Cristiano Ronaldo has played the most matches in the UEFA Champions League, which started yesterday. The Portuguese appeared 183 times in Europe's most prestigious club tournament.
It is interesting that Cristiano Ronaldo tried himself in the Asian Champions League last season: the Al-Nassr player played in 8 matches (scoring 6 goals) in this competition.
Spanish Iker Casillas, who has already finished his career, played 177 matches in the UEFA Champions League, while Argentine Lionel Messi played 163 games. Let's remember that Messi participated in the CONCACAf Champions League last season (3 matches, 2 goals).
But who among the Azerbaijani footballers played in the UEFA Champions League?
Although Azerbaijan is not currently represented in the prestigious competition, Qarabag competed here in the 2017/18 season. Thanks to that success, some players of the Azerbaijan national team gained experience in the Champions League. Among them, Gara Garayev, Maksim Medvedev and nationalized Richard Almeida wore uniforms in all 6 matches played by Qarabag at that time.
Mahir Emreli also has 6 matches in the Champions League. But the striker, who played 5 matches with Qarabag in 2022, also wore a uniform in the second part of the match against Chelsea as part of Dinamo Zagreb.
Rashad Sadigov played in 5 matches in that 2017/18 season and received one red card. Badavi Huseynov and Elvin Yunuszade, who just moved to Gabala, played 3 matches each.
Midfielder Narvik Sirkhayev, who played for the Azerbaijan national team in 1997-1999, also has 3 matches in the Champions League: in 2002-2003, he fought against Brugge, Milan and Real Madrid as part of Lokomotiv Moscow. .
Let's go back to Qarabag: Ramil Sheydayev, Afran Ismayilov and Coshgun Diniyev played in 2 matches each, and Agabala Ramazanov played in 1 match.
The nationalized Filip Ozobich also played 1 match in the Champions League in 2010 as part of Moscow Spartak.
Rasim Movsumzade
Idman.biz
