Dmitry Valentinovich Nazarov ( az, Dmitri Valentinoviç Nazarov; russian: Дмитрий Валентинович Назаров; born 4 April 1990) is an Azerbaijani professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays for club

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. ...

and the Azerbaijan national team.

Early life

Dmitry Valentinovich Nazarov was born on 4 April 1990 in

Taiynsha Taiynsha ( kk, Тайынша, ''Taiynşa''), known as Krasnoarmeysk between 1962 and 1997, is a city and the administrative center of Taiynsha District in North Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan (KATO code - 596020100). Population: Geography Tai ...

, then

Kazakh SSR ; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы) *1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы) , linking_name = the ...

, one of the republics of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. His grandfather was ethnic Azerbaijani. His family moved to Germany when he was one year old.

Club career

On 7 June 2013, Nazarov signed a three-year contract with 2. Bundesliga side

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

. On 2 July 2016, he signed a two-year contract with 2. Bundesliga side

FC Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. ...

International career

Because Nazarov was born in Kazakhstan, he was eligible to play for the national teams of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and all other former Soviet Union republics. In October 2012, he was spotted by then Azerbaijan's German head coach

Berti Vogts Hans-Hubert "Berti" Vogts (; born 30 December 1946) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender. He played for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga his whole professional club career and won the FIFA World Cup wi ...

and nominated for a match against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

on 16 October. However, he was not able to make his debut because the Azerbaijani Football Federation failed to organize the issue of his Azerbaijani passport. He finally debuted on 27 May 2014 in an away match against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Azerbaijan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nazarov goal''. Note: Some sources have credited Nazarov with scoring the first goal in a 2–0 victory over Faroe Islands in 2018, however this was an own-goal scored by Sonni Nattestad.

References

External links

* * * 1990 births Living people Azerbaijani footballers Azerbaijan men's international footballers German footballers Kazakhstani footballers Men's association football forwards German people of Azerbaijani descent German people of Kazakhstani descent Kazakhstani people of Azerbaijani descent Azerbaijani emigrants to Germany Kazakhstani emigrants to Germany Azerbaijani expatriate footballers Naturalized citizens of Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany 1. FC Kaiserslautern II players Eintracht Frankfurt II players SC Preußen Münster players Karlsruher SC players FC Erzgebirge Aue players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players People from North Kazakhstan Region Converts to Islam {{Azerbaijan-footy-bio-stub