Sunday marks the 57th anniversary of former Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Andrei Smetanin.
Andrei Ruslanovich was born on June 21, 1969, in Perm. In 1987, the talented goalkeeper was invited to Dynamo Moscow, where he initially played for the white-and-blues' reserve team, with whom he won the USSR reserve championship.
Smetanin made his debut for the main team in August 1990, becoming the starting goalkeeper in the second half of the final USSR championship and remaining so until his departure at the end of 1997.
With Dynamo, Smetanin played 166 matches (including 65 shutouts and more than 60 as team captain), winning the Russian Cup, silver medals, and three bronze medals in the Russian championship, and also reaching the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners' Cup with the team.
After 11 years with Dynamo, Smetanin played for Moscow's Spartak and Titan, Saratov's Sokol, Astrakhan's Volgar-Gazprom, Yekaterinburg's Ural, Izhevsk's Gazovic-Gazprom, and finished his career in Lobnya, Moscow Region. But the most important club in his career has always been his hometown club, Dynamo, for whose veterans' team Andrei Ruslanovich still regularly plays.
We congratulate Andrei Ruslanovich on his birthday! We wish him good health and a long life in the sport. We always look forward to seeing him at his favorite club's matches!
