Alakbar Mammadov – unique Azerbaijani footballer
Alakbar Mammadov, one of legends of Azerbaijani football, was born on May 9, 1930 in Baku. He is one of the unique Azerbaijani footballers to be the champion of the USSR. The legendary footballer went down in the history as the first and so far the only Azerbaijani who managed to score four goals against world-class Italian club “Milan” at San Siro.
During his career, Alakbar Mammadov played for “Neftchi” (1948-1953, 1960-1962) and “Dynamo” Moscow (1954-1959). He has scored 56 in 185 matches at the Soviet Top League, won the USSR championship in 1955, 1957, 1959. In 1958-1959 he held four games as part of USSR national team, participated in the qualifying matches of the 1960 European championship.
“Alakbarov was an exceptionally technical footballer, possessing original dribbling and well-oriented on the field, and was a real leader of the attack” - wrote in his memoirs Lev Yashin, the USSR national team goalkeeper.
After retirement he worked as a head coach of the “Neftyanik” Baku in 1963-1966 and 1971-1972. It was thanks to him that “Neftchi” returned to the USSR Top League and became the semi-finalist of the USSR Cup in 1971. He was awarded the title of Merited Master of Sports (1990) and Merited Coach of the USSR (1960). In 1993 he was the head coach of Azerbaijani national team, worked at higher education institution of Baku.
Alakbar Mammadov was a member of the executive committees of Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan and National Olympic Committee. Department of Sport Training of the Azerbaijan Oil Academy was his last place of work. He was head of this department.
Alakbar Mammadov died on July 28, 2014 at the age of 84 and buried at the second Alley of Honors.
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