The Turkmenistan national football team will play a friendly match with the Indonesian team in preparation for qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The game will take place on September 8 at the Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium in Surabaya.
Midfielder Ruslan Mingazov spoke at the press conference before the match. He noted that Indonesia is a strong opponent, and the duel with it will be a good test for Turkmen football players. He also expressed hope that the national team of Turkmenistan will be able to achieve victory in this match.
“It is very important for us to improve, and I hope that the game with Indonesia will help us in this,” the press service of the national team quotes Mingazov.
The Turkmen midfielder recently scored the 100th goal of his career at club level. Mingazov’s anniversary was the ball he sent against FC Hong Kong in the 2nd round of the Hong Kong Premier League.
As reported in the Goleador blog on the Sports.ru website, Mingazov scored his first goal abroad on July 8, 2009 in a Latvian championship match, in which his Riga Skonto defeated their fellow countrymen from Daugava (5:0).
To reach a hundred, Ruslan needed to play 325 matches. His goalscoring record was 12 doubles, one hat-trick and 73 single shots.
Ruslan scored 99 goals from the field and only one from the penalty spot. The midfielder scored 95 times in the starting lineup and 5 times after coming on as a substitute.
During his foreign career, Mingazov played for nine teams: Latvian Skonto (Riga) - 38 goals in 131 matches, Czech clubs: FC Jablonec - 13 goals in 55 matches, Slavia - 6 goals in 25 matches, FC " Mlada Boleslav - 2 goals in 8 matches, FC Pribram - 5 goals in 21 matches; Kazakh “Irtysh” (Pavlodar) – 2 goals in 11 matches, “Shakhtar” (Karaganda) – 2 goals in 13 matches, “Caspiy” (Aktau) – 7 goals in 26 matches.
The talented midfielder now plays for Kitchee, who play in Hong Kong's elite division. The 31-year-old Mingazov has 25 goals scored in 35 official meetings.
According to the Transfermarkt portal, Ruslan is the most expensive football player in Turkmenistan - the player’s cost is 550 thousand euros.
