The first summer newcomer of Dynamo was the central defender of the Russian national team Maxim Osipenko, who is well acquainted with Valery Karpin from his work at Rostov. Read about the difficult football path of the 31-year-old football player in our article.
Osipenko was born in May 1994 in Omsk, a predominantly hockey city in which the main resources went to Avangard. Maxim didn't like hockey, and since childhood he disappeared in the yard with a soccer ball. I started at the local Neftyanik, where I trained on a sandy field in the summer and in the snow in the winter – often at temperatures up to minus 30.
By the way, he has had goalscoring skills since childhood – he started in the attack and scored quite a lot at children's tournaments. At the same time, his favorite football players were defenders – Rio Ferdinand and Carles Puyol.
As a result, Maxim found himself in the leading club of the city – "Irtysh". Not everything went smoothly for him there, and at some point he thought to finish football and go to school. The first coach Sergey Konstantinov came to the rescue, who persuaded him not to quit the sport. Osipenko managed to prove himself in the double and get into the base of the PFL team.
Photo: FC Irtysh official website
Two and a half seasons in the Vostok zone tempered the already strong character of Maxim, who was identified first in the midfield, and then in the defensive line. Constant traveling long distances in not the most optimal conditions did not kill his thirst for the game, and in 2016 he was invited to Fakel.
After leaving his hometown for the first time, Osipenko, as a reminder of him, took the 55th number (the automobile code of the Omsk region), under which he still plays. On any vacation, the first thing he does is go home to see his relatives and the first coach.
In the FNL, Maxim began to progress rapidly and for the first time crossed paths with the Moscow Dynamo. In the match of the second round of the 2016/17 season, he made a significant contribution to the victory of his team at the Khimki Arena with a score of 1:A year later, he passed the summer training camp under the leadership of Dmitry Khokhlov and even scored in a friendly match with the Bulgarian Chernomorets, but then he was not destined to be in Dynamo.
— He looked good in training. They say that there are no Russian defenders in Russia. And I didn't have a contract then, I would have gone there for the smallest salary I could have. I just wanted to play football. It would be possible to leave it for the future, probably. But, as they say, everything is for the best. And so, maybe I would have buried myself there and that's it," Osipenko recalled this period.
As a result, he returned to Voronezh and spent another season in the FNL, after which he was finally invited to the elite. And on July 14, 2019, at the age of 25, Osipenko made his debut in the RPL as part of Tambov in St. Petersburg, where he immediately collided with Artem Dzyuba – Serdar Azmoun. Tambov lost that match, but Osipenko did not make any effective mistakes and proved that he is capable of playing at the highest level.
In August, he scored his first goal, cutting the canopy with his head from a free kick, then helped the team beat Rostov twice and attracted the attention of Valery Karpin. Already in January 2020, Osipenko moved to Rostov-on-Don, finally finding himself in a team that did not play defense.
— I like Rostov's style more. There are more forces left for defense, and when you fight back for 80 minutes, you don't have enough energy for anything. Often because of this, Tambov was missed in the endings. With the philosophy of the Rostov game, you often have to deal with rivals one–on-one, you need a class here to win the fight," Osipenko said then.
The class was enough for him to immediately become the main central defender and close this position for 5.5 years. Karpin began to develop the player's strengths and appointed him captain a year later. "I think that a defender should have leadership qualities. He sees the whole field and should prompt his partners in game moments," Maxim believes.
In September 2021, the defender fulfilled his dream by making his debut in the Russian national team. Starting next year, Osipenko's attacking potential began to unfold: for two seasons in a row he scored 7 goals for Rostov, and in the past he reached the number 10 and repeated the record of the Russian championships in goals per season among defenders. It is noteworthy that the last one who managed to score 9 goals in one RPL season was Dynamo player Denis Kolodin back in 2007.
In the person of Osipenko, Dynamo receives a full–time penalty taker (14 of 17 realized attempts in Rostov), a skillful penalty taker (two goals with direct strikes last season), the most dangerous weapon on the standards (his height is 193 centimeters) and a defender with an excellent pass.
Osipenko had a huge influence on the game of Rostov residents. To understand this, it is enough to look at the statistics of last season: sixth place in the entire league in terms of minutes spent on the field, second in terms of the number of successful technical and tactical actions, entrances to the final third through passes and rebounds, third in terms of the number of assists (81% accuracy) and successful single combats at the top. And he also became the best in the number of passes to the final third (65% accuracy), progressive (63%) and long passes (60%), as well as in interceptions and successful single combats in defense.
It is not surprising that Maxim was included in the list of the 33 best football players of the Russian championship three times in a row, and there is little doubt that his name will be there for the fourth time. We wish him not to slow down and bring a lot of benefits to Dynamo under the guidance of his beloved coach.