Roman Alekseyevich Eremenko (russian: Роман Алексеевич Ерёменко; born 19 March 1987) is a 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 as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

who plays for

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

in the

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkau ...

. Eremenko is best known for his time at

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Union, Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dynamo Sports Soc ...

, winning the

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League'') ...

title in 2009, and playing in the Champions League and

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. He served a two-year ban for

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

use from October 2016 to October 2018. Prior to his ban, Eremenko also played regularly for the Finland national team. He made his international debut in June 2007 at the age of 20, having moved to Finland from Russia as a child.

Club career

Jaro

Eremenko's career on senior level started when he made his

debut for Jaro in 2004 at the age of 17 when coach

Hannu Touru Hannu Touru (born 1952) is a Finnish Association football, football Manager (association football), manager. In 1991, Touru was elected as the Finnish Football Manager of the Year, manager of the year by the Finnish Football Association. He still ...

used him as a substitute in a match against MYPA on 29 June 2004. In that match Eremenko appeared on the pitch at the same time with his father Alexei Eremenko Sr. who played for the whole match as a midfielder. Eremenko scored his first goal on senior level on 18 September 2004 in a match against

FC Lahti FC Lahti is a Finnish football club based in the city of Lahti. It currently plays in the Finnish Premier League (''Veikkausliiga'') after placing first in the Finnish First Division (''Ykkönen'') during season 2011. The homeground of FC Lah ...

. He made six appearances for Jaro in his first season. During season 2004 he was also loaned to Finnish Second Division club Jakobstads BK and to Finnish First Division club

GBK Kokkola Gamlakarleby Bollklubb is a Finnish football club from Kokkola (''Gamlakarleby'' in Swedish). It currently plays in the Finnish Second Division (''Kakkonen''), which is the third-highest level in Finnish football. GBK play their home games at ...

. He made his break through in Jaro during season 2005 when he became a regular in the starting eleven. He gained 13 caps and was in the starting line-up 10 times. In those 13 matches he scored two goals.

Udinese

In the summer of 2005 Eremenko signed a five-year deal with

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

. He made his

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 ...

debut on the first day of the 2006–07 season against

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

. He became the fourth Finnish footballer after

Mika Aaltonen Mika Aaltonen (born 16 November 1965) is a Finnish former footballer. His position was an attacking central midfielder. He also played for the Finnish national team. During his career (1982–1994) he played in Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Ger ...

Mika Lehkosuo Mika "Bana" Lehkosuo (born 8 January 1970) is a Finland, Finnish manager (association football), football manager and former midfielder, and working as a coach for Finland national under-21 football team, Finland U-21 national team. Playing care ...

and his brother Alexei Eremenko Jr to make an appearance in a

match. He was loaned to A.C. Siena on 31 January 2007, where he played 11 games. During the summer of 2007 he returned to Udinese. In October 2007, Eremenko,

Andrea Dossena Andrea Dossena (; born 11 September 1981) is an Italian football coach and former player who played as a left winger or left back. He is the head coach of Renate. Dossena started his professional career at Verona in 2001, having progressed thro ...

Cristián Zapata Cristián Eduardo Zapata Valencia (born 30 September 1986) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Atlético Nacional. A quick and physically powerful defender, known for his hard marking of opponents and strength ...

, and

Simone Pepe Simone Pepe (; born 30 August 1983) is an Italian former footballer who played as a winger, on either side of the pitch. After starting out at Roma, he went on to compete in Serie A for 12 seasons, spending most of his time at Udinese and Juven ...

were awarded new contracts until June 2012.

Dynamo Kyiv

In August 2008, he was loaned to

FC Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was offici ...

, until 31 May 2009. On 22 May 2009, he signed permanently with Dynamo Kyiv until 2014. During his three years at Dynamo, Eremenko established himself as one of the leaders of the team. Eremenko debuted in the Champions League on 17 September 2008, in a home game against

Arsenal FC Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (inclu ...

. That week, he also scored his first goal in the

, netting a pass from

Tiberiu Ghioane Tiberiu Ghioane (born 18 June 1981) is a Romanian former professional footballer. He played most of his career for Dynamo Kyiv as a defensive midfielder before retiring from football in July 2011. Club career Ghioane was born in Târgu Secuiesc. ...

on the 8th minute of a game against

Chornomorets Odessa FC Chornomorets Odesa ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Odesa. The club's home ground is the 34,164 capacity Chornomorets Stadium opened in 1935 and rebuilt in 2011. According to the club's website, it was formed in 1936 a ...

. Eremenko scored his first goal in the Champions League on 10 December 2008 on Fenerbahçe. During the 2009–10 season, he took part in a total of 35 official matches for Dynamo, 26 of which were in the Ukrainian championship, and scored 1 goal. In the 2010–11 season, besides continuing his successful performance for Dynamo domestically, Eremenko became the top assistant of the

. After a total of three years of playing for Dynamo, Eremenko played in a total of 127 official games, and scored seven goals. He also won the 2008–09 Ukrainian Premier League, and the

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competiti ...

s in 2009 and 2011.

Rubin Kazan

In the last stages of the summer transfer window in 2011, Eremenko signed with Russian club

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (russian: Футбо́льный клуб Руби́н Каза́нь, ''Futbolny klub Rubin Kazan'' , Tatar: Рубин Казан) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the second-tier ...

for a reported fee of 13M €, which is the highest transfer fee ever paid for a Finnish player. His older brother Alexei also signed a contract with Rubin Kazan in August 2011. On 26 November Roman scored his first goal for Rubin, in a 2–0 home victory over

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

. On 9 May 2012, he scored the game's only goal in the Russian Cup final.

