Sanan Gurbanov took a charge as the Gabala head coach after Ukrainian Roman Grigorchuk ended his time with the red-black team. The 38-year-old, has signed a deal for the next two years. In his footballer career, he played for Qarabagh (1998-2000), Dinamo (2000-03), Shafa (2003), Saypa Iran (2004), MKT-Araz (2004-05), Shahdagh (2005-06), Gabala (2006-07), AZAL (2007), ABN (2007-08), MOIK (2008), Mughan (2009), as well as Azerbaijan youth teams and senior national squad. He came on only one game for the national team that was against Moldova (1:2) in away on March 31st, 2004.

Qurbanov gave a start to his coaching career in the summer 2012 as an assistant coach. He fielded the first team for three league matches after Dorinel Munteanu left Gabala in December 2014. In his short time as a head coach, Gabala won one and shared two draws.