Bakhtiyor Zaynutdinov

Bakhtiyor was born in the southern Kazakhstan city of Taraz, where he went through the school of the club of the same name. He made his debut in professional football at the age of 19 and at the end of the 2017 season, he received individual awards for "Best Young Player of the Premier League" and "Discovery of the Season", scoring 7+3 in 27 championship matches.

Bakhtiyor began the next season as a player for the national champion Astana. In his very first match in the starting lineup, he scored a hat-trick against Irtysh. In 2018, he became the champion of Kazakhstan, made his debut in European competitions and the national team, where he scored three times in a year.

The next step in his career was a move to Russia, where he joined Rostov of Valery Karpin. In a year and a half, he played 35 matches, scored 4 goals and made 2 assists, and also played with Sergei Parshivlyuk, Maxim Osipenko and Danil Glebov.

In the winter of 2020, CSKA took advantage of the buyout option in Zaynutdinov's contract, where Bakhtiyor's versatility was eagerly used by all three coaches with whom he managed to work. In three years with the army team, he played in all positions in defense and midfield, becoming the silver medalist of the Russian championship and the winner of the Cup in the 2022/2023 season.

In August 2023, Zaynutdinov moved to Turkish Besiktas for 4.5 million euros, becoming the most expensive Kazakhstani footballer in history. His debut was perfect: on August 24, in a Conference League qualifying match against Dynamo Kyiv, he scored the winning goal.

Two months later, another significant event in his career took place: in a Euro 2024 qualifying match against Finland, Bakhtiyor scored a double, scoring his 14th goal for the Kazakhstan national team and becoming the best scorer in its history.

In his first season, Zaynutdinov won the Turkish Cup and played a total of 37 matches. The second was crumpled due to injuries, coaching changes and a limit on foreign players, due to which he took to the field only 12 times.

In July 2025, Zaynutdinov returned to Russia, signing a contract with the white-blues until 2029.