MONGOLIAN FOOTBALL CENTRAL

Today Ulaanbaatar City FC announced that the club has signed national team defender Otgonbayar Oyunbaatar to a 5-year extension. The contract will run through the 2022 season. The contract guarantees the 24-year-old 5 million MNT per season. Oyunbaatar is at least the second high-profile player to sign a 5-year extension with the club this offseason, with defender Norjmoogiin Tsedenbal signing a 5-year deal worth 10 million MNT plus living expenses per season earlier this month. Prior to joining UBC FC, Oyunbaatar played for Khoromkhon FC until 2016. He was named the league's best defender for the 2016 season. He currently has six senior international caps since making his debut against Maca

This week Ulaanbaatar City FC founder Dashnyam Ganzorig traveled to Irkutsk, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia and a sister city of Ulaanbaatar. There he met with FC Zenit Irkutsk general director Vladimir Ivanovich Kurulinenko and manager Ilya Kungurov. FC Zenit Irkutsk currently plays in the Russian Professional Football League, the third tier of Russian football. Dashnyam stated that many things are being discussed and fans will be updated soon. Could an official partnership be pending or is Dashnyam simply visiting different clubs as he hopes to build Ulaanbaatar City into a powerhouse in Mongolian football? Perhaps the clubs will exchange players to develop talent, similar to

With approximately three weeks until Mongolia hosts Group I of 2018 AFC U-19 Championship qualification, today Erchim FC and Under-19 coach Zorigtyn Battulga announced his 23-man squad for the tournament. The squad consists of players from clubs in the top two tiers of Mongolian football. Deren FC, a club that focuses heavily on youth development, is the greatest contributor to the squad with eleven players, in addition to A. Degurun who is a product of the club. Additionally, young phenom Ganbold Ganbayar and his Puskás Akadémia teammate Degurun are part of the squad and expected to play a vital role in the upcoming matches. In preparation for the tournament, the team will play in three fri

Serbian goalkeeper Milos Rnic of Deren FC topped the save percentage chart for the 2017 season. The player and club announced his departure from the club earlier this month citing the player's desire to return home to Serbia. Save Percentage (in Mongolian) 1. Милош Рнич (Дэрэн) – 82.3% 2. Мауро Боэркио (Улаанбаатар Сити) – 81.3% 3. Такүми Томизава (Гоёо Эф Си) – 78.4% 4. Остин Рожерс (Эф Си Улаанбаатар) – 78.0% 5. Б.Ариунболд (Эрчим) – 76.7% 6. Б.Сэр-Од (Хангарьд) – 73.4% 7. А.Сайханчулуун (Хангарьд) – 72.9% 8. Ц.Ганбаяр (Гоёо Эф Си) – 72.7% 9. Б.Мөнхболд (Сэлэнгэпресс) – 71.9% 10. М.Чанцал (Унаганууд) – 71.5% 11. Э.Мөнх-Эрдэнэ (Атлетик 220) – 69.5% 12. Э.Отгонпүрэв (Хоромхон)

For the second time in three years, Nyam-Osoryn Naranbold of Athletic 220 FC wins the Mongolian Premier League Golden Boot Award. He scored 15 league goals. He scored 23 goals during the 2015 season with Khoromkhon FC to also win the award. Oyunbaataryn Mijiddorj who was last year's top scorer with 29 goals did not rank among the top fourteen players this season. Several of the league's top goal scorers also ranked among the top in the league in assists, most notably Naranbold that finished fifth overall in that category with five assists. Second place finisher Ishino Shuta of Erchim FC finished first in the assist category with the Japanese attacker tallying ten in league play. TOP SCORERS

Today the Mongolian Football Federation released the final assist tallies for the 2017 Mongolian Premier League Season. Assist Totals (Mongolian) 1. Шута Ишино (Эрчим) – 10 ассист 2. Таку Хишида (Сэлэнгэпресс) – 7 ассист 3. Милош Перишич (Эф Си Улаанбаатар) – 6 ассист 4. Владимир Ульдяков (Хангарьд) – 6 ассист 5. Н.Наранболд (Атлетик 220) – 5 ассист 6. Б.Төгсбилэг (Улаанбаатар Сити) – 5 ассист 7. Н.Цэдэнбал (Улаанбаатар Сити) – 5 ассист 8. А.Тэмүүжин (Дэрэн) – 5 ассист 9. М.Төгөлдөр (Эрчим) – 5 ассист 10. Найжел Робинсон (Хоромхон) – 4 ассист 11. Ц.Түмэнжаргал (Улаанбаатар Сити) – 4 ассист 12. Чикара Таширо (Атлетик 220) – 4 ассист 13. Б.Баттулга (Атлетик 220) – 4 ассист 14. Пол

