Ruslan Mingazov, a 32-year-old midfielder of the Turkmenistan national team and the Hong Kong «Kitchee», played in a friendly match against Lionel Messi's Inter Miami as part of the Hong Kong Championship stars team. The game took place on February 4 at the Hong Kong National Stadium, with a capacity of 40 thousands of spectators, and ended with a score of 4:1 in favor of the USA club.
David Beckham's team, supported by former Barcelona footballers Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, is making an Asian tour.
The arrival of football stars aroused tremendous interest on the island from the fans, who at the pre-match training with the participation of
Lionel Messi gathered at the stadium about 40 thousand spectators. The match also aroused great interest among the audience, who, however, were disappointed that Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez did not appear on the field for medical reasons. But other Barcelona players Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba came on as substitutes in the 62nd minute.
Already in the opening of the meeting, the rivals exchanged dangerous blows that fell into the frame of the gate. In the 8th minute, the hosts shook the crossbar - Mikael struck a mighty free kick. The answer of the guests was a barbell performed by Gregory.
Ruslan Mingazov, along with five other Kitchee players, entered the game in the starting lineup and could have scored a goal at least twice. In the 20th minute, he took a throw from Oliver Gerbig on the left, easily removed the ball from Deandre Yedlin and fired at the goal – goalkeeper Dos Santos took the ball. Two minutes later, Ruslan hit from 23 meters, but the shell whistled next to the bar.
In the 37th minute, R.Mingazov burst into the opponent's penalty area from the right, but missed the ball too much, which eventually went to the goalkeeper.
In the 40th minute, the American team still opened the scoring. From about the left corner of the penalty area, Robert Taylor brilliantly curled the ball into the far corner, and the home goalkeeper was powerless to deflect the shot.
However, the guests could not keep the winning score until the break. In the 43rd minute, Henri Anier, having received the ball from Everton Camargo, managed to squeeze into someone else's penalty area from the left and win back the goal – 1:1. With this result on the scoreboard, the teams went on a break.
The second half passed with a noticeable advantage of Inter Miami, whose players scored three more goals against the hosts, setting the final score. The guests scored: Lawson Sunderland (50th minute), Leonardo Campana (56th) and Brian Saylor (85th).
In the next test match, Inter Miami will play Vissel Kobe of Japan on February 7. On February 16, David Beckham's club is scheduled to spar with Messi's hometown club Newells Old Boys, and on February 22, the Pinkies will kick off the new MLS season with a match against Real Salt Lake. As for Ruslan Mingazov, he played the entire first half and was substituted at the beginning of the second half of the game.
After the match, the football player of the national team of Turkmenistan talked with Lionel Messi and took a memorable photo with him.
According to R.Mingazov, he told the legendary Argentinian that in there are a lot of Messi fans in Turkmenistan who love and support him, and wished him good luck and success in the future.
Ruslan is a pupil of the honored coach of Turkmenistan Vasily Karpova and the son of Kamil Mingazov, a well-known former winger of the Ashgabat Kopetdag and the national team of Turkmenistan. In 2008, as a member of Ashgabat, he became the champion and winner of the Super Cup of Turkmenistan.
Since 2009, he has been regularly called up to the national team of Turkmenistan, as part of which he scored a double in a match against the Hong Kong team in the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament in November last year.
Ruslan played in a number of European teams. As a member of Skonto Riga, he became the champion of Latvia in 2010, the winner of the 2012 Cup and the 2013 Super Cup of this country, as well as the winner of the 2011 Baltic League.
Ruslan Mingazov is also the first Turkmen football player to play in the Czech Championship for the clubs «Yablonets», «Slavia», «Mlada Boleslav», «Pribram». In the 2016/17 season, as a member of Slavia Prague, he won gold medals at the national championship.
After the Czech stage of his career, he played for the Kazakh clubs Irtysh, Shakhtar and Kaspiy.
In March 2022, Ruslan Mingazov signed a contract with Kitchee as a free agent, becoming the first Turkmen legionnaire in the Hong Kong Football Championship. In the 2022/2023 season, he was named the best player in the Hong Kong Premier League.
Last year, R.Mingazov, together with Kitchee, won the Hong Kong Cup, became the national champion and the winner of the Hong Kong Senior Shield trophy.
At the beginning of 2023, the Kitchee football club announced the extension of the contract with Ruslan Mingazov until 2025.
