Adam Umarovich Markhiyev (; born 17 March 2002) 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 lea ...

. He plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

club

Aris Limassol Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a professional Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the A ...

and the Finland U21 national team.

Early career

Markhiyev spent eight years in the youth sector of Jaro in

Pietarsaari Jakobstad (; , ) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Jakobstad is situated in Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Jakobstad is approximately , while the Jako ...

from 2009 to 2016, before joining the

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

youth academy in 2017.

Career

HJK Klubi 04

He made his senior debut with the HJK reserve team

Klubi 04 Klubi 04 is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. It is the reserve team of HJK Helsinki for whom a number of the players are also registered. History Klubi 04 was founded in 2004 when HJK bought FC Jokerit. Initially Klubi 04 played in K ...

in third-tier

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

in 2019 season, and played for the team until early 2021, making 23 league appearances and scoring two goals in total.

Spartaks Jūrmala

Markhiyev moved to

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and joined Spartaks Jūrmala in 2021, where his father Umar Markhiyev had previously worked as an assistant coach to Aleksei Yeremenko Sr. 2022: SPAL (loan)
He was loaned out to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club SPAL in the early 2022, but due to an injury, he didn't make an appearance for the first team and returned to

after the season.

RFS

After Spartaks Jūrmala were relegated, Markhiyev moved to

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

and signed with RFS ahead of the

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

season on a three-year deal with an option for an additional year, for an undisclosed fee. In his first season with the club, Markhiyev helped RFS to win the Latvian championship title. He also played with RFS in the

2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League was the third season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA. The 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final, final was ...

qualifying matches on four occasions. Markhiyev represented RFS in the

2024–25 UEFA Europa League The 2024–25 UEFA Europa League was the 54th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 16th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. This was the first season played under ...

, helping his side to qualify for the league phase. On 23 January 2025, in a Europa League match against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, Markhiyev scored the winning goal for RFS, in a 1–0 home win. With RFS, Markhiyev won two Latvian championship titles in

and

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. They also won the

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Gaming Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company ...

Aris Limassol

On 31 January 2025, Markhiyev signed a four-year contract with

club

International career

Markhiyev is a regular Finnish youth international, having represented Finland at various youth national team levels. Since 2021, Markhiyev has played for the Finland under-21 national team. He made ten appearances in the

2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification was a men's under-21 national football team competition that determined the 15 teams that joined the automatically qualified hosts Slovakia in the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship ...

campaign, helping Finland U21 to qualify for the

final tournament Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, for the second time in the nation's history.

Personal life

Markhiyev was born in

Nazran Nazran (; ) is the largest city in Ingushetia, Russia. It served as the republic's capital from 1991 to 2000, until it was replaced by Magas, which was built for this purpose. It is the most populous city in the republic: Etymology The name ...

in the Russian republic of

Ingushetia Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country o ...

, but moved to Finland with his family when he was 7 years old. His father Umar Markhiyev is a Russian football coach and a former player, and his brother Muslim Markhiyev plays football in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

for Kiffen. Markhiyev is a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

.Отец ингуша Мархиева, играющего за Финляндию: «Сын помнит и соблюдает все наши традиции»
sport24.ru, 3 February 2025

Career statistics

Honours

Aris Limassol *

runner-up: 2024–25 RFS *

Virslīga Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Football F ...

*Latvian Cup runner-up:

, *

Latvian Supercup The Latvian Supercup () is a one-match annual football competition. The two participating clubs are holders of the Latvian Higher League champions title and the Latvian Football Cup. The fixture is played before the start of the season. The fir ...

runner-up:

Klubi 04 *

Group B:

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markhiyev, Adam 2002 births Living people Russian emigrants to Finland Naturalized citizens of Finland Finnish people of Russian descent Finnish men's footballers 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Finland men's youth international footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Kakkonen players Latvian Higher League players Cypriot First Division players SPAL players FF Jaro players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Klubi 04 players FK Spartaks Jūrmala players FK RFS players Aris Limassol FC players Finnish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Latvia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Russian Muslims Finnish Muslims People from Nazran