Based upon a brief statement by the Mongolian Football Federation, it seems that the men's senior national team will participate in the preliminary round of qualification for the 2019 EAFF Championship in July 2018. The statement was made from the team's training camp in Okinawa, Japan. So far, neither the AFC nor EAFF has announced any details about the 2019 tournament: including specific dates, venues and locations, participants, or groupings. The final round of the 2017 edition of the tournament, for which qualification took place between 30 June and 4 July 2016, will take place in Japan in December. Mongolia were eliminated in the preliminary round of this competition after posting a 1-1

29-year-old assistant captain Norjmoogiin Tsedenbal has signed a 5-year contract extension with Ulaanbaatar City FC effective 13 October 2017. The deal would see the left-winger remain with the club through the 2022 season. The contract includes living expenses and up to 10 million MNT per season. Tsedenbal finished last season tied for fifth place in the league with five assists. The player, who will be 34 years old at the end of the contract, previously played for Ulaanbaataryn Unaganuud. Making his senior international debut in 2009 in a EAFF Championship qualifier against Guam, Tsedenbal has amassed 16 caps, scoring two goals. He most recently appeared for Mongolia in the team's historic

On February 29, 2000 the Blue Wolves competed in their first official friendly match, and one of their first matches period, after joining FIFA almost two years earlier. That 1-8 defeat to Uzbekistan in Tashkent remained the team's only official friendly for nearly 18 years until Mongolia took on Taiwan in Taipei on October 5th. Although the match ended in a 2-4 defeat, the team performed respectably against an opponent ranked almost 50 places higher in the FIFA rankings. Mongolia took an early lead with Tsagaantsoojiin Mönkh-Erdene scoring his first goal for Mongolia in only the 5th minute. Mongolia almost took the lead into the halftime break before Chen Hao-wei equalized in the 42nd minut

The 2017 Mongolian Premier League season concluded at the end of September with perennial powerhouse Erchim FC from Ulaanbaatar winning its third consecutive championship and qualifying for the 2018 AFC Cup. The club will enter in the first preliminary qualifying stage of the tournament. Last year Erchim became the first Mongolian club to qualify for the final round of the tournament, albeit only because Taiwan Power FC withdrew from the group stage and Tatung F.C. withdrew from the playoff round. Erchim ended up losing all 4 of its matches to its two North Korean opponents by a combined score of 0 to 21. Perhaps the surprise team of the season was Athletic 220 FC. The club finished in third

It was announced today that Armenian forward David Ghandilyan has left Deren FC to return home following the 2017 MPL season. Ghandilyan joined Deren FC from Ararat Yereven in July 2017 and immediately scored in his debut. He played in every match of the second half of the season, scoring 4 league goals and adding another 3 in the FA Cup. Previously, he played for Homenetmen in Lebanon and several teams in his homeland including FC Pyunik and Shirak. In addition to club football, the 24-year-old has represented Western Armenia in Non-FIFA international football. He appeared in the 2016 ConIFA World Cup, scoring six goals in a 12-0 victory over the Chagos Islands. Two days earlier, the club a

Image property of Ulaanbaatar City FC Ulaanbaatar City FC continues to raise expectations for Mongolian football clubs. Following a season which saw the nascent, high-spending club sign several high-profile players including Murun Altankhuyag and Oyunbaatar Mijiddorj; finish second in the league; and win the FA Cup, Ulaanbaatar City has now broken ground on its new stadium, the G-Mobile Arena, with naming rights being purchased by wireless communication company G-Mobile. The 3,000-seat stadium is being constructed on 4 hectares. Fast Road LLC and HBS LLC are the constractors. Image property of Ulaanbaatar City FC The new arena is located near the Buyant Ukhaa Sport Palace and the Chinggis Kh