Today, Bayram Durdyev, a famous football player, master of sports of the USSR and the first coach of the national team of Turkmenistan, celebrates his 70th anniversary. Under the leadership of this honored coach of the country 34 years ago, Ashgabat's "Kopetdag" took 2nd place in the USSR championship among 22 teams of the second league of the eastern zone, achieved the best result in the history of the USSR Cup, reaching the 1/8 finals, and also in the 1995-96 season reached the quarterfinal stage in the main continental club tournament - the Asian Champions Cup, which no other Turkmen club has managed to achieve so far. However, few people know that all this might not have happened in the life of this wonderful person.
On that winter day of 1973, the 17-year-old captain of the youth national team of Turkmenistan, Bayram Durdyev, was intensively preparing for the February international youth tournament in Ashgabat with the participation of the national teams of Germany, Romania, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, two teams of the USSR and others.
Prior to that, Bayram, along with goalkeeper Viktor Kurochkin, were invited to watch the USSR youth national team, which was preparing in the city of Ochamchira (Georgia) for the upcoming European Championship in Italy. At that time, the USSR youth national team was led by Honored coach of the USSR Evgeny Lyadin, who twice (in 1966 and 1967) led the team to gold medals at the European Championship and educated a whole galaxy of famous football players, including Oleg Blokhin, Leonid Buryak, Anatoly Baidachny, Anatoly Kozhemyakin, Mikhail Gershkovich, Givi Nodia, Vladimir Gutsaev, Ramaz Shengelia, Vyacheslav Chanov, Mikhail An and Vladimir Fedorov, the stars of the Tashkent "Pakhtakor" who died in the plane crash, and many others.
The first training camp for talented Turkmen footballers in the USSR youth team was successful. There was another one ahead – the most important viewing and selection at the international youth tournament in Ashgabat, based on the results of which the team composition for the trip to the European Championship was formed.
It is difficult to convey all the feelings that then possessed the young Bayram Durdyev. There was a chance at stake – to get into the USSR youth national team and make his debut at the European Championship. And Bayram was diligently preparing to implement it. In addition to mandatory training with the ball, he devoted daily time to physical training, including pumping his legs with an elastic tourniquet.
During one of these exercises, the tourniquet came off and hit his eyes sharply. In an instant, Bayram's eyes were plunged into darkness, and the threat of blindness loomed. For ten days, specialists from the Turkmen Scientific Research Institute of Eye Diseases fought for the health of the young man, who had recently dreamed of wearing a USSR national team T-shirt, and eventually restored his eyesight. However, the injury did not allow B.Durdiev to approach the international tournament in the best athletic shape, and as a result, only one Turkmen football player, goalkeeper Viktor Kurochkin, went to the Italian European Championship as part of the USSR youth national team.
…. Bayram Durdyev was the oldest in a large family with 9 children (7 boys and 2 girls). His father Ovez Durdyev, a native of Mary, worked all his life as a driver at the Machine–building Plant named after the 20th anniversary of the TSSR. Mother Patma started her career at a silk-winding factory, and when the children came, she had to leave her job and devote the rest of her life to their upbringing.
No one in the family played sports, except for Bayram's childhood passion for football. From an early age, he, like many boys, loved kicking a ball in the yard with his peers. And when he turned 10, he went with the guys from the class to the capital's Pioneer Palace, where various sports sections worked, to enroll in football. However, the recruitment process for the football section had already been completed. He had to go to acrobatics, where there were still vacant places for beginners.
During acrobatics, Bayram learned how to do flips, somersaults, and other flexibility and stretching exercises, which later helped him a lot in football when he had to make tackles, interrupting opponents' attacks.
At the age of 11, B. Durdiev still managed to enroll in football - at the Children's Sports School, where his classmate Lyosha Trapeznikov was already engaged in this sport. Having studied for a year with his first coach Vladimir Pelogeikin, after the reorganization of sports schools in the republic, Bayram got into the based at the stadium "Labor Reserves" RDSS to the honored coach of Turkmenistan Vladimir Kuramshin, who played a big role in the formation of B. Durdyev as a professional football player.
