Fyodor Mikhaylovich Smolov ( rus, Фёдор Миха́йлович Смо́лов, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ˈsmoləf, links=yes; born 9 February 1990) is a Russian 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 striker.

Club career

Smolov is a graduate of the Master-Saturn Yegoryevsk football academy. In 2007, he joined

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (), is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first institution created from the All-Union Dynamo Sports Club. Dynamo Mosco ...

. 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 Dynamo on 28 April 2007 in a game against

FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok FC Luch Vladivostok () was an association football club based in Vladivostok. In 2005, Luch won the Russian First Division and played in the Premier League from 2006 to 2008. The club was called Luch-Energiya from 2003 to 2018, when it was rena ...

, at the age of 17, as a last-minute substitute for Cícero. Despite scoring prolifically for the national junior teams and Dynamo's own Under-21 squad, he only scored one goal for the senior team in the next 3.5 seasons and only started in 11 games up to that point. On 14 July 2010, the club announced that Smolov would join

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

on a one-year loan deal. Returning from loan, Smolov started 2011–12 season as a squad player, but after 9 matchdays his impact was limited to substitute appearances. So he was loaned again, this time to

Anzhi Makhachkala Football Club Anzhi Makhachkala (, ), known simply as FC Anji, was a Russian professional football club based in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala. Founded in 1991, the club last competed in the third-tier Russian Football National League 2. ...

- initially for whole 2012–13 season, and then for the second part of 2013–14 season.

Loan to Ural

On 1 September 2014, Smolov joined Ural Yekaterinburg on a season-long loan deal. Two weeks later, on his new club debut, he scored a goal in a 1–2 away loss to

Amkar Perm FC Amkar Perm ( ) is a professional football club. Originally founded in 1994, it is based in the city of Perm. It was a participant in second-tier football from 1995 and in the Russian Premier League from 2004 to 2018, after which it was dissol ...

. He provided 8 goals and 2 assists in 22 league appearances for Ural.

Krasnodar

On 2 June 2015, Smolov signed a four-year contract with the

club

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 ...

as a free agent. He made his competitive debut for his new club in a 1–0 away victory over Amkar Perm in his first league match on 20 July 2015, and scored his first goal in a 3–3 draw against Slovan Bratislava in 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 ...

third qualifying round on 6 August. On 10 April 2016, Smolov scored four goals in Krasnodar's 6–0 victory over his former club Ural Yekaterinburg. With 20 goals in 29 games, he became the top scorer of the

2015–16 Russian Premier League The 2015–16 Russian Premier League was the 24th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 14th under the current Russian Premier League name. Zenit Saint Petersburg came into the sea ...

season, and he is the first Krasnodar player who achieved this title. He repeated as top scorer in the

2016–17 Russian Premier League The 2016–17 Russian Premier League was the 25th season of the premier league football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 15th under the current Russian Premier League name. CSKA Moscow came into the season as ...

, scoring 18 times. In the

2017–18 Russian Premier League The 2017–18 Russian Premier League was the 26th season of the premier Association football, football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 16th under the current Russian Premier League name. FC Spartak Moscow, S ...

, he came in second with 14 goals to

Quincy Promes Quincy Anton Promes (born 4 January 1992) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward. He is currently appealing criminal convictions for aggravated assault and drug trafficking. Promes started his career with Twente i ...

' 15.

Lokomotiv Moscow

On 9 August 2018, he joined the

champion

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 ...

Loan to Celta

On 30 January 2020, he joined Spanish club

Celta Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was foun ...

on loan until the end of the 2019–20 season. He scored his first goal for the new club on 16 February 2020 at

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

in a 2–2 away draw. Smolov scored the second goal of his loan spell in a 2–2 draw with

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

on 27 June.

Return to Lokomotiv

On 12 May 2021, he scored the go-ahead goal in the 2021 Russian Cup Final against Krylia Sovetov. He won his third trophy at Lokomotiv and also became the tournament's joint-top scorer with 4 goals, along with teammate

François Kamano François Kamano (born 2 May 1996) is a Guinean professional footballer who plays as a striker or left winger for Saudi Pro League club Damac and the Guinea national team. Club career Bastia Kamano made his professional debut with Bastia on 9 ...

Return to Dynamo

On 12 January 2022, Dynamo announced the signing of Fyodor from Lokomotiv, making him return to the first club in his professional career. Also the Moscow club disclosed that the term of the contract is 1.5 years plus an additional optional year. On 26 February 2022, in his first competitive game back with Dynamo, he scored the opening goal of the 3–0 victory over

FC Khimki FC Khimki () was a Russian professional football club based in Khimki. History The team was formed in 1996 by merging two amateur clubs from Khimki, Rodina, and Novator. Khimki entered the amateur league and played their first official match on ...

, 11 years after he last scored for Dynamo. On 31 May 2023, Smolov extended his contract with Dynamo for the 2023–24 season, with an option for the 2024–25 season.

