Balkan

Amanmurad Meredow played for the club in Balkanabat and later came back to coach it. That belongs to Murad Ýagşiýew, who put 31 goals past the Ýokary Liga in 2015, two seasons after Mämmedaly Karadanow had led the same competition with 26.

The club grew out of the oil industry on the Caspian shore, in a town then called Krasnowodsk, and the name it has carried for most of its life says as much: Nebitçi, the oilman. It was founded in 1960. In May 2010 the football federation renamed it Balkan, after the province, and in September 2018 the old name came back.

The best of it came in a tight run. Champions in 2004, then again in 2010, 2011 and 2012 — with the cup in 2010 and 2012 and the super cup alongside. Before any of that there was the 2003 cup.

Home is the Sport toplumy, a multi-purpose ground holding 10,000, and the shirts, shorts and socks are all red.

Güýçmyrat Annagulyýew, a defender, went from here to the 2019 Asian Cup finals with Turkmenistan.

Its measure has always been the capital.