MOSCOW, 8 February. /TASS/. Russian striker Artem Dziuba and defender Igor Smolnikov signed contracts with the Moscow football club Lokomotiv. According to the press service of the railway workers on Wednesday, both agreements are calculated until the end of the current season.
Dziuba is 34 years old, in May 2022 he announced his departure from the St. Petersburg Zenit, for which he had been playing since 2015. In August, Dziuba signed a contract with the Turkish club Adana Demirspor, for which he played five matches and scored one goal. On November 6, Dzyuba terminated the contract with the Turkish team by mutual agreement of the parties. As part of Zenit, Dziuba played 249 matches in which he scored 108 goals and gave 70 assists, he ranks second in the list of top scorers in the history of Zenit, behind Alexander Kerzhakov (163 goals). With Zenit, Dziuba won the championship and the Russian Super Cup four times, and won the country’s cup twice.
The striker is a graduate of Spartak Moscow, for which he played from 2006 to 2015 and with whom he won the silver medal of the Russian championship three times. From 2009 to 2010 and from 2013 to 2015, Dzyuba played on loan for Tomsk Tomsk and Rostov, respectively, together with Rostov he won the Cup of Russia, in 2018, the striker played on loan for Tula Arsenal . Dzyuba is the top scorer in the history of the Russian championships, the striker scored 148 goals, Oleg Veretennikov (144) takes second place.
For the Russian national team, Dziuba played 55 matches in which he scored 30 goals and gave 16 assists. By the number of goals, the forward shares the first place in the history of the national team with Kerzhakov. He played his last match in the national team in June 2021 at the European Championship once morest the Danish team (1:4). At the 2018 World Cup at home, Dzyuba scored three goals and provided two assists.
Smolnikov is 34 years old, he is a graduate of Lokomotiv. The defender began his professional career in the capital’s Torpedo, following which he returned to the railroad. Over the years, Smolnikov played for the Yekaterinburg Ural, Chita, Zhemchuzhina-Sochi, Rostov, Krasnodar, Zenit and Tula Arsenal. In 2022 he played for Torpedo. As part of Zenit, he became a three-time champion of Russia, a two-time winner of the Russian Cup and Super Cup. He played 30 matches for the Russian national team and was not marked by effective actions.
Lokomotiv is 14th in the World Russian Premier League (RPL) with 13 points in 17 matches. On February 22 and 27, the red-greens will play with Spartak in the quarterfinals of the Fonbet RPL path – the Russian Cup.
