Alexey Smertin is a football player who played for a number of clubs in the championships of three different countries (Russia, France, England). Player of the Russian national team (1998-2006). Since 2013, he has been working as an adviser to the president of the Dynamo team (Moscow).
Dossier
Alexey Gennadievich Smertin was born on May 1, 1975 in the city of Barnaul (USSR). Russian citizen. Game line - midfielder. Height 177 cm, weight 70 kg. Years of performance in big football - 1992-2008. Married. Has a wife Larisa and a son. Since 2007, he is an honorary citizen of the city of Barnaul. Former deputy of the Altai Legislative Assembly.
Club career
As a football player, Alexey Smertin played in the championships of three countries for 10 different clubs. He played 442 matches in which he scored 46 goals.
- 1992-93 - Dynamo (Barnaul).
- 1994-97 - “Dawn” (Leninsk-Kuznetsk).
- 1997-98 - “Uralan” (Elista).
- 1999-2000 - Lokomotiv (Moscow).
- 2000-03 - Bordeaux (France).
- 2003-04 - Portsmouth (England)
- 2004-05 - Chelsea (England).
- 2005-06 - Charlton Athletic (England).
- 2006 - Dynamo (Moscow).
- 2006-08 - Fulham (England).
Alexei Smertin played for the national team of Russia from 1998 to 2006. He played 55 matches. In 2004-2005 he was the captain of the team. Participant in the World Cup (2002) and the European Championship (2004).
Trophies and Achievements
Over the period of his football career, Alexey Smertin became the winner of the Russian championship as part of the Uralan team (first division), the owner of the Russian Cup and silver medalist in the Lokomotiv club (Premier League), he was recognized as the best player in the Russian championship (1999). In foreign clubs, he won the French Cup with Bordeaux, was the winner of the English Championship and the owner of the English League Cup in Chelsea.
Stages of the football path
A pupil of Barnaul football Alexey Smertin began his career in the teams of the first Russian division. He made his debut in the Premier League as part of the Uralan club. A year later, Alex becomes a player in the Moscow Lokomotiv team. Two seasons spent as a part of railwaymen are the best period of a football player’s career. Here he wins his first trophies (Cup of the country and championship silver), plays in European competitions, holds matches in the national team.
In the summer of 1999, the Russian team in the selection for Euro 2000 defeats the French team on its field. The magnificent game of Alexei does not go unnoticed by French observers.
Since 2000 Alexey Smertin is a football player of the Bordeaux club. Here he played three seasons (85 matches, 8 goals). Unfortunately, the financial situation of the team required the sale of the leading players of the club. In 2003, for three and a half million pounds, Smertin joined the Chelsea team. Unable to gain a foothold in the club’s main squad, he spends two seasons on the Portsmouth and Charlton teams as a rented footballer.
Nevertheless, Alexey Smertin played one full season for Chelsea. It was the 2004/2005 championship in which the player entered the football field 16 times as part of the London club, including the Champions League matches. Despite the fact that he was involved in winning the Chelsea championship and the FA Cup, the English period of Alexey Smertin’s career can hardly be called successful.
In 2006, he unexpectedly concludes a contract with Moscow Dynamo. It seemed that Alex was returning home to end his football career in the Russian championship. But after the season at Dynamo he was again pulled into Foggy Albion.
Last three football seasons Alexey Smertin is a football player of the Fulham English club. But even this return cannot be entered into a player’s asset. After spending just 21 matches in the Premier League in three years, he announced the end of his football career in August 2008. It so happened that Alexey Smertin, whose biography was originally written in bright, juicy strokes (Lokomotiv, Bordeaux, Chelsea), ended his career in a modest English club.
Having completed active performances on the football field, Smertin was actively engaged in political and public activities. In 2009, he is elected as a deputy of the Altai Legislative Assembly, creates a sports school for children and youth in Barnaul, where hundreds of children study football for free, opens the charity foundation Young Talents
Interesting Biography Facts
In conclusion, we present several interesting little-known facts that took place in the life of Alexei Smertin:
- He is a collector and a good connoisseur of wines. This was facilitated by the result of a three-year performance at the French club Bordeaux.
- At one time he became interested in rock music and as a vocalist he spoke to his football team, which did not appreciate his singing talent.
- Alex has two higher educations: he graduated from Barnaul State Pedagogical University and the Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
- Speaking at Chelsea, he was once recognized as the best football player of the match (European Cup match with Porto).
- Smertin has a brother Eugene, who played in Russian teams: Dynamo (Moscow), Shinnik (Yaroslavl), Torpedo (Moscow).
- He is a participant in the Moscow and international marathon held in Chicago.
- The player’s first football coach is his father.
- Aleksey, who loves risk and extreme, once made a parachute jump.
- He is fond of riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
- He likes to read books on philosophy and psychology.
- For some time he worked as a football expert and commentator on the matches of the Russian national team at the World Cup in 2010.
An extraordinary football player, politician, public figure, musician, radio commentator, football expert. And all this is Aleksey Smertin, a family whose relatives and friends recently celebrated his fortieth birthday.