A native of Ashgabat, Vitaliy Kafanov joined the coaching staff of the Russian national football team under the leadership of Valeriy Karpin, reports "Championship".

Vitaliy Kafanov will be responsible for the selection of goalkeepers.

We remind you that Kafanov has been a senior coach at Rostov since 2019, where, among other things, he is responsible for the training of goalkeepers.

Vitaliy Kafanov was born on May 24, 1960 in Ashgabat. He is a graduate of Turkmen football. His debut in adult football took place in 1982 for the Ashgabat “Kolkhozchi”. In the USSR championship, he also played for “Sokol” team from Saratov and “Uralmash” from Sverdlovsk. He has extensive experience of playing in the championship of Kazakhstan for “Kairat” and “Elimay”. In 1992-1993, he performed at “Kairat” under the direction of Kurban Berdyev.

He is a three-time champion of Kazakhstan (1992, 1994, 1995) and a two-time winner of the Kazakhstan Cup (1992 and 1995). He finished his goalkeeping career at “Nisa” Ashgabat in 1998. He has played 2 matches for the Turkmenistan national football team.

Since 2001, he has been engaged in coaching. In different years, he was a goalkeeping coach in the Smolensk “Crystal”, “Rostov” and the national team of Kazakhstan. Vitaliy Kafanov worked at “Rubin” in 2003 with a break of 3.5 years in 2014-2017. Together with the team, he became twice the champion of Russia, won two Russian Super Cups, one Russian Cup. In 2019, he signed an agreement with the “Rostov” football club, where he previously worked from 2015 to 2017.