The head coach of the Turkmenistan national football team, Mergen Orazov, will go on an internship with the head coach of the Portuguese national team, Roberto Martinez, in September. This opportunity is the result of cooperation between the Football Federation of Turkmenistan (FFT), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Orazov will be present at the training camp of the Portuguese national team, communicate with the coaching staff and observe the preparation for two matches, as reported by Golos SNG.

Information about the upcoming internship was announced during a conversation with UEFA international instructor Gennady Skurtul, who is in Ashgabat in connection with the AFC PRO courses. These are the first professional courses of this level in Turkmenistan, aimed at improving the qualifications of local trainers to international standards.

The AFC PRO courses are supervised by AFC representatives and are part of a large-scale project to improve the level of coaching education in Asia. Successful completion of the course will allow coaches to obtain a PRO license, the highest category, which gives the right to work in any of the AFC member countries.

Berdymurad Nurmuradov, the FFT technical director, noted that the federation had worked hard to obtain permission to hold these courses. Within the framework of the development of cooperation, UEFA also offered Turkmenistan participation in various seminars on youth and women's football.