Dmitri Anatolyevich Alenichev (russian: Дмитрий Анатольевич Аленичев; born 20 October 1972) is a Russian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach, former player and politician.

Club career

Despite being a

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

fan, Alenichev debuted 1991 for Moscow rivals

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москв ...

, where he played four years before moving to Spartak, where in five years he won three Russian leagues and two cups, and was also elected Russian player of the year in 1997. Won

Malta International Football Tournament The Malta International Tournament was a biannual association football friendly competition for national teams organised by the Malta Football Association that took place in Malta between 1986 and 2008. Initially, the tournament included the parti ...

1996. He won a transfer to Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, played 21 matches in the first season, but after only seven matches played in his second season, he moved to

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

in December 1999. His stint in Italy overall proved to be unsuccessful and he was eventually considered to be one of Italian football's biggest foreign flops. In 2000, he moved to Portuguese

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

side

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, where he made a strong first impression, scored the equalizing goal against rivals

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

in the first leg of the

2000 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The 2000 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira was the 22nd edition of the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, the annual Portuguese football season-opening match contested by the winners of the previous season's top league and cup competitions (or cup run ...

. He was also impressive overall in first season, as Porto captured the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

after winning the final 2–0 against Marítimo, Alenichev scoring the second goal. The following season, Alenichev suffered some animosity from new Porto head coach

Octávio Machado Octávio Joaquim Coelho Machado (born 6 May 1949) is a retired Portuguese football defensive midfielder and coach. Club career Born in Palmela, Setúbal District, Machado was a leading player for Vitória de Setúbal and FC Porto during the 197 ...

(similar to his compatriot Sergei Ovchinnikov) and spent most of the first half of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

sidelined, under the shadow of

Deco Anderson Luís de Souza (born 27 August 1977), known as Deco (), is a retired professional footballer who primarily played as an attacking or central midfielder. Born and raised in Brazil, he acquired Portuguese citizenship and played for Po ...

. When Octávio was sacked and replaced with

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

, Alenichev's prospects changed. Although he was not a regular in the starting 11, he was usually the first player substituted onto the pitch, particularly when Mourinho shifted from a 4–3–3 to a 4–4–2 formation. A starting player in the

2003 UEFA Cup Final The 2003 UEFA Cup Final was played on 21 May 2003 between Celtic of Scotland and Porto of Portugal. Porto won the match 3–2 in extra time thanks to a goal from Derlei. This was also the first game to use the silver goal rule, although it did no ...

and mid-match substitute in the

2004 UEFA Champions League Final The 2004 UEFA Champions League Final was an association football match played on 26 May 2004 to decide the winner of the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League. AS Monaco, a Monaco-based club representing the French Football Federation, faced Portugue ...

, Alenichev scored in both contests. In the former, against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, he scored the second goal, following a pass from Deco; and in the latter, against

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, he closed the scoreline with a powerful volley shot following a deflected through cross from

Derlei Vanderlei Fernandes Silva (born 14 July 1975), known as Derlei, is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a striker. He spent most of his 16-year professional career in Portugal (one full decade), having represented all three most impor ...

. This made him one of only three players to score goals in two consecutive cup finals of different European competitions, the others being

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is the younger brother of his former international teammate Erwin Koeman and the son of former Dutch international Martin Koeman. Koeman was cap ...

and

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: As ...

. During

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

, in which Alenichev played in all three of

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 ...

's matchups, he announced his desire to return to Spartak Moscow. In appreciation for the services done for the club, the FC Porto board made no objections to the transfer. On 8 April 2006, ''

Sport-Express ''Sport-Express'' (russian: Спорт-Экспресс) is a Russian daily sports newspaper founded by Vladimir Kuchmiy. Printed in 31 cities of Russia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the United States, it is the biggest-selling sports ...

'' published Alenichev's interview containing severe criticism of

Aleksandrs Starkovs Aleksandrs Starkovs (born 26 July 1955) is a Latvian football coach and a former player. Most recently he coached FK Liepāja. Starkovs has managed clubs such as Spartak Moscow in Russia, FK Baku in Azerbaijan and Skonto FC in Latvia. He had th ...

, Spartak's head coach at the time. Following that, Alenichev was fined, dismissed from the first team, transfer listed 14 April and on 10 September his contract was finally terminated by mutual agreement. This marked the end of his playing career.

