Igor Smolnikov

Igor Smolnikov is a defender of the Zenit St. Petersburg football club and the Russian national team. The footballer has been building a sports biography for a long time. There were few optimists who believed in him, but Igor did not give up and eventually got a place in one of the best teams in the country.

Igor was born in August 1988 in the Sverdlovsk region, the city of Kamensk-Uralsky. Like all boys, I chased the ball with friends, but at a sports school I chose the karate section. And when he became seriously interested in football, he was lucky with his first coach, Yuri Vostroukhov.

An enthusiastic teacher brought up the team that won the all-Russian tournament "Ole, Coca-Cola", the main prize of which was a trip to the European Championship. Along the way, “Luck” played in Moscow with a double of “Lokomotiv”. The tournament was watched by coach Ravil Salekhov and the director of the football academy Mikhail Linkov. They invited the Ural boy to the capital.

However, after graduating from the academy, the "railroad workers" did not like their new graduate, and Smolnikov left for "Torpedo".

Torpedo's mentor Georgy Yartsev, who headed the club when he was kicked out of the Premier League, opened the way for Igor's career. He defined the position of a short guy (179 cm with a weight of 70 kg) on ​​the right flank, in the midfield, and gave Vadim Evseev, who had already earned the laurels of the country's champion in Spartak, as his partner.

In 2007, Smolnikov announced himself at the World Youth Championship. The Torpedo players offered the player a new contract, but then Lokomotiv called Igor back. In the old club, Rashid Rakhimov did not bet on the young player, Smolnikov spent more time on the bench. In order not to lose shape, I played in a double. Then, after consulting with his wife, he moved to Yekaterinburg. In Ural, there was also a lack of game practice.

From the Yekaterinburg team, the player was loaned to the Trans-Baikal Chita. Here, the role of a football player has expanded significantly. The club suffered from a shortage of players, and Igor was in clean defense, and in attack, and as a midfielder. A defender, according to Smolnikov, is more comfortable than constantly scoring goals.

In 2010, Smolnikov tried for the umpteenth time to gain a foothold in Lokomotiv, played in the national championship. In addition, he received an invitation to the youth team and a chance to play in the continental championship, but he never entered the field.

Then Yuri Semin returned to Loko, and the player went on loan again. This time to the Sochi "Pearl" to Stanislav Cherchesov. But the club soon collapsed, and Igor liked the leadership of "Rostov". However, the defender did not stay long there either.

In 2012, Smolnikov moved to Krasnodar, which at that moment rose quite high in the standings. Southerners signed a defender for 4 years, after which they sold the player for € 6 million to St. Petersburg. At Zenit Igor found complete understanding with the head coach Luciano Spalletti. Leonid Slutsky lured the player to CSKA by offering a full-fledged game cycle, but then Igor preferred Krasnodar.

The athlete did not expect that everything would happen so quickly - under the flag of the new club, Smolnikov entered the game in 2 days. After wandering around the country and on teams of diametrically different levels, Igor concluded that if he moves where, then only with a promotion - to Europe. The footballer likes England and Germany. However, in Zenit he will calmly finish the game until the end of his career.

In 2015, the Nevsky club, on its own initiative, extended the contract with the defender for 5 years. The agreement contains a clause according to which Zenit is obliged to let the player go if he wants to leave for another team. The amount of compensation will amount to € 40 million. The owners of "blue-white-blue" were not afraid to offer Igor improved conditions right on the eve of his departure to England.

Smolnikov had to undergo an operation on his leg. A serious injury - a detachment of the inguinal muscles - was difficult to treat; the footballer went to London three times. The last operation was performed in January 2016, and in February Igor began individual training.

In the 2017/2018 season, the Zenit player did not score goals, but he was remembered for the fight with the forward of Moscow Spartak Luis Adriano. "Red-White" showed an indecent gesture to the fans and quarreled with Denis Terentyev. Such clashes on the football field are not uncommon, but this time Igor ran to help a colleague, and the usual quarrel became the subject of discussion in the media.

Igor met the blue-eyed blonde Ekaterina thanks to the fiancee of his Lokomotiv friend Semyon Fomin - Katya was friends with the girl. At the time of their acquaintance, the future wife was going to enter the theater, but later retrained as a journalist.

She did not believe that football for Smolnikov was not just a hobby, and even wanted to seriously talk about future prospects, until Igor assured him that he was breathing and living with this particular game. At the insistence of his wife, the footballer received a diploma from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education.

The Smolnikov family has two children - sons Luka and Alexander. But Katya did not become a housewife, but together with her friend Victoria, wife of Zenit midfielder Oleg Shatov, she created a charity project to raise funds for children suffering from incurable epidermolysis bullosa.

Prior to that, the woman hosted an author's program on Zenit-TV, acquainting viewers with the life of football players. The program was closed when the family moved to Yekaterinburg after Igor, who played for the local Ural.

For four years, Smolnikov changed five clubs. The Sochi period turned out to be the most difficult; over the past six months, salaries were not paid. Igor's contract with Rostov made it possible to pay off the mortgage, and it became easier financially when the defender started playing for Krasnodar.

In an interview, Ekaterina admitted that she has a positive attitude towards the possible continuation of her husband's career abroad. This is a great opportunity for children to learn a foreign language and get a decent education.

At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, not only ratings with a plus sign are kept. The defeat of the Russian national team from the Uruguayan team was a sobering cold shower for the fans, who are in euphoria from the previous two victories.

Igor Smolnikov earned a second yellow and automatically red card. The removal weakened the Russian national team in the current game and, as a result, led to the player's disqualification for the match against the Spanish “red fury”.

The English tabloid The Sun included the defender of the Russian national team in the list of the worst players in the world championship, along with Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Ramos and, perhaps, the main loser of the championship, Lionel Messi.

The footballer's Instagram is full of both angry and supportive comments. Wife Katya, in her own account, urged fans and ill-wishers to refrain from insulting her husband. In a similar situation, according to Ekaterina, everyone who enters the field with the ball runs the risk of being. Igor was motivated to win, but the team still left the group and even ended up for the first time in history in the quarter-finals, where they lost to the Croats in the penalty shootout.

2015 - champion of Russia, winner of the Russian Super Cup 2016 - winner of the Cup and Super Cup of Russia

Igor Smolnikov 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Igor Smolnikov in 2020?

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2021

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.6M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $506.8K - $1.7M.

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2020

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.1M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $747.5K - $1M.

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2019

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.9M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $894.3K - $1.1M.

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2018

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.9M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $505.7K - $1.7M.

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2017

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.6M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $630.1K - $1.6M.

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2016

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.5M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $873.2K - $1.6M.

Igor Smolnikov Net Worth 2015

Igor Smolnikov 's revenue is $1.2M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Igor Smolnikov and could vary in the range between $780.9K - $1.9M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Igor Smolnikov. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Igor Smolnikov makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Igor Smolnikov's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.