Azerbaijan captain Sadygov receives 100-cap honour
Saturday, October 10, 2015
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UEFA's presentation of 100-cap awards continued with Qarabağ's Rashad F Sadygov honoured for becoming the first player from Azerbaijan to reach that mark.
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UEFA's presentation of 100-cap awards has continued with Azerbaijan captain Rashad F Sadygov being honoured with a commemorative cap and medal.
The 33-year-old achieved his century in Saturday's UEFA EURO 2016 Group H qualifier versus Italy in Baku – just over 14 years since his international debut against Sweden on 7 October 2001. Central defender Sadygov is the first Azerbaijani player to get to 100 appearances, sitting 20 clear of the next man on the all-time list, the now retired Aslan Kerimov. Appropriately, the centre-back's first home match had been against the Azzurri, in September 2002.
"I am happy the fans congratulated me on my 100th international match," he said after the 3-1 defeat. "It was nice to see how much they love me, but I can't make any promises about my future. I haven't yet decided if I'll play in the next qualifying campaign. We wanted to defeat Italy, but couldn't do that. We didn't play in the way we planned to do. We must admit Italy are very strong and played well both in attack and in defence."
Sadygov, captain at club level of UEFA Europa League Group J participants Qarabağ, has scored four goals for his country, while his club career has taken him from Neftçi to Turkish clubs Kayserispor, Kocaelispor and Eskişehirspor.
