Artjoms Rudņevs (born 13 January 1988) is a Latvian former professional footballer who played as a striker for Daugava Daugavpils in his home country, for Zalaegerszegi TE in Hungary, for Lech Poznań in Poland, and for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

clubs

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

, Hannover 96, and 1. FC Köln. At international level, he represented the Latvia national team.

Club career

Early career and ZTE

Rudņevs started his career with his local club FC Daugava in Daugavpils, where he played until February 2009, when he signed a contract with the Hungarian club Zalaegerszegi TE. However, the previous contract with Daugava was still active, so

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

was involved in resolving the conflict. In May 2009, he made his debut in Hungary, where he played for three seasons, scoring 20 goals in 30 league matches.

Lech Poznań

In July 2010, rumors circulated that the Ekstraklasa club Lech Poznań were interested in signing him. These rumors were subsequently confirmed and Rudņevs joined the club on trial. After a successful trial at the club and after passing the medical tests, Lech started talks with ZTE regarding a permanent transfer. The clubs initially could not agree on the transfer fee and, when it was finally decided, the Polish team was unable to negotiate personal terms with Rudnevs. It seemed that the talks were over but in August, after Rudņevs had scored two goals in the season opener, Lech reopened discussions. This time talks were successful and Rudņevs signed a four-year contract with the Polish side.

2010–11 season

He scored in his debut for Lech Poznań against Widzew Łódź. He added three more goals in five consecutive matches, the last of these the winning goal on 11 September 2010. Just five days later he scored a hat-trick against Juventus in the Europa League, the first goal a coolly slotted penalty, the second a scissors kick from three yards out, and the third a long-range equalizer deep into injury time. Rudņevs stated that it was "the best match of his career so far". By the end of the Polish Ekstraklasa season, Rudņevs managed to score 11 goals in 27 matches to finish fourth in the league. On 1 December 2010, he scored yet again against Juventus, saying afterwards that Juventus' goalkeeper Alexander Manninger was his "favourite goalkeeper to play against". The match ended 1–1, a result that allowed Lech to progress to the next round, and eliminated Juventus. In the first match against SC Braga in the last 16 of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, Rudņevs scored a goal as Lech won 1–0. However, in the second match Lech lost 2–0 and were knocked out of the Europa League. With five goals in the Europa League, Rudņevs became the fourth top scorer, sharing this achievement with four other players.

2011–12 season

By December 2011, Rudnevs was the Polish league's leading marksman, having scored 18 goals in 17 league matches. Rudņevs was named the best player of 2011 in the Ekstraklasa by the Polish Footballers' Association. Rudņevs finished the season with a league-leading 22 goals in 29 matches. On 8 May 2012, the German

team

agreed on a transfer at the end of the 2011–12 season. On 11 May, the transfer was officially confirmed by both clubs.

Hamburger SV

In the 2012–13 season, Rudņevs became the first Latvian football player in the

started the season with three consecutive losses with Rudņevs gaining only one assist. Rudņevs scored his first goal in the

on 26 September 2012 in a 2–2 draw against

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

. In his first season with Hamburg Rudņevs appeared in 34 league matches, scored 12 goals with four assists, finishing as Hamburg's joint top scorer alongside Son Heung-Min, who also netted 12 times. However, his form dropped, and Rudņevs lost his place in the starting eleven early in the 2013–14 Bundesliga season.

1. FC Köln

On 15 June 2016, it was announced that Rudņevs had joined 1. FC Köln on a free transfer. On 29 September 2017, the club announced it had agreed to terminate Rudnev's contract and that he would end his career.

International career

Rudņevs was first called up to the national side on 12 November 2008 for the friendly match against

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. He started this match in the first eleven. Rudņevs also played for the U-21 side. He was called up to the national side again in January 2010 for the friendly match against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Rudņevs started the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying matches in the first eleven alongside Māris Verpakovskis, putting Ģirts Karlsons on the bench. On 7 October 2011, he scored his first international goal in the 2–0 victory over Malta in a Euro 2012 qualifying match.

Personal life and controversy

Rudņevs is married and has a daughter born in 2011. Rudņevs provoked controversy in his native Latvia after switching to using "Rudnev" on the back of his jersey for his second season at Lech, indicating his Russian ethnicity. He also drew the ire of his national team captain, Kaspars Gorkšs, when he stated that he would not learn the Latvian language in addition to Russian. Gorkšs wrote an open letter criticizing Rudņevs for the statement.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Daugavpils Daugava * Latvian Football Cup: 2008 Zalaegerszegi TE * Magyar Kupa runner-up: 2009–10 Lech Poznań * Polish Cup runner-up: 2010–11 Latvia * Baltic Cup: 2016 Individual * Ekstraklasa Polish Footballers' Association's Player of the Year: 2011 * Ekstraklasa top scorer: 2011–12 * Polish Cup top scorer: 2010–11 * Ekstraklasa Player of the Month: September 2011 * Latvian Rising Star of the Year: 2010

References

External links

* *
Hlsz.hu profile

zte.hu profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rudnevs, Artjoms Living people 1988 births Latvian people of Russian descent Footballers from Daugavpils Men's association football forwards Latvian men's footballers 21st-century Latvian sportsmen Latvia men's international footballers FC Daugava players Zalaegerszegi TE players Lech Poznań players Hamburger SV players Hannover 96 players 1. FC Köln players Ekstraklasa players Bundesliga players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Germany