Haji Hajiyev devoted his entire adult life to sports. He is a famous domestic football player who, at the end of his playing career, continued to work for the benefit of domestic football as a coach. He is currently considered one of the most experienced football specialists in Russia.
Gadzhi Gadzhiev was born on October 28, 1945 in the south of the USSR in the Dagestan city of Buinaksk. Since childhood, the child wanted to devote his life to sports. From an early age, his special love for football was manifested. He received his first football education at a specialized football school under the Spartak children's sports team from the city of Khasavyurt.
Haji Hajiyev's career as a player
Haji Muslimovich Hajiyev's career as a football player began in 1959 at the Spartak youth club (Khasavyurt). For this club, the footballer played several seasons, defending the colors of the Dagestan Spartak team until 1964.
Despite health problems, Haji Hajiyev had myopia, the footballer still played for senior teams. Hajiyev's biography as a player in adult football began with performances for the Leningrad Spartak. He played for the club in 1964, but soon for health reasons he was forced to leave the team, going to end his playing career in the "Skorokhod" club, which played in the championship of Physical Culture Clubs (KFC) - one of the lower leagues of the Soviet Union championship.
Haji Hajiyev ended his playing career early. At that time, the footballer was only twenty years old. But the love of football prompted Haji Muslimovich to try himself as a coach.
Coaching career of Haji Hajiyev
Currently, Haji Hajiyev is known as a highly experienced football specialist and coach. He began his football pedagogical path in children's teams. In particular, from 1965 to 1972 he coached the Khasavyurt "Spartak" - the team that brought up the future meter of the coaching staff. In addition to working at the Khasavyurt Children's and Youth Sports School, Gadzhi was connected to the coaching staff and the adult club.
From 1972 to 1975, Gadzhi Gadzhiev was offered a coaching post at Dynamo Makhachkala. However, having decent knowledge about the game, Hajiyev did not have a specialized coaching education. In this regard, in 1975 he went to study at the Higher School of Trainers (HST) in Moscow. Already in 1977, Hajiyev graduated from the Higher School of Economics and even defended his dissertation work, thanks to which the trainer was awarded the scientific degree of candidate of pedagogical sciences. It is no coincidence that Hajiyev in the future received the nickname "Professor" for his education.
From 1978 to 1980 he was a member of the complex scientific group of the USSR national teams at the Union Football Federation.
From 1983 to 1985 he coached the famous Neftchi club from the city of Baku. At the same time, Hajiyev did not leave consulting work in the complex scientific group of CSKA.
The work of Gadzhi Gadzhiev, his experience, creativity shown in coaching, contributed to the fact that Muslimovich was appointed assistant to the head coach of the USSR Olympic team. Hajiyev was a member of the coaching staff of the national team of the Union until 1988. In the same year, as a coach, he became the triumphant of the Seoul Olympic Games.
Haji Hajiyev as national team coach
After the Olympic Games in Seoul, Hajiyev continued his coaching career, first at the headquarters of the USSR national team (1990-1991), and then in the united CIS team.
From 1992 to 1997, he headed the Russian youth team, after which he was called up to the coaching staff of the first Russian national team. With the national team of Russia, Hajiyev did not manage to achieve success. During the period from 1997 to 1998, our national team fought to get to the finals of the 1998 World Cup in France, but lost in the play-offs to the Italians.
Haji Hajiyev's career in Russian clubs
After a failure in the selection for the 1998 World Cup, Hajiyev returned to club coaching. He managed to train six different Russian football clubs, the first of which is Anzhi Makhachkala. From 1999 to 2001, the team from Makhachkala played 93 matches under the leadership of Gadzhi Muslimovich, of which 49 won. Thus, the statistics of victories in matches for the coach seems to be very comforting - 52, 68%. This indicator remained the best in Hajiyev's club coaching career.
In addition to Anji, Gadzhiev was the head coach of Wings of the Soviets in Samara, Saturn in Ramens, Volga in Nizhny Novgorod and Amkar in Perm. The last club Hajiyev coached from 2014 to 2018.
A special place in the biography of a specialist is occupied by his coaching experience in Japan. In 2002, he led the Sanfrecce Hiroshima team, thus making his significant contribution to the development of football in Japan.
Despite his experience and ingenious understanding of football, Haji Hajiyev could not achieve outstanding sports results with his teams. He did not coach the RPL grand clubs, he specialized more in teams that did not have the task of winning domestic championships. But, despite this, Hajiyev was twice recognized as the best coach in Russia - in 2000 and 2007. In addition, the coaching work of Hajiyev made it possible to raise several RPL clubs to previously unattainable heights. In particular, Krylya Sovetov (Samara) won bronze medals in the Russian Championship in 2004, Anji moved up to fourth place in the table at the end of the season, and Saturn took fifth place in the national championship.
Haji Hajiyev was married twice. From his first marriage, he has a son and two daughters. The second wife of Haji Muslimovich Elena, whom the specialist met in 2002, gave birth to three more children: sons Shamil and Muslim and daughter Nadia.
