Igor Alekseyevich Leshchuk (; born 20 February 1996) is a Russian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who plays as

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', , ) is a Russian professional association football, 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 Footba ...

Club career

He made his debut in the

Russian Professional Football League The Russian Second League (), formerly the Russian Professional Football League, are both the third (Division A) and fourth level (Division B) of Russian professional football. History In 1998–2010, it was run by the Professional Football Lea ...

for

FC Dynamo-2 Moscow FC Dynamo-2 Moscow () is a Russian football team from Moscow. It is the farm-club for FC Dynamo Moscow. History In 2016, it was revived after the parent club, Dynamo, was relegated from the Russian Football Premier League (which holds its own comp ...

on 28 August 2016 in a game against

FSK Dolgoprudny FC Olimp-Dolgoprudny () was a professional association football club from Dolgoprudny, Russia. It made its debut in the second-highest Russian Football National League in the 2021–22 season and was denied license by the Russian Football Union a ...

. 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

on 10 August 2019, when he had to come in for injured

Anton Shunin Anton Vladimirovich Shunin (; born 27 January 1987) is a Russian former association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Club career Shunin is a youth product of FC Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Moscow. He ...

in a game against

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (, ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, according to some Russian sources), the club p ...

. He started the next 6 games as Shunin was recovering (including 2 clean sheets) and won the Dynamo fans' vote for "player of the month" for August 2019. On 30 August 2021, he signed a new four-year contract with Dynamo. After another Shunin injury in September 2021, he kept clean sheet in 3 consecutive games and was voted as player of the month once again. On 15 March 2023, Leshchuk saved two penalty kicks in the shootout to eliminate Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg from the Russian Cup. He was voted player of the month by Dynamo fans for the third time for October 2023. On 18 January 2024, Leshchuk extended his contract with Dynamo to 2028. On 2 December 2024, Leshchuk scored a late added-time equalizer in a 1–1 away draw against

Akhmat 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 ...

, with a header after a corner kick. He became only the second goalkeeper in the history of the

(which was originally organized under a different name in 1992) to score a goal after Andrei Novosadov in 2001, and the first to not score it from a penalty kick (like Novosadov did). Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, best Russian clubs participated in the

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

, and on all occasions in that league when goalkeepers scored a goal, it was from a penalty kick. Thus Leshchuk became the first ever goalkeeper in the history of Russian football to score a non-penalty-kick goal in a top-tier club league.

Career statistics

References

External links

* 1996 births Footballers from Moscow Living people Russian men's footballers Russia men's youth international footballers Russia men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers FC Dynamo Moscow players Russian Premier League players Russian First League players Russian Second League players 21st-century Russian sportsmen {{Russia-footy-goalkeeper-stub