Return to Krasnodar

On 18 June 2024, Smolov returned to

on a one-year contract. On 24 May 2025, he won the Russian Premier League title for the first time in his career. Smolov left Krasnodar on 27 May 2025.

International career

Smolov was part of the Russia Under-21 side that was competing in the 2011 European Under-21 Championship qualification. He was an important factor in the U-21 team qualifying for the

2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, or simply the 2013 Euro Under-21, was the 19th staging of UEFA's UEFA European Under-21 Championship, European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Israel from 5–18 June 2013. The Is ...

in the next cycle, scoring three goals in the qualification play-offs against

the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. On 6 November 2012,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

manager

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, AS Roma, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus FC, Juventus. H ...

included Smolov in the squad for a friendly game against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. During the game, he made his debut and scored his first goal for the national team, netting the opener in a 2–2 home draw on 14 November. Smolov scored his first competitive goal for the national team in a 7–0 away victory against

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

in a Euro 2016 qualifier on 8 September 2015. He was subsequently included in Russia's squad 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 ...

in France, where he started in all three matches as Russia finished 4th in

group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

. In the opening match of the

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup was the tenth and final edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, a quadrennial international men's Association football, football tournament organised by FIFA. It was held in Russia, from 17 June to 2 July 2017, ...

against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

on 17 June at

Krestovsky Stadium Krestovsky Stadium, known as Gazprom Arena for sponsorship reasons (), is a retractable roof stadium with a retractable pitch in the western portion of Krestovsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which serves as home for FC Zenit Saint Peter ...

, Smolov scored Russia's second goal in a 2–0 win and was Man of the Match. On 3 June 2018, he was included in the finalized World Cup squad. He started the tournament-opener game against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and appeared as a substitute in every subsequent game. He scored the opening penalty kick in the shoot-out that helped Russia defeat

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the Round of 16, but had his shot saved by Danijel Subašić in the quarterfinal shoot-out which Russia lost to

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. On 11 May 2021, he was named as a back-up player for Russia's

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

squad.

Personal life

Smolov is fluent in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and has read

Mario Puzo Mario Francis Puzo (; ; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably ''The Godfather (novel), The Godfather'' (1969), which h ...

's books in the original language. From 2012, he was in a relationship with Russian model and TV hostess

Victoria Lopyreva Victoria Petrovna Lopyreva (; born 26 July 1983) is a Russian television presenter, actress, model, blogger, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Russia 2003. She was an official ambassador of the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia. As ...

. The couple got married in December 2013 but then divorced in May 2015. He has supported

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

since the 1997–98 season and once cited

George Weah George Manneh Oppong Weah (born 1 October 1966) is a Liberian politician and former professional Association football, footballer who served as the 25th president of Liberia from 2018 to 2024. Before his election for the presidency, Weah served ...

and

Andriy Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (, ; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian former Manager (association football), football manager and Football player, player. Shevchenko is considered one of the greatest Striker (association football), strik ...

as his childhood favorite players. On 1 August 2018, Smolov crashed his

BMW M5 The BMW M5 is a super high-performance variant of the BMW 5 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand. It is considered an iconic vehicle in the sports saloon category. The M5 has always been produced in the saloon (sedan, US English) body s ...

into a

traffic barrier Traffic barriers (known in North America as guardrails or guard rails, in Britain as crash barriers, and in auto racing as Armco barriers AK Steel (formerly Armco) genericized trademark) keep vehicles within their roadway and prevent them from co ...

in Krasnodar. He was later fined and had his driver's license suspended for one year for leaving the scene of the accident. On April 5, 2020 Smolov broke Spain's coronavirus protocols to return to Russia to celebrate the 18th birthday of his

fiancee An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...

Maria Yumasheva, the granddaughter of

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

. He is the first Russian footballer to speak out against the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

on 24 February 2022. In June 2023 Smolov married DJ and blogger Karina Istomina. On the 15th of November of the same year the couple had a daughter named Laura.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Russia's goal tally first.''

Honours

;Lokomotiv Moscow * Russian Cup: 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

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 ...

Krasnodar *

: 2024–25 ;Individual * Russian Premier League top goalscorer: 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Footballer of the Year in Russia (Sport-Express) Footballer of the Year in Russia is an annual award given by '' Sport-Express'' daily to the Russian Premier League player of the season. The title is awarded according to the results of a poll conducted by the newspaper. 11 players of each Premie ...

: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smolov, Fyodor 1990 births Footballers from Saratov Living people FC Dynamo Moscow players Russian men's footballers Russia men's international footballers Russia men's youth international footballers Russia men's under-21 international footballers Russian Premier League players Feyenoord players Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Russian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Russian expatriate men's footballers Eredivisie players FC Anzhi Makhachkala players FC Ural Yekaterinburg players FC Krasnodar players FC Lokomotiv Moscow players RC Celta de Vigo players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Men's association football wingers Men's association football forwards UEFA Euro 2016 players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 21st-century Russian sportsmen