At the 1998 World Weightlifting Championships held in Lahti, Finland, he could reach the 9th rank only. As he repeated his unsuccessful competitions at the 1999 European Weightlifting Championships in A Coruña, Spain and at the 1999 World Weightlifting Championships in Athens, Greece, Turkey Weightlifting Federation decided to take him out of the national team. Hafız Süleymanoğlu declared thereupon that he will return to Azerbaijan.