Konstantin Mikhailovich Genich (; born 3 January 1978) is a Russian former professional

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. He is a TV football commentator and expert of

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Career

At age six, he began playing football at the Moscow Dynamo academy, where he suffered a double leg fracture. By nine, he transferred to the Spartak Moscow youth academy. He later played in the Third League for Spartak’s reserve team and Moscow-based FC Monolit. In 1995, he also represented

Lyubertsy Lyubertsy (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Lyuberetsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Demographics Population: History It was first mentioned in 1621 and was granted town status in 1925. It is sometimes described as a wo ...

’s Torqmash. Failing to break into Spartak’s main squad, he spent the 1998 season with Latvian club Ventspils before returning to Russia. Over the next two-and-a-half seasons, he played for FC Khimki, helping them earn promotion to the First Division in 2000. That year, he became the top scorer in the "Center" zone (18 goals) and added four goals in the Russian Cup. He made his

Russian Football National League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

debut for

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 7 April 2001 in a game against

FC Shinnik Yaroslavl FC Shinnik Yaroslavl () is a Russian football club, based in Yaroslavl. From 1957 to 1960 the team was called Khimik ( - "the chemist"). In 1961, the club became affiliated with the , accordingly changing its name and logo (a football inside a ...

. He played three seasons in the FNL for Khimki and

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 ...

. By late 2001, he joined Pskov-2000. He twice attempted to sign with top-division clubs— Saturn Ramenskoye (1999–2000 preseason) and

Torpedo Moscow Football Club Torpedo Moscow (, ''FK Torpedo Moskva''), known as Torpedo Moscow, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. The club will return to the Russian Premier League in the 2025–26 season. Their c ...

(2000–2001)—but without success. In early 2002, he played for Israeli club Maccabi Ahi Nazareth before joining First Division side

. On 1 November 2003, he scored one of two goals against Voronezh’s Fakel, securing Amkar’s promotion to the Premier League for the 2004 season. On 19 May 2004, Genich suffered a career-ending injury during a friendly against Tula Arsenal, tearing his cruciate ligament after slipping on flat ground. He never appeared in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for Amkar and retired in early 2006.

Media career

In 2006, Genich started his career as a journalist and sportscaster in NTV Plus Sport channel and worked until 2015. He moved to MatchTV channel as television football commentator and expert in Russian and Spanish football. Until February 2011, he hosted the radio show ''Vne igry'' (Offside) on Sport FM, returning to the station in 2013. On 14 August 2013, he debuted as a commentator on Channel One during a World Cup qualifier between Northern Ireland and Russia. In 2014, he covered the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

and the opening match at Spartak Moscow’s

Otkritie Arena Lukoil Arena (), former Otkritie Bank Arena () and Otkritie Arena (), also known as Spartak Stadium () (the stadium's official name during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup), is a multi-purpose stadium north-west of Moscow ...

, as well as the

2014 UEFA Champions League final The 2014 UEFA Champions League final was the final match of the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League, the 59th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 22nd season since it was renamed from t ...

. In 2015, he co-narrated the video game ''

FIFA 16 ''FIFA 16'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android and iOS. The g ...

'' alongside commentator Georgy Cherdantsev and dubbed the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

animated film ''

Metegol ''Metegol'' (Spanish for table football; also known in English as ''Underdogs'' in the United States, ''The Unbeatables'' in the United Kingdom and sometimes as ''Foosball'') is a 2013 animated sports comedy film co-written, produced, directed and ...

'' (2013). He also appeared as himself in the 2018 CTS TV series ''Bolshaya igra'' (The Big Game). Since November 2015, he has worked for

Match TV Match! TV () is a Russian free-to-air federal sports television channel owned by Gazprom Media. The channel began broadcasting on November 1, 2015, and had been created in accordance with the order of Russian president Vladimir Putin, with the a ...

, commentating on

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

in France and 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. On 5 December 2019, he participated in a televised Q&A with Russian Prime Minister

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...

as a Match TV representative. He is a regular on the YouTube show ''Comment. Show'', discussing football with players and coaches alongside Nobel Arustamyan, Roman Gutzeit, and Denis Kazansky. In April 2023, he became head coach of the Match TV football team competing in the Media League, departing the role in June 2024.

Criticism

On 14 July 2024, Genich and Dmitry Shnyakin commentated on the

UEFA Euro 2024 final The UEFA Euro 2024 final was a Association football, football match that determined the winners of UEFA Euro 2024. The match was the seventeenth List of UEFA European Championship finals, final of the UEFA European Championship, European Champions ...

for Match TV. At halftime, journalist Aliona Doletskaya criticized them on Telegram, writing: "I beg you, fire commentators Genich and Shnyakin—this is a disgrace to football, the Russian language, and an insult to the ears." She specifically condemned their derogatory nicknames for players, such as "pensioner in Hermès sandals," "pineapple-head," and "macaroni hairstyle." Economist Nikita Krichevsky joined the backlash, claiming fans had switched to paid streams to avoid "verbal sewage." Genich responded sarcastically: "Nitpicking over mice—small fry in a damp basement. Compared to this grande dame." He defended the broadcast as "top-tier" and predicted a

TEFI award TEFI () is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors (up to 50 nominations in 2008), such as television shows ...

win.

Personal life

Married twice, he has a son from his first marriage and two daughters, Maria and Anna (b. 2013), from his second. In January 2024, he admitted losing 15–20 million rubles on sports betting but denied struggling with

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Honours

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

Zone Center top scorer: 2000 (18 goals)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Genich, Konstantin 1978 births Living people Russian men's footballers Russian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Latvia Expatriate men's footballers in Israel FK Ventspils players FC Khimki players Maccabi Akhi Nazareth F.C. players FC Amkar Perm players Russian expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Russian association football commentators Men's association football midfielders FC Spartak-2 Moscow players 20th-century Russian sportsmen