Brian Oladapo Idowu (; born 18 May 1992) 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 ...

who plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Born in Russia, he plays for the Nigeria national team.

Club career

Born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

to a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

father and a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

mother, Idowu moved to

Owerri Owerri ( , ) is the capital city of Imo State in Nigeria, set in the heart of Igboland. It is also the state's largest city, followed by Orlu, Nigeria, Orlu, Okigwe and Ohaji/Egbema. Owerri consists of three Local Government Areas of Nigeria, Loc ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

at early age, and later moved back to Russia. He made his

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

debut for

FC Amkar Perm FC Amkar Perm ( ) is a professional association football, football club. Originally founded in 1994, it is based in the city of Perm, Russia, Perm. It was a participant in second-tier football from 1995 and in the Russian Premier League from 2004 ...

on 6 May 2012 in a game against

FC Terek Grozny Republican Football Club Akhmat (; ), commonly known as Akhmat Grozny, and formerly as Terek Grozny from 1958 to 2017, is a Russian professional football club based in Grozny that plays in the Russian Premier League. History The club was foun ...

. After a loan spell with Dynamo St Petersburg during the 2013–14 season, Idowu signed a new 3-year deal with Amkar on 30 June 2014, extending his contract again in February 2017 until the summer of 2020.

Lokomotiv Moscow

On 10 July 2018, he signed a 3-year contract with

FC Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (, ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three occasions; the Soviet Cup twice; and the Russian Cup (football), Russian Cup a record ...

Khimki

On 7 August 2020, he joined

Khimki Khimki (, ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is located approximately northwest from central Moscow, and is part of the Moscow metropolitan area. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station that had existed sin ...

on loan for the 2020–21 season. On 7 June 2021, he moved to Khimki on a permanent basis, signing a 2-year contract with an additional 1-year extension option. He left Khimki in July 2023.

International career

In November 2017, Idowu was called up to the

national team for their friendly against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

on 14 November 2017. Idowu made his debut against Argentina on 14 November, coming on as a half-time substitute for Ola Aina, and scoring Nigeria's third goal in a 4-2 win. In May 2018 he was named in Nigeria's preliminary 23-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

in Russia.

Personal life

Idowu's father is Nigerian and his mother is half-Russian, half-Nigerian. He was born and raised in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, except for a period when he was aged 3 to 6 when he lived in

. Idowu speaks perfect Russian and acted as a makeshift translator of the Nigerian national team at news conference ahead of a fixture in Krasnodar in November 2017.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

Club

;Lokomotiv Moscow * Russian Cup: 2018–19 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Idowu, Brian 1992 births Footballers from Saint Petersburg Nigerian people of Russian descent Russian people of Nigerian descent Russian people of Yoruba descent Yoruba sportspeople Living people Russian men's footballers Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers Men's association football defenders FC Amkar Perm players FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg players FC Lokomotiv Moscow players FC Khimki players Russian Premier League players Russian First League players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 21st-century Russian sportsmen 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen