Ravil Rufailovich Sabitov is a professional Soviet and Russian ex-soccer player who played in the position of central defender in such clubs as Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Sukhumi, Lokomotiv Moscow, Zyulte-Waregem (Belgium) and the USSR national team in football. Of the sports achievements of a football player, one can single out the championship in the Cup of Russia 1994/1995.
From 1997 to the present day he has been engaged in a coaching career. Champion of Kazakhstan in 2010 led by the Tobol team.
Football player Ravil Sabitov: biography and interesting facts from a sports career
He was born on March 8 in 1968 in Moscow, the USSR. He was brought up in an ordinary family - his father worked as a taxi driver, and his mother worked part time in the market. At the age of six, he first became acquainted with football, when his parents took him to the local section. Soon, the guy began to quickly join the sport. In 1976 he won the amateur tournament of the Moscow region among children under 8 years old.
In 1986, he signed his first professional contract with Dynamo Moscow. After playing here for 4 seasons and demonstrating his football viability, he received a proposal to move from the Abkhaz club Dynamo Sukhumi, where Oleg Vasilievich Dolmatov (a famous Soviet ex-football player and coach) was the head coach. As a result, Ravil Sabitov played only one season here, after which he moved to Lokomotiv Moscow in 1991 at the personal invitation of Yuri Semin (head coach). As part of the "railroad" he played until 1993, spent about 70 official matches.
Travel to Belgium: Going to Sylte Waregem
In December 1993, Ravil Sabitov was bought by the Belgian club Waregem. However, the young Russian defender failed to play in Europe. Sabitov managed to play eight official matches in the Belgian championship, after which he received severe damage and was eliminated from the base for several months. Thus, Ravil lost his playing practice and a place at the base - he had to return to his homeland.
Return to the Russian Championship
In 1995, the footballer returned to the ranks of Dynamo Moscow, where Konstantin Beskov (former coach of the USSR national team) was already the head coach. As Sabitov later said, Beskov created from him a completely different footballer - he taught him to be a creator. In the season of the Russian Premier League 1995/1996, Ravil Sabitov played 19 official matches, in which he managed to score 2 goals (previously the footballer did not score goals in professional football).
After a while, Sabitov again suffered a severe knee injury and was out of order. The football player tried to recover for several years, but the damage did not allow him to resume his football career. As a result, the player announces his retirement. Ravil immediately decides to engage in coaching. In 1997 she entered the Higher School of Trainers of Russia, which she subsequently graduated perfectly.
Continuing a career as a trainer
From 1997 to 1999 he worked as an assistant to the head coach of the Khimki football club from the city of the same name. In 2000, he coached FC Titan, and a year later he returned to Khimki, only as head coach.
In 2002, he took up the post of sports director at the Rybinsk club. From 2003 to 2007, he coached the Russian youth football team under 19 years old.
From 2007 to 2015, he held the post of head coach in such teams as:
- Torpedo (Moscow, Russia) - from 2007 to 2008.
- Maccabi (semi-professional football club from Moscow) - from 2009 to 2010.
- “Tobol” (Kostanay, Kazakhstan) - from 2010 to 2011. He won the championship in the Kazakh football championship.
- “Daugava” (Daugavpils, Latvia) - from 2011 to 2012.
- Mullyupuro (Helsinki, Finland) - from 2013 to 2014.
- Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia) - 2015.
Head coach at FC “Ivanovo Textile Worker”
In August 2015, Sabitov signed an agreement for the post of head coach with a club from the second division of Russia FC Tekstilshchik from the city of Ivanovo. In the winter of 2015, Sabitov was given the task: to bring the club into the first three of the zone “West of the second division of the PFL”. Throughout the season, the team fought in the top five of the league table, however, on May 26, 2016 FC Tekstilshchik Ivanovo lost all chances for further struggle when they drew with Dynamo St. Petersburg. After such disappointment, head coach Sabitov was waiting for a serious conversation with club president Sergei Zobnin. During their dialogue, it was decided to terminate the contract due to failure to fulfill the required goals.
Since 2017, Ravil Sabitov has been participating (as a trainer) on the Match TV channel in the reality show “Who Wants to Be a Legionnaire?”