Yevgeni Starikov, also known as Eugene Starikov (russian: Евгений Валерьевич Стариков; born November 17, 1988) is an American former professional soccer player who plays as a

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 ...

Club career

Early years

Starikov was born in Odessa,

USSR 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 nationa ...

and grew up in

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

where he played for Edison High School, San Diego Surf, and Irvine Strikers. He transferred to Florida before his junior year, where he was the Pinellas County scoring champion twice and led the Palm Harbor University High School Hurricanes to a victory in the 2006 FHSAA 5A Championship. He spent two years at

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

and played one season for the

Bradenton Academics IMG Academy Bradenton is an American soccer team based in Bradenton, Florida, United States. Founded in 1998, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team is associated with IMG Academy and the ...

in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syst ...

Professional

Starikov was signed by Zenit in the Russian Premier League before the 2009 season. On March 17, 2017, Starikov returned to the United States and signed for NASL side

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...

. On February 6, 2018 Starikov joined the

Indy Eleven Indy Eleven is an American professional soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 2013, the team made its debut in the North American Soccer League in 2014, before moving to the United Soccer League in 2018. The franchise plays it ...

of the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

International career

On January 7, 2011, Starikov was called up to the United States national team for a friendly game against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Career statistics

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Starikov, Eugene 1988 births Living people Ukrainian emigrants to the United States American soccer players American expatriate soccer players American people of Russian descent Expatriate footballers in Russia American expatriate sportspeople in Russia Stetson Hatters men's soccer players IMG Academy Bradenton players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Tom Tomsk players FC Rostov players New York Cosmos (2010) players Indy Eleven players Footballers from Odesa USL League Two players Russian Premier League players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players USL Championship players FC Chornomorets Odesa players Ukrainian Premier League players Expatriate footballers in Ukraine American expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Association football forwards National Premier Soccer League players Association football midfielders