Since Russia's military offensive against Ukraine began in February 2022, this country's football has been suspended indefinitely from international competitions. Since then, Russian clubs and the championship have not been in the spotlight as before. Nevertheless, domestic competitions continue in the country, and new young footballers are emerging.
Today, we want to talk about one of these footballers. The reason is that this footballer is originally Azerbaijani. We are talking about the 21-year-old Ulvi Babayev, the left winger of Moscow's "Dynamo" team, which competes in the Premier League.
Two days ago, Babayev became the hero of the match against "Krylia Sovetov" in the Russian Cup. He scored 3 beautiful goals in the match, which ended with a 4:0 score. This was his first hat-trick in his professional club career.
According to Modern.az, Qol.az has investigated Ulvi Babayev's identity.
Ulvi Lachin oglu Babayev was born on March 30, 2004, in Khimki, Moscow Oblast. He started playing football in his hometown of Khimki, joining the local football system of the club with the same name. In the summer of 2014, he transferred to the “Lev Yashin Dynamo Academy.” Ulvi is a product of his current club, "Dynamo." The talented footballer was also called up to Russia's U-15 team in 2018, and a year later, to the U-16 team. He played 8 matches for the U-15 national team and 2 for the U-16.
Since the 2021/22 season, he has been called up to "Dynamo"'s youth team. In 23 matches played in the Youth League, he scored 13 goals and provided 10 assists. Subsequently, Babayev, who was called up to "Dynamo-2," "Dynamo"'s farm club, also demonstrated confident play with this team in the 2nd league. His statistics over two seasons were as follows: 44 matches, 16 goals, 6 assists. In the 2024/25 season, he played on loan for "Krylia Sovetov," appearing in 13 matches in the Russian Premier League.
In the 2025/26 season, Babayev was called up to the main team of "Dynamo" Moscow, one of Russia's famous clubs, where legendary Azerbaijani footballer Alakbar Mammadov once played, and later for a period, Iskandar Javadov. Babayev has already appeared in 9 matches for "Dynamo," scoring 4 goals (1 goal in the Premier League, 3 goals in the national cup).
Ulvi has participated in 4 cup matches (all as a starter), and in the Premier League, he has so far come on as a substitute in 5 matches. However, there is a high probability that with this successful run, he will become a key player for "Dynamo".
Regarding the national team, it can be assumed that he is attracting the attention of AFFA with his performance. However, there is currently no precise information on whether Ulvi Babayev wishes to play for the Russian or Azerbaijani national team in the future.
Simply put, after the match where he scored 3 goals against "Krylia Sovetov," he answered "Match TV"'s question about his chances of being called up to the Russian national team's training camp in November as follows: "This question should be asked to Valeri Georgievich (Karpin) (head coach of the Russian national team and "Dynamo" - ed.). Everything here depends on you. If you work hard on yourself, you will be called up to the camp."
Karpin himself also spoke positively about Babayev after the match against "Krylia Sovetov," but urged not to praise him excessively:
"Today, Babayev showed himself in a normal, even good light. Everything depends on him. Well done. But there have been such footballers before – they played for a year, and then disappeared. Therefore, it's not worth showering him with praise yet. Let's wait and see what happens."
