Yuriy Valeryevich Nikiforov (alternate spelling Valeriovych; , uk, Юрій Валерійович Никифоров; born 16 September 1970) is a professional football coach and a former player who played mainly as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Born in Odessa,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, Soviet Union, Nikiforov started playing professionally with hometown's FC Chornomorets. After one year with FC Dynamo Kyiv in which he appeared solely for the reserves he returned to his first club, playing in the inaugural edition of 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' ...

. In early 1993, Nikiforov moved to Russia 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 Dyn ...

, being an instrumental defensive unit as the capital side won three out of four

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

titles, with the player also netting regularly. His first abroad experience came with

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, ...

, to where he arrived at the same time as former compatriot

Dmitri Cheryshev Dmitri Nikolayevich Cheryshev (russian: Дмитрий Николаевич Черышев; born 11 May 1969) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a forward, and a manager. He is the manager of Andorran club Santa Coloma. ...

(he would also share team with another Russian while in

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

Igor Lediakhov Igor Anatolyevich Lediakhov (russian: Игорь Анатольевич Ледяхов; born 22 May 1968) is a Russian football coach and a former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He played for almost a decade in Spain, mainly for ...

). After Gijón's

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

, Nikiforov played five years in the Netherlands, starting with

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

which he helped to consecutive

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

accolades. For 2002–03, the 32-year-old signed with lowly

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

also in the Dutch top level, with the club finishing in a comfortable ninth place. He finished his career in Japan, after one year with

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

International career

Nikiforov played four times for the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

in 1992, as the national team that rose from the ashes of the Soviet Union took part in that year's

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 ...

– he did not make the squad for the finals. His debut came on 25 January in a 1–0 friendly with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, in Miami. After briefly representing

, also in that year, Nikiforov switched to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, with which he would participate in two

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s –

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 sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

and 2002 – as well as

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

(eight matches in total, but with the national side always exiting in the group stage). In 2009, Nikiforov was part of the Russian squad that won the Legends Cup.

Coaching career

After retiring, he became a coach, following his former PSV teammate Dmitri Khokhlov as an assistant to

FC Kuban Krasnodar FC Kuban (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Кубань" Краснодар) was a Russian football club based in Krasnodar. The team began playing in the Russian Premier League in 2011, after it was promoted for winning the R ...

and

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 Foot ...

in the

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 ...

. On 12 August 2022, he was hired as an assistant to

Valeri Karpin Valery Georgiyevich Karpin (russian: Валерий Георгиевич Карпин; born 2 February 1969) is a football manager and former player who manages FC Rostov and the Russian national team. He is a former midfielder, primarily a r ...

in the

Russia national football team The Russia national football team (russian: Сборная России по футболу, Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents the Russian Federation in men's international association football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Uni ...

Personal life

Nikiforov's older brother, Oleksandr, was also a footballer. He too represented Chornomorets (four different spells), and coincided with Yuri from 1989–90.

Career statistics

Club

National team

Honours

Club

Chornomorets Odesa *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

(1): 1992 Spartak Moscow *

Russian Football 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 ...

(3): 1993, 1994, 1996 * Russian Cup (1): 1994 PSV Eindhoven *

(2): 1999–2000, 2000–01 * Johan Cruyff Shield (3):

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 s ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2001

Country

Soviet Union * FIFA U-16 World Cup (1):

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

UEFA European Under-18 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

(1):

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

Russia * Legends Cup (2): 2009, 2010

References

External links

RussiaTeam biography and profile
*

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nikiforov, Yuriy 1970 births Living people Ukrainian emigrants to Russia Naturalised citizens of Russia Footballers from Odesa Soviet footballers Ukrainian footballers Russian footballers Association football defenders Soviet Top League players Soviet Second League players Ukrainian Premier League players Russian Premier League players Russian Second League players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Chornomorets Odesa players SKA Odesa players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Spartak-2 Moscow players La Liga players Sporting de Gijón players Eredivisie players PSV Eindhoven players RKC Waalwijk players J1 League players Urawa Red Diamonds players Soviet Union under-21 international footballers Soviet Union international footballers Ukraine international footballers Russia international footballers Dual internationalists (football) 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Russian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Russian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Japan Russian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Russian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Russian football managers Russian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Kazakhstan Russian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan