Igor Mihailovich Shalimov (; born 2 February 1969) 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 ...

manager and former player who is the manager of Fakel Voronezh. During his playing career, he played 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 ...

, primarily in the wide position.

Playing career

Shalimov started his playing career in Spartak Moscow. After a few seasons with Spartak Moscow he transferred to

Foggia Foggia (, ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere delle Puglie, Tavoliere, also know ...

in Italy. He then transferred to

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

. He has also played in the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

for

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, Udinese and

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

, as well as

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jer ...

in Germany and FC Lugano in Switzerland. He was a member of the USSR national team which participated in the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

. After the dissolution of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, he represented the unified CIS team at the European Championship held in Sweden. He was one of a number of players who refused to play for then-coach Pavel Sadyrin at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

. Two years later, in 1996, he was a member of the Russia national team for the European Championship held in England. Shalimov ended his playing career in Napoli after being banned for two years for testing positive for

nandrolone Nandrolone, also known as 19-nortestosterone, is an endogenous androgen. It is also an anabolic steroid (AAS) which is medically used in the form of esters such as nandrolone decanoate (brand name Deca-Durabolin) and nandrolone phenylpropionate ...

, a banned anabolic steroid substance. He has claimed that an anabolic containing nandrolone was given to him while he was hospitalized in Moscow, to stop an internal bleeding.

Managerial career

Shalimov was appointed manager of Russia women's national team in 2008, before being promoted to deputy sporting director for national teams and selection at the Russian Football Union in 2011. He was dismissed as the manager of FC Krasnodar on 2 April 2018. On 5 June 2018, he signed a two-year contract with

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 ...

. He left Khimki on 2 April 2019, with the team in 14th place and three points above the relegation zone. On 30 September 2019, he was hired by

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 ...

club Akhmat Grozny. He left Akhmat on 26 July 2020 as his contract expired. On 10 August 2021, he was hired by Russian Premier League club Ural Yekaterinburg. Shalimov was dismissed by Ural on 8 August 2022 after losing the first 4 games in the 2022–23 Russian Premier League season. On 2 April 2025, Shalimov signed with Fakel Voronezh, with the club in

relegation zone at the time. Fakel was relegated to the

Russian First League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Football in Russia#League system, Russian football league system. The Russian Professio ...

at the end of the season.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Soviet Union's and Russia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Shalimov goal.''

Honours

Player

Spartak Moscow *

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 ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Inter Milan *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 1993–94 USSR U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shalimov, Igor Living people 1969 births Footballers from Moscow Men's association football midfielders People from Moscow Sports coaches from Moscow Soviet men's footballers Soviet Union men's international footballers Russian men's footballers Soviet Union men's under-21 international footballers Russia men's international footballers Dual internationalists (men's football) Russian football managers FC Spartak Moscow players Calcio Foggia 1920 players Inter Milan players UEFA Europa League–winning players Udinese Calcio players Bologna FC 1909 players SSC Napoli players Soviet Top League players Serie A players Serie B players MSV Duisburg players Bundesliga players FC Lugano players Swiss Super League players 1990 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1992 players UEFA Euro 1996 players Russian expatriate men's footballers Russian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Russian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Russian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Germany FC Elista managers Russian Premier League managers Russia women's national football team managers FC Krasnodar managers FC Khimki managers FC Akhmat Grozny managers FC Ural Yekaterinburg managers FC Fakel Voronezh managers Soviet sportspeople in doping cases Russian sportspeople in doping cases 20th-century Russian sportsmen