Managerial career

In 2011, he joined

FC Arsenal Tula FC Arsenal Tula (russian: ФК Арсенал Тула) is a Russian professional football club from Tula playing in the second-tier Russian First League. Originally founded in 1923, FC Arsenal Tula was promoted to the Russian Premier League ...

as a manager and led the club through three promotions in 3 seasons from fourth-level

Russian Amateur Football League Russian championship among amateur football clubs (III division) (russian: Первенство России среди любительских футбольных клубов (III дивизион)) is the fourth overall tier of the Russian fo ...

to the top-level

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

. Arsenal was relegated after just one season in the top tier and Alenichev left. In June 2015, he became manager of his former club Spartak Moscow. He resigned as Spartak manager on 5 August 2016 following Spartak's elimination in the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round by

AEK Larnaca AEK Larnaca FC ( el, AEK; for short Αθλητική Έvωση Κίτιον Λάρνακας , translit=''Athletiki Enosi Kition Larnakas'', "Athletic Union Kition of Larnaca") is a Cypriot professional football club based in Larnaca. The club ...

. At the end of that season, Spartak won the

for the first time in 16 years under the management of his assistant

Massimo Carrera Massimo Carrera (; born 22 April 1964) is an Italian professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of clubs Spartak Moscow and later AEK Athens, before leaving continental football and joining local club Bari ...

. On 5 June 2017, Alenichev signed a two-year contract with Russian

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. In his first season, he led Yenisey to promotion to the

for the first time in club's history. He was replaced as Yenisey coach after the club was relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2018–19 season.

Style of play

A technically gifted and offensive-minded midfielder, Alenichev's favoured role was as a number 10 behind the strikers; he was also deployed as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

on occasion throughout his career, although he lacked both the physicality and tactical sense to excel in this position.

Personal life

His older brother Andrei Alenichev also played football professionally. He has two sons, Maksim (born 2001) and Daniil (born 2004) who followed on his footsteps and became footballers too. Alenichev joined the

United Russia United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...

party. On 14 June 2007, he was voted the representative of the

Omsk Oblast Omsk Oblast (russian: О́мская о́бласть, ''Omskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southwestern Siberia. The oblast has an area of . Its population is 1,977,665 ( 2010 Census) with the majority, 1.12 ...

in the

Federation Council of Russia The Federation Council (russian: Сове́т Федера́ции – ''Soviet Federatsii'', common abbreviation: Совфед – ''Sovfed''), or Senate (officially, starting from July 1, 2020) ( ru , Сенат , translit = Senat), is th ...

. He represented it until 2010, when he accepted the position of head coach of the Russia national under-18 team. In 2009, Alenichev was part of the

squad that won the

2009 Legends Cup 2009 Legends Cup was the first edition of the Legends Cup, a tournament for senior retired players (35+). The teams invited to the tournament were Russia, Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. The first edition of the Legends Cup, which ...

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Managerial

''Information correct as of match played 26 May 2019. Only competitive matches are counted.'' *Notes:

Honours

Spartak Moscow *

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

* Russian Cup: 1993–94, 1997–98 *

Commonwealth of Independent States Cup The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup (russian: Кубок чемпионов Содружества, Кубок Содружества, Кубок чемпионов содружества стран СНГ и Балтии) is a defunct ann ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Porto *

: 2002–03, 2003–04 *

: 2000–01, 2002–03 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

: 2003–04 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 2002–03 Individual *

Footballer of the Year in Russia (Sport-Express) Footballer of the Year in Russia is an annual award given by ''Sport-Express'' daily to the Russian Premier League player of the season. The title is awarded according to the results of a poll conducted by the newspaper. 11 players of each Premier ...

: 1997 *

Footballer of the Year in Russia (Futbol) Footballer of the Year in Russia was an annual award given by '' Futbol'' weekly to the Russian Premier League player of the season. The title was awarded according to the results of a poll conducted by the newspaper. Players of each Premier Leagu ...

: 1997

References

External links

Dmitri Alenichev celebrates goal with Porto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alenichev, Dmitri 1972 births Living people People from Velikoluksky District Soviet footballers Soviet Union under-21 international footballers Russian footballers Russia under-21 international footballers Russia international footballers A.S. Roma players A.C. Perugia Calcio players Serie A players Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Italy FC Porto players Members of the Federation Council of Russia (after 2000) FC Spartak Moscow players 2002 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2004 players Association football midfielders Russian expatriate footballers Russian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Russian Premier League players Primeira Liga players Russian football managers FC Lokomotiv Moscow players FC Arsenal Tula managers Russian Premier League managers FC Spartak Moscow managers UEFA Champions League winning players UEFA Cup winning players FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk managers Sportspeople from Pskov Oblast