Bayram was not a skilled dribbler, however, due to his strong build and tall stature, he was good at selection, played well positionally and with a great head, and also had a well-placed shot. Taking into account all these qualities, Vladimir Sergeevich identified a place for his newcomer in defense, where at first he played as a libero (back defender), and only later in the team of masters he performed the functions of a front defender. And no matter what tournaments B. Durdiev played in, he was always reliable in his role, striving to be like his idols – legendary defenders Albert Shesternev and Franz Beckenbauer.
However, during his school years Bayram lived not only by football. At that time, the “Pioneer Fourth-Athlete” competition was very popular among schoolchildren, in which the national teams of secondary schools competed in the long jump, high jump, 60-meter run and tennis ball throw. And in these disciplines, 14-year–old B. Durdiev also stood out, whose result in the high jump - 1 meter 80 centimeters was the best in Turkmenistan. As a result, having taken first place in the republican competition, he, as part of his capital secondary school No. 2, took part in the final of the All-Union competition, which took place in 1969 in the Latvian city of Klaipeda.
This was Bayram's first trip outside Turkmenistan to the competition. Then there were many other football tournaments in his biography, such as the 1969 All–Union Final in Volgograd for the prize of the “Leather Ball” club, where the Turkmen team took a high 7th place among 24 teams, and where B. Durdiev first met future stars of Soviet football – the legendary football player of Yerevan “Ararat” and the USSR national team Khoren Oganesyan and Alexander Starkov, who later became the head coach of the Latvian teams “Daugava”, “Skonto” and Moscow “Spartak”.
The following year, Bayram Durdyev was recognized as the best defender at the city youth competition for the Yunost Cup and, as captain, led the Turkmenistan team to all matches of the All-Union final, which took place in the city of Shakhty in the Rostov region. In 1972, at the Spartakiad of schoolchildren in Kyiv, he also successfully coped with the role of team captain.
Those competitions in the capital of Ukraine were also remembered by the hero of our essay for a severe head injury. In one of the game episodes of the match with the national team of Uzbekistan, which our footballers won 3:1, Bayram, in the fight for the high ball, hit his head hard on the head of the attacking opponent and fell on the grass, losing consciousness. Having come to his senses later, B. Durdiev could not remember for a long time either the score in the match or the team they were playing with.
And this was not an isolated incident with a life-threatening risk in the career of football player Durdiev, who always courageously fought for the ball. So, in one of the episodes of the home match with SKA (Odessa), Bayram and right-back Yuri Vinitsky severely smashed each other's heads in a fight for a riding ball. Both players had to be stitched in the hospital, where they were immediately taken from the football field. Thanks to the professionalism of the doctors, today nothing reminds of B. Durdiev's numerous scars.
As Bayram recalls, in those days it was difficult to break into the main squad of the Ashgabat’s "Builder" playing in the first league of the USSR championship, in which a pair of central defenders in the person of Igor Dzagoev and Ivan Danilyants occupied a strong place in defense. Only selfless play had to prove one's worthiness for a place in the team.
Having played two seasons in the reserve team, B. Durdev began to come out as a substitute in the main team in 1974. The following year, he began to gain experience in the second league. And in 1976, in which Ashgabat's “Kolkhozchi” achieved the best result in the first league, taking 9th place, he became the main forward defender in the master team.
That year turned out to be the most successful in the history of Turkmen football during Soviet times: “Kolkhozchi” defeated “Kairat” (Alma Ata) 5-2, “Terek” (Grozny) 7-0 and defeated many famous teams. And so it is no coincidence that next season many clubs began hunting for our leading players, including Bayram Durdyev, who scored a spectacular goal in Luzhniki after giving a corner to goalkeeper of Moscow “Spartak” Alexander Prokhorov.
First, after the 1-0 away win over Dynamo Leningrad, Bayram Durdyev was invited to “Zenit” by head coach German Zonin. And then, after a goalless draw in Ashgabat, he was invited to “Dinamo” Minsk by head coach Oleg Bazilevich.
"We don't promise you a “Volga” car right away, but you'll get an apartment and a “Lada”," Oleg Petrovich tempted our leading defender with material benefits for the transfer.
