	70 (3)	8 (0)	3 (0)	81 (3)
10	Namiq Ələsgərov	2022–Present	66 (7)	4 (0)	8 (0)	78 (7)

Top goalscorers

As of match played 22 February 2025

	Name	Years	League	Azerbaijan Cup	European	Total	Ratio
1	Joy-Lance Mickels	2021–2023, 2024–Present	37 (82)	3 (8)	2 (6)	42 (96)	0.44
2	Davit Volkovi	2022–Present	16 (63)	2 (4)	1 (4)	19 (71)	0.27
3	Oleksiy Kashchuk	2022–2023	18 (39)	0 (2)	0 (0)	18 (41)	0.44
4	Jesse Sekidika	2023–Present	14 (55)	2 (5)	1 (4)	17 (64)	0.27
5	Emmanuel Apeh	2022–2024	11 (65)	4 (6)	1 (4)	16 (75)	0.21
6	Aleksey Isayev	2020–2024	11 (98)	0 (6)	1 (4)	12 (108)	0.11
7	Anatoliy Nuriyev	2022–Present	10 (78)	0 (6)	0 (5)	10 (89)	0.11
8	Marko Dević	2018–2019, 2020	9 (24)	0 (0)	0 (0)	9 (24)	0.38
9	Pavol Šafranko	2024–Present	7 (24)	0 (2)	2 (4)	9 (30)	0.3
10	Namiq Ələsgərov	2022–Present	7 (66)	0 (4)	0 (8)	7 (78)	0.09

Managerial statistics

As of match played 22 February 2025

Name	Nat.	From	To	Duration	P	W	D	L	GS	GA	%W	Honours	Notes
Arif Asadov	Azerbaijan	8 September 2017	1 July 2018	296 days	28	11	7	10	41	36	039.29	(Promotion)
Elshad Ahmadov	Azerbaijan	1 July 2018	16 September 2019	1 year, 77 days	35	8	8	19	25	47	022.86
Igor Ponomaryov (Interim)	Azerbaijan	16 September 2019	26 November 2019[2]	71 days	8	3	2	3	12	11	037.50
Željko Sopić	Croatia	26 November 2019[2]	3 July 2020	230 days	11	3	2	6	12	18	027.27
Vicente Gómez	Spain	10 July 2020[18]	11 March 2021[19]	244 days	20	4	4	12	20	29	020.00
Ramin Guliyev (Interim)	Azerbaijan	11 March 2021[19]	26 May 2021[6]	76 days	9	3	4	2	9	11	033.33
Ramin Guliyev	Azerbaijan	26 May 2021[6]	21 October 2021[7]	224 days	7	0	1	6	3	12	000.00
Ilkin Huseynov (Interim)	Azerbaijan	21 October 2021	30 October 2021	9 days	1	1	0	0	3	0	100.00
Murad Musayev	Russia	30 October 2021[8]	1 February 2024[9]	2 years, 94 days	87	48	16	23	157	88	055.17
Ruslan Qafitullin (Interim)	Azerbaijan	1 February 2024[9]	5 March 2024[10]	33 days	6	3	2	1	13	11	050.00
Krunoslav Rendulić	Croatia	5 March 2024[10]	25 November 2024[11]	356 days	29	13	7	9	18	10	044.83
Vasili Berezutski	Russia	25 November 2024[12]		91 days	12	3	7	2	12	12	025.00

• Notes:

P – Total of played matches W – Won matches D – Drawn matches L – Lost matches GS – Goal scored GA – Goals against
%W – Percentage of matches won

Nationality is indicated by the corresponding FIFA country code(s).

References

1. "SABAH HAQQINDA". sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
2. ""SABAH" FK-DA YENİ BAŞ MƏŞQÇİ". sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 26 November 2019. Archived from the original on 11 September 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
3. "SABAH FC PARTED WAYS WITH ZELJKO SOPIC". sabahfc.az/. Sabah FC. 3 July 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
4. "SABAH FC OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE VICENTE GOMEZ AS NEW HEAD COACH". sabahfc.az/. Sabah FC. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
5. "VİSENTE QOMESLƏ YOLLAR AYRILDI". sabahfc.az (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
6. "BAŞ MƏŞQÇİMİZ RAMİN QULİYEVLƏ YENİ MÜQAVİLƏ BAĞLADIQ". sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 26 May 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
7. "RAMİN QULİYEVLƏ YOLLAR AYRILDI". sabahfc.az (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC (Azerbaijan). 21 October 2021. Archived from the original on 5 January 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
8. "MURAD MUSAYEV "SABAH"IN BAŞ MƏŞQÇİSİ TƏYİN EDİLDİ". sabahfc.az (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC (Azerbaijan). 30 October 2021. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
9. "Komandamızın baş məşqçisi Murad Musayev və klub rəhbərliyi arasında görüş keçirilib". facebook.com/sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC Facebook. 1 February 2024. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
10. ""Sabah"da yeni baş məşqçi təyinatı rəsmiləşib". facebook.com/sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC Facebook. 5 March 2024. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
11. ""Sabah" FK baş məşqçi Krunoslav Renduliçlə yollarını ayırıb". instagram.com/sabahfc/?hl=en (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC Instagram. 25 November 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
12. "Xoş gəldin, Vasili Berezutski!". instagram.com/sabahfc/?hl=en (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC Instagram. 25 November 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
13. "ƏLİNCƏ ARENA". sabahfc.az (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
14. "Əsas komanda". Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
15. "DIRECTORY". sabahfc.az/. Sabah FC. Archived from the original on 9 July 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
16. "SUPERVISORY BOARD". sabahfc.az/. Sabah FC. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
17. "ƏSAS KOMANDA". sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. Retrieved 15 May 2019.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
18. "YENİ BAŞ MƏŞQÇİMİZ – VİSENTE QOMES!". sabahfc.az/ (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
19. "VİSENTE QOMESLƏ YOLLAR AYRILDI". sabahfc.az (in Azerbaijani). Sabah FC. 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.

External links

• Official website
• Sabah FC at UEFA