Ivan Sergeyevich Zlobin (russian: Иван Сергеевич Злобин; born 7 March 1997) is a Russian 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 Portuguese club Famalicão as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Tyumen Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura River. Fueled by the Russian oil and gas indu ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, Zlobin began playing at hometown club

FC Tyumen FC Tyumen is a Russian football club based in Tyumen. The former member of the Russian Premier League now plays in the third-tier FNL 2. The club was previously known as ''Geolog'' (in 1961–1963 and 1983–1991, meaning Geologist), ''Priboy'' ...

from the age of six. After impressing in a youth tournament at 12, he was approached by the

Konoplyov football academy Yuri Konoplyov football academy (russian: Академия футбола имени Юрия Коноплёва) is a Russian youth football academy based in Togliatti. History The academy was founded in 2003 as SDYuShOR Krylia Sovetov. In ...

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 ...

and

Krasnodar Krasnodar (; rus, Краснода́р, p=krəsnɐˈdar; ady, Краснодар), formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern ...

, and opted for the first of those. When

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (, ; he, רומן ארקדיביץ' אברמוביץ'; born 24 October 1966) is a Russian Russian oligarchs, oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, a Premier League football club ...

withdrew funding from the

Tolyatti Tolyatti ( rus, Толья́тти, p=tɐlʲˈjætʲ(ː)ɪ), also known as Togliatti, formerly known as Stavropol (1737–1964), is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is the largest city in Russia which doe ...

-based centre, Zlobin moved to

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

. Though second choice to

Ilya Pomazun Ilya Aleksandrovich Pomazun (russian: Илья Александрович Помазун; born 16 August 1996) is a Russian football player who plays as a goalkeeper for Ural Yekaterinburg, on loan from CSKA Moscow, and the Russia national t ...

, he won all five league games he played (conceding only one goal) and defeated

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...

. Injuries removed him from play in early 2015. Zlobin joined Portuguese club

União de Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. ...

in October 2015, aged 18. He was one of several Eastern European players transferred to the club by agent and investor Alexander Tolstikov.

Benfica

In January 2016, Zlobin was loaned out to Benfica, where he played for their under-19 team before signing a permanent five-year contract on 25 June that year. On 28 November, he made his professional debut with the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

as a starter in a 1–0 home loss to

Fafe Fafe () is a municipality in the northern Portuguese district of Braga. The population in 2021 was 48,502, in an area of approximately (. The city itself had a population of 14,144 in 2001. The present mayor is Antero Barbosa, elected by the Socia ...

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

. In his first season, he was second-choice to André Ferreira, but still trained with the first team, where manager

Rui Vitória Rui Carlos Pinho da Vitória (; born 16 April 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and a former player who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of the Egypt national football team. He most notably spent three and a half years with Benf ...

likened him to

Lev Yashin Lev Ivanovich Yashin (russian: Лев Иванович Яшин; 22 October 1929 – 20 March 1990), nicknamed the "Black Spider" or the "Black Panther", was a Soviet professional footballer regarded by many as the greatest goalkeeper in the hi ...

. On 29 January 2019, Zlobin was called to the bench for Benfica's 5–1 home

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, ...

win over Boavista, as regular back-up

Mile Svilar Mile Svilar ( sr-cyr, Миле Свилар; born 27 August 1999) is a Serbian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Serie A club A.S. Roma, Roma and the Serbia national foo ...

was injured. Three days later he was promoted to the club's main team, alongside three other reserve players. He made his first-team debut in a goalless home draw to

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

in the

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

on 25 September.

Famalicão

Zlobin signed for fellow top-flight club Famalicão on 22 August 2020, on a five-year deal. He made his debut in the season opener on 18 September, a 5–1 home loss to his previous club. Brazilian Luiz Júnior then took his place as the starting goalkeeper. On 26 February 2022, two days after the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, Zlobin posed for photographs at the ''

Estádio Municipal 22 de Junho Estádio Municipal de Famalicão is a multi-use stadium in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home stadium of FC Famalicão who currently compete in the Primeira Liga, ...

'' in

Vila Nova de Famalicão Vila Nova de Famalicão () is a Portuguese town with a population of approximately 133,048 inhabitants () in an area of 201,59 km2, subdivided into 49 parishes (Administrative Division of 11 Unions of Parishes and 23 Parish Councils,). Insert ...

with a Ukrainian fan and the

flag of Ukraine The flag of Ukraine ( uk, Прапор України, Prapor Ukrainy) consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow. The blue and yellow bicolour first appeared during the 1848 Spring of Nations in Lemberg, then part of the ...

Honours

Benfica *

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 ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Benfica 5-0 Sporting Lisbon
Soccerway

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zlobin, Ivan 1997 births Living people People from Tyumen Russian footballers Association football goalkeepers PFC CSKA Moscow players U.D. Leiria players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers F.C. Famalicão players Russia youth international footballers Russian expatriate footballers Russian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Sportspeople from Tyumen Oblast