The third attempt to lure B.Durdiev was already made by the head coach of “Shakhtyor’ Donetsk, Viktor Nosov, who came to Simferopol for him when “Kolkhozchi” flew there for a match with the local “Tavria’.
After that, “Shakhtyor”'s management tried to contact Bayram twice more. But this time he did not leave his native team and, moreover, did not want to part with his beloved girlfriend Maral, whom he was going to marry.
After playing 13 seasons in the masters team, Bayram Durdyev entered the Higher School of Coaches in 1986. After graduating, he returned to “Kopetdag” as the head of the team, which had been playing in the second league of the USSR championship since 1980. In the middle of the 1990 season, when the team was trailing in the standings, he took over “Kopetdag” as head coach and finished with him in 8th place among 22 clubs.
The following season under the leadership of the young coach turned out to be a successful: having won 25 matches, including all on their home field, and having drawn 8, “Kopetdag” ended up 4 points ahead of the Kyrgyz “Alga”, which ended up in third place, and after a twelve-year break, together with “Okean” (Nakhodka), won the right to return to the first league of the Union championship.
And in the USSR Cup of the 1991-92 season, the Turkmen club made a splash, reaching the 1/8 finals. In the first stage of the 1/64 finals, Bishkek's “Alga” was defeated away - 3:2. Then in the 1/32 finals, “Zenit” from Izhevsk was beaten at home - 2:0. In the 1/16 finals, “Kopetdag” sensationally won over “Metallurg” from Zaporozhye, which played in the top league, in the sum of two games: 5:0 - in Ashgabat and 1:2 - in Zaporozhye. And in the 1/8 finals, Moscow's “Spartak”, led by Oleg Romantsev, almost knocked out of the competition, in whose squad played many famous football players, including Stanislav Cherchesov, Alexander Mostovoy and the current head coach of the Russian national team Valery Karpin.
The first game, which took place on November 21, 1991, to a sold-out crowd of 12,000 at the Central Stadium of Ashgabat, ended in a draw – 0:0. The second leg was held 4 days later at the “Spartak” arena.
It so happened that the “Kopetdag” footballers were on the same plane for the return cup match with “Spartak” as the first President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov, who was heading to Moscow on a working trip that day. Seeing the footballers in the cabin of the plane, the head of state congratulated the team on their good performance in the first cup match.
"I saw the game. Well done! You played well. And in one episode the referee didn't even give a penalty to “Spartak”. Let's try to win the return game," said S. Niyazov, promising to meet with the team at the Presidential Palace upon his return from Moscow.
Inspired by such support and attention from the first person, the “Kopetdag” players made every effort to reach the semifinals. And until the 85th minute of the game, they were close to it with a 1-1 draw due to a goal scored on someone else's field. However, 5 minutes before the final whistle, Sergey Perepadenko, who came on as a substitute in the second half, scored the second goal against our team, which brought “Spartak” to the semifinals.
Despite the defeat, upon the return of the players to Ashgabat, the President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov, as promised, received the team at his Palace. The result of that meeting was a Resolution adopted by the head of state, exempting “Kopetdag” Joint Stock Company from all types of taxes and duties for 5 years. This document helped the country's leading club to retain its fighting squad and successfully compete in a number of competitions for several more seasons.
After the collapse of the USSR, the team planned to participate in the CIS Open Football Championship, but due to numerous disagreements, the championship did not take place, and “Kopetdag” began to play in the independent championship of Turkmenistan and represent the country as the winner in the main continental club tournament - the Asian Champions Cup. In one of these draws of the 1995-96 season, Bayram Durdyev's team beat Kyrgyz “Kant-Oil” in the first round (6:0 in Ashgabat and 0:2 in Bishkek), and in the second round Lebanese “Al–Ansar” (5:0 in Ashgabat and 1:1 – in Beirut) and reached the quarterfinal stage in Riyadh, where they faced “Saipah” (Iran), “Al Arabi” (Qatar) and future finalist “Al Nasr” (Saudi Arabia) in the group stage.
