Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malafeev ( rus, Вячесла́в Алекса́ндрович Малафе́ев, p=vʲɪtɕɪˈslaf ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ məlɐˈfʲe(j)ɪf; born 4 March 1979) is a Russian football official and a former player who played 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 ...

. He is a one-club man, having spent all 17 of his professional seasons with Zenit. He worked as an assistant director of sports for Zenit from 2016 to 2020.

Club career

Vyacheslav Malafeev started attending the Smena football school at the age of nine. In 1997, he began to play for the farm club of

FC Zenit Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

, Zenit-2, in the Third Division. He got the chance to play for Zenit in the Premier League in 1999 during the suspension of Roman Berezovsky. Malafeev later became the first choice goalkeeper for Zenit in 2001, after Berezovsky left the club. Malafeev eventually became the first-choice goalkeeper ahead of

Kamil Čontofalský Kamil Čontofalský (; born 3 June 1978) is a former Slovak professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the North American Soccer League. Career Club Čontofalský spent four seasons with Bohemians 1905 ...

and won the

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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

after keeping a clean sheet against Rangers in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

International career

On 19 November 2003, Malafeev debuted as a goalkeeper for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

in a Euro 2004 qualifiers play-off against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. He was chosen as the second choice goalkeeper behind Sergei Ovchinnikov and ahead of

Igor Akinfeev Igor Vladimirovich Akinfeev ( rus, Игорь Владимирович Акинфеев, Igor' Vladimirovich Akinfeyev, p=ˈiɡərʲ vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ɐkʲɪnˈfʲe(j)ɪf; born 8 April 1986) is a Russian professional footballer who pla ...

. Malafeev participated in

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 football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

coming on after Ovchinnikov's red card against Portugal and starting against Greece. After Euro 2004, Malafeev, became the first choice goalkeeper for Russia succeeding Ovchinnikov. After a long-term injury in May 2005, Malafeev lost his place in the goal for Zenit and Russia to

and

, respectively. In 2007, played in two Euro 2008 qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia after Akinfeev's long-term injury but was relegated to the bench in favor of

Vladimir Gabulov Vladimir Borisovich Gabulov ( rus, Владимир Борисович Габулов, p=vlɐˈdʲimɪr bɐˈrʲisəvʲɪtɕ gɐˈbuləf, os, Гæбулты Борисы фырт Владимир, ''Gabulte Boriše fert Vlâdimir'', born 19 Oct ...

. After Zenit's successful UEFA Cup campaign he lost a narrow battle with Igor Akinfeev for the first choice goalkeeper spot in Russia's

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

squad. Nonetheless, he stayed on as the second choice goalkeeper ahead of Gabulov. He was the starting goalkeeper in the game that Russia lost to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

with a score of 1–7 in the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

qualifier. He was confirmed for the finalized

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

squad on 25 May 2012. After the

he announced that he is retiring from the national team to spend more time with his children, but is prepared to be called up in case of emergency such as injuries to other top goalkeepers.

Coaching career

In June 2020 it was announced that he was appointed to the management club of the

FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg is a Russian football club from Saint Petersburg, in Northwest Russia. Founded in 1922, the club was one of the oldest in the city. It plays in the third-tier Russian Football National League 2. They were a regular ...

Career statistics

Personal life

Vyacheslav and his wife Marina had two children: Ksenia and Maxim. Marina Malafeeva died in a car crash on the morning of 17 March 2011, aged 37. His second wife is Ekaterina Malafeeva, they married in December 2012 and broke up in September 2021. They also have a child named Alex.

Honours

Club

Zenit *

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 ...

: 2007, 2010, 2011–12, 2014–15 * Russian Cup: 1998–99, 2009–10 *

Russian Premier League Cup The Russian Premier League Cup was a football competition organized by Russian Premier League. This was a knockout competition for 16 teams of the Premier League. All ties, including the final, were two-legged. The winners of the Cup did not get an ...

: 2003 *

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 ...

, 2011 *

: 2007–08 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

International

Russia *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

bronze medalist:

References

External links

Profile at the official FC Zenit St. Petersburg website
* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malafeev, Vyacheslav 1979 births Footballers from Saint Petersburg Living people Russian footballers Russia under-21 international footballers Russia international footballers FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players UEFA Cup winning players UEFA Euro 2004 players Russian Premier League players UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2012 players Association football goalkeepers FC Zenit-2 Saint Petersburg players