Zelimkhan Dzhabrailovich Bakayev (; born 1 July 1996) is a Russian

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

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 ...

for

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 ...

and the Russia national team.

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 Spartak-2 Moscow FC Spartak-2 Moscow () is a Russian football team from Moscow, founded in 1964. It is the reserve club of Russian Premier League team FC Spartak Moscow. History The club has participated in professional competition in the past, as FC Spartak-d Mo ...

on 26 April 2014 in a game against

FC Metallurg Vyksa FC Metallurg Vyksa () is a Russian football team from Vyksa. It played professionally from 1994 to 1997, from 1999 to 2003 and again from the 2012–13 season until February 2015. Their best result was 4th place in Zone Povolzhye of the Russian ...

. He made his debut for the main squad of

FC Spartak Moscow FC Spartak Moscow (, ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Having won 12 Soviet Top League, Soviet championships (second only to FC Dynamo Kyiv, Dynamo Kyiv) and 10 Russian Premier League, Russian champ ...

on 23 September 2015 in a Russian Cup game against

FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod () was a Russian football club from Nizhny Novgorod, founded in 1998. In 2008, FC Volga won the Ural-Povolzhye (Volga Region in Russian) zone of the Russian Second Division and advanced to the Russian First Division. In ...

. 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 Spartak on 23 July 2017 as a starter in a game against

FC Ufa FC Ufa (, ) is a Football in Russia, Russian football club based in Ufa that plays in the Russian First League. History During the summer of 2010, Rustem Khamitov, the second President of the Bashkortostan, Republic of Bashkortostan, began consi ...

. On 1 August 2018, he joined

FC Arsenal Tula FC Arsenal Tula () is a Russian professional football club from Tula playing in the second-tier Russian First League. Originally founded in 1923, FC Arsenal Tula was promoted to the Russian Premier League in 2014 for the first time in its hi ...

on loan for the 2018–19 season. Upon his return from loan, he scored his first two goals for Spartak on 8 August 2019 in an away Europa League qualifier against

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

. 3 days later, he scored his first two

goals for Spartak in a 3–1 victory over

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

. Bakayev left Spartak as a free agent on 1 June 2022. On 15 June 2022, Bakayev signed a contract with

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 ...

for three years with an option for the fourth year. On 19 September 2023, Bakayev was loaned to Emirati club Al Wahda for a season. On 2 August 2024, Bakayev moved on loan to

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 19 June 2025, Bakayev signed a two-year contract with

International

He was first called up to

Russia national football team The Russia national football team () represents Russia in men's international football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Union (, ), the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home ground is the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and ...

for

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

matches against San Marino and Cyprus in June 2019. He made his debut on 13 October 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Cyprus. He substituted

Aleksei Ionov Aleksei Sergeyevich Ionov (; born 18 February 1989) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a winger. He could play on the left flank or the right. Club career He started playing football at the age of six. Later he gradua ...

in the 78th minute and participated in one of the three goals Russia scored in the remaining time. He scored his first international goal on 7 September 2021 in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

, establishing the final score of 2–0 at home from the penalty spot.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honors

Club

Spartak Moscow * Russian Cup: 2021–22 *

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 ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Zenit St. Petersburg *

2022–23 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 ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Al Wahda *

UAE League Cup The UAE League Cup () is a knockout tournament for clubs in the UAE Pro-League. The first edition of the tournament was played in the 2008–09 Etisalat Emirates Cup, 2008–2009 season. In the 2008–09 season, UAE League Cup replaced the UAE Fed ...

: 2023–24

Personal life

His younger brother Soltmurad Bakayev is also a footballer. Bakayev is an ethnic

Ingush Ingush may refer to: * Ingush language, Northeast Caucasian language * Ingush people, an ethnic group of the North Caucasus See also *Ingushetia (disambiguation) Ingushetia is a federal republic and subject of Russia. Ingushetia may also refer ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakayev, Zelimkhan 1996 births People from Nazran Footballers from Ingushetia Living people Russian men's footballers Russian people of Ingush descent Men's association football midfielders FC Spartak-2 Moscow players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Arsenal Tula players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players Al Wahda FC players FC Khimki players FC Lokomotiv Moscow players Russia men's under-21 international footballers Russia men's international footballers Russian Premier League players Russian First League players Russian Second League players UAE Pro League players Russian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Russian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates 21st-century Russian sportsmen