After Turkmenistan gained independence, Bayram Durdyev was also appointed as a head coach of the national team. Under his leadership, the team took 2nd place at the 1993 international tournament of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member countries in Tehran. The following year, B. Durdiev prepared the national football team for its debut at the first Asian Games in the history of national sports in Hiroshima. However, due to his father's serious illness, he was unable to go to Japan with the team. But even in the absence of this specialist, the Turkmen football players performed well there, entering the top eight teams at the 1994 Asian Games.
Another serious challenge in B.Durdiev's coaching career was the first Asian Cup qualifying tournament in 1996 in the history of the national team, during which our players gained experience in the fight against the strongest teams on the continent. Then, as part of it, the Kuwait national team came to Ashgabat, headed by Valery Lobanovsky, a well-known coach for working with “Dynamo” Kyiv and the USSR national team.
That match with the favorite of the qualification almost ended in a sensation. From the beginning of the match, the Turkmen team unleashed a barrage of attacks on their opponents and by the 8th minute they were already leading 2:0. Soon, the Kuwaitis scored one goal back, and the result 2:1 in favor of the Turkmen team held almost until the very end. However, a minute before the final whistle, taking advantage of a mistake in defense, V. Lobanovsky's charges scored the second goal and escaped defeat - 2:2.
In 2004, the national team of Turkmenistan, in a fight against the teams of the UAE, Syria and Sri Lanka, nevertheless managed to reach the final of the Asian Cup for the first time, which was held in China. At that time, the team was headed by the Honored coach of Turkmenistan, Rahim Kurbanmamedov, who was assisted by Bayram Durdyev as a consulting coach.
In addition, in 2003, Bayram Durdyev was elected a member of the technical (coaching) committee of the Asian Football Confederation for 4 years. Previously, he was also a member of the delegation of the leading coaches of the USSR at the 1990 World Championships in Italy and the 1992 European Championships in Sweden. He also watched the matches at the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles (USA).
Bayram Durdyev, along with Rovshan Mukhadov, also became the first coaches in Turkmenistan to receive a professional license of the "PRO" category recognized by FIFA and AFC, which entitles them to coach national teams and club teams in any country in the world.
By the way, during his rich sports career, B.Durdiev managed to work as a coach abroad. In Iran, he coached the “Sanat Naft” team from the city of Abadan, which was nicknamed the "Iranian Brazilians" back in the 70s for the yellow and blue colors used by the Brazilian national team. And in Kazakhstan – the three-time champion at that time, "Elimai" (Semipalatinsk).
In the new season, “Elimai” took second place in the national championship and reached the final of the Kazakhstan Cup, where they beat “Munaishi” (Aktau) with a score of 2:1, which was coached at that time by Kurban Berdiev. One of the popular newspapers in Kazakhstan, “Karavan”, published the headline "Turkmen holiday of Eid al-Adha (Kurban-Bayram) at the central stadium of Almaty" on the day of the final. In 1997, "Elimai", also under the leadership of Bayram Durdyev, took 3rd place at the international tournament for the Cup of the President of Turkmenistan and won a cash prize of 25 thousand US dollars.
Over the years of his career, Bayram Durdyev has also worked in the Turkmen teams “Talip Sports”, “Akhal”, “Altyn Asyr”, and “Energetik”, sharing his rich experience with young colleagues.
And not so long ago, in 2023, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) included Bayram Durdyev in the symbolic national team of Turkmenistan of all time, which also included Viktor Kurochki, Vladimir Kuramshin, Viktor Kuznetsov, Vyacheslav Vovk, Yakub Urazsakhatov, Sergey Agashkov, Kurban Berdiev, Dmitry Khomukha, Valery Brochin and Rovshan Mukhadov..
"I consider myself a happy person in football," says Bayram Durdyev. – I managed to play in almost all the All-Union competitions, and was also lucky enough to participate in the development of Turkmen football during the period of state independence. And everywhere, as a player or coach, I was conscientious about my duties and tried to leave a bright mark in the history of this game.
Currently, Bayram, being retired, is actively engaged in raising his grandchildren, of whom he has six - three from his daughter and three from his son. He can also often be found at stadiums in the company of his youngest grandson, 7-year-old Seiran, who successfully plays football, having a well-placed left foot at such a young age. Who knows, maybe he will be able to surpass his grandfather's achievements in football stadiums around the world?