CSKA Moscow

After leaving Rubin Kazan in the summer of 2014, Eremenko signed a four-year contract with

PFC CSKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (russian: link=yes, Профессиональный футбольный клуб – ЦСКА, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English l ...

on 25 August 2014. He was selected as the Best Player of October and December 2014 and March 2015 in the Russian Football Premier League. He won the Russian Football Premier League MVP of the season 2014–15 award. On 6 October 2016,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

announced that Eremenko had been handed a 30-day ban from football by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

. On 18 November 2016, UEFA announced that Roman had been handed a two-year ban from UEFA competitions due to testing positive for cocaine. In December 2016, FIFA extended Eremenko's ban to all football competitions. His appeal was rejected by UEFA and the ban was upheld on 6 March 2017.

Spartak Moscow

On 10 August 2018, Eremenko signed with

FC Spartak Moscow FC Spartak Moscow (russian: Футбольный клуб «Спартак» Москва, Futbolʹnyy klub «Spartak» Moskva, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Having won 12 Soviet championships (second only to Dyna ...

, joining his younger brother Sergei at the team. His father Alexei Eremenko Sr. also played for Spartak. His disqualification expired on 6 October 2018 and he made his debut on 7 October against Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. Spartak released him from his contract on 8 January 2019.

Rostov

On 18 January 2019,

FC Rostov FC Rostov (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб Ростов) is a Russian professional football club based in Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast. The club are members of the Russian Premier League, and play at the Rostov Arena. After the 20 ...

announced the signing of Eremenko on a 2.5-year contract. Rostov (called FC Rostselmash at the time) was the first club of Roman's father, Alexei Eremenko Sr. In his third game for Rostov on 16 March 2019, he scored twice in the last 10 minutes to give his club a 2–0 away victory over

. On 14 June 2019, Rostov announced that Eremenko had extended his contract with the club for four years. On 23 February 2021, Eremenko left Rostov by mutual consent.

HIFK

On 28 July 2022, Eremenko joined

club

for the rest of the 2022 season.

International career

Eremenko made his international debut in the Finland national team at

Helsinki Olympic Stadium The Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( fi, Helsingin Olympiastadion; sv, Helsingfors Olympiastadion), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used f ...

on 6 June 2007 in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualification match against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

when

Roy Hodgson Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is a former English football manager and player. He managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstads BK in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to th ...

chose him to the starting line up. The game was interrupted for six minutes after a

Eurasian eagle-owl The Eurasian eagle-owl (''Bubo bubo'') is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Palearctic, Eurasia. It is also called the Uhu and it is occasionally abbreviated to just the eagle-owl in Europe. It is one of the largest species of owl, ...

intruded the playing pitch. This incident earned the Finland team their current nickname, The Eagle Owls. Eremenko has been a regular member for Finland ever since and he was a key player in Finland's qualification campaigns for

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

and

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

. He scored his first goal for Finland from

penalty spot The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 16.5m (18 yd) to each side of the goal and 16.5m (18 yd) in front of it. Wit ...

on 3 March 2010 in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

Personal life

Roman Eremenko is married to Marika Eremenko and has three children. Eremenko moved to Finland with his family at the age of three when his father, former

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Footb ...

and

player Alexei Eremenko Sr., came to play in Finland with

FF Jaro FF Jaro is a Finnish football club, based in the bilingual town of Jakobstad. It currently plays in ''Ykkönen''. Home matches are played at the Jakobstads Centralplan. Current squad ''Updated 7 March, 2022.'' Managem ...

. He was granted Finnish citizenship in 2003, but still holds a Russian passport as well, Eremenko is the younger brother of Alexei Eremenko Jr and the older brother of

Sergei Eremenko Sergei Eremenko (russian: Сергей Алексеевич Ерёменко; born 6 January 1999) is a Finnish football player who plays for HIFK. Club career Eremenko made his professional debut in the Veikkausliiga for FF Jaro on 6 July 2014 ...

. His father took over as manager in Jaro in August 2009. In 2016 he was suspended for two years because of doping after failing a doping test. He tested positive for

based on a sample done by

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Eremenko goal''.

Honours

Dynamo Kyiv *

: 2008–09 *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Rubin Kazan * Russian Cup: 2011–12 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

CSKA Moscow *

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 ...

: 2015–16 Individual *Finnish Football Association Player of the Year: 2011, 2014 *Finnish Sports' Journalists Player of the Year: 2011, 2014, 2015 *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

most assists leading to a goal in tournament phase: 2010–11 *Russian League MVP of the season: 2014–15 *

Player of the Month: October 2014, December 2014, March 2015

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eremenko, Roman 1987 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Russian footballers Finnish footballers Finland international footballers Finnish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Association football midfielders Udinese Calcio players A.C.N. Siena 1904 players Veikkausliiga players Serie A players Ukrainian Premier League players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FF Jaro players Russian-speaking Finns Finnish people of Russian descent Finnish people of Ukrainian descent Russian people of Ukrainian descent Russian Premier League players Soviet emigrants to Finland FC Rubin Kazan players Expatriate footballers in Russia PFC CSKA Moscow players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Rostov players HIFK Fotboll players Doping cases in association football Finnish sportspeople in doping cases Russian sportspeople in doping cases Naturalized citizens of Finland GBK Kokkola players