Russian Quartet: what our foreign players have achieved during the season in the European championships

The European club football season is coming to an end. Somewhere everything has already been decided, and somewhere there is only one step left to take. Throughout the season on the continent, we have been able to watch the performances of our foreign players, who have made a significant contribution to the team's success. In particular, we are talking about the "French trinity" — Matvey Safonov, Alexander Golovin and Daler Kuzyaev, as well as the "king of Cyprus" — Alexander Kokorin. The results of their performances in the outgoing season can be found in the Izvestia article.

Matvey Safonov (PSG, France)

The Krasnodar graduate's debut season in European football can be safely called a success. In the face of intense competition for a place in goal with European champion Gianluigi Donnarumma, Safonov managed to get almost half of the Italian's playing time, which is encouraging: 17 matches in all tournaments, 13 goals conceded and seven matches "to zero" (Donnarumma has 39 matches, 39 goals conceded and 11 "breadcrumbs").

Safonov's contribution to the current success of PSG cannot be overlooked: the head coach of the Parisians, Spaniard Luis Enrique, released the Russian in 10 matches of the French Ligue 1 championship, of which the team lost only one — on May 3 against Strasbourg, when the issue of the championship was already successfully closed. In three of the remaining nine cases, Safonov kept his gates intact.

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In the Champions League, of course, it was very difficult for Matthew to get a lot of playing time — after all, PSG faces much stronger resistance in this tournament than on the French championship fields, and therefore Enrique trusts the more experienced Donnarumma here. Although he sometimes made mistakes, which led the Parisian coach to think about goalkeeper rotation and betting on Safonov. Matvey took part in two matches of the general stage of the Champions League: in the first, he did not concede from the Spanish Girona (1-0), and in the second, he conceded only one goal from Bayern Munich (0:1). In other cases, Safonov listened to the Champions League anthem only from the bench.

But in another cup tournament, Safonov became the main and already a full—fledged creator of success. We are talking about the French Cup, where Matvey lost his place to his teammate in only one match — in the 1/16 finals against Espali (4:2), PSG's third goalkeeper, Spaniard Arnau Tenas, played. Our goalkeeper played solo in all other matches. Together with him, the Parisians passed Lens (on penalties), Le Mans, Stade Briochant, Dunkirk and Reims in the final. To be fair, PSG's path to the trophy was quite easy: only two teams in the distance represented Ligue 1 (Lens and Reims); in other cases, there was a complete geographical spread: from the second to the fifth league. Not without luck, of course, but it's not PSG's fault. It was important to win the title by defeating any opponent, which they did. And we are doubly pleased that a Russian football player has become one of the main characters of the tournament.

Three trophies per season (the championship, the cup and the French Super Cup; on January 5, PSG beat Monaco with Safonov in reserve and won the Super Cup) — many of his compatriots can envy Matvey's collection. But perhaps the main trophy ahead is the Champions League Cup. There is only one step left to win it: to beat Inter Milan in the final, which will be held on May 31. And if everything goes well for PSG, Safonov will become the fifth Russian player in history to win the main European club trophy (after Igor Dobrovolsky, Vladimir Bout, Dmitry Alenichev and Denis Cheryshev).

Alexander Golovin (Monaco, France)

Russian midfielder Alexander Golovin's seventh season at Monaco was not the most productive for him personally. At the beginning and end of the season, Alexander was worried about injuries, which caused him to miss 13 French championship matches, all two French Cup matches (where the Monegasques were eliminated in the second round by Reims on penalties), as well as the second leg of the Champions League playoff round against Portuguese Benfica (3:3), where the Russian's help would be very useful for Monaco (in terms of the total of two matches, the Portuguese went further).

At the end of the season in Ligue 1, Monaco Golovin took third place and received the right to compete in the Champions League for the next season. It was not easy to get into the top three: Nice and Lille, who finished below, were only one point behind Monaco. But the Austrian Adi Hutter's team coped with its minimum task. And this can be called a good result, since Monaco has not been a regular at Europe's main club tournament lately. In the "Golovin era" there were only two draws (in the first, in the 2018/19 season, Monaco failed to overcome the barrier of the group stage in a quartet with Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Belgian Brugge).

As for Golovin's personal achievements last season, according to statistics, there is a slight decline (which is also due to injuries): 29 matches, three goals and one assist (1802 minutes on the field in total). In the 2023/24 season, there will be 27 matches and 6+6 goals+passes, and with a lot of playing time (2336 minutes). And still no trophies from Monaco... But it is, of course, extremely difficult to compete with PSG in France.

Daler Kuzyaev (Le Havre, France)

The former Zenit midfielder spent his second season in France. He came to a relatively weak team, but he admitted that he wanted to play, not primarily earn money. This, of course, commands respect, but in reality everything is not so joyful.

Kuzyaev was one of the leaders of recent seasons at Zenit, and Dahler also came to Le Havre, whose main task is to fight for survival, with claims to be an indispensable player in the starting lineup. In principle, the first season met expectations in this regard (30 matches in Ligue 1, 2,100 minutes, two goals and two assists). And in the second season, our expectations traditionally became our problems: 12 matches, 564 minutes and one goal. After an injury sustained at the beginning of the year, which caused Kuzyaev to miss eight league matches, Dahler sat in reserve and did not appear on the field again this season (Kuzyaev last played for Le Havre in the championship on January 5, against Marseille).

All Kuzyaev personally remembered this season was Golovin's goal against Monaco. But if we talk about the overall team results, then Le Havre fulfilled its task with difficulty (one point away from the transition zone), but retained its registration in the elite of French football. But it's not a fact that Kuzyaev will remain in the team for the next season.

Alexander Kokorin (Aris, Cyprus)

At the end of his playing career, Alexander Kokorin chose to be happy in Cyprus and became a living legend of Aris. The 34-year-old striker, who has already played 92 matches for the Cypriot club (and scored 33 goals), recently extended his contract for another season-2025/26.

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At Aris, Kokorin became the author of the fastest goal in the history of the Cyprus championship (at the 12th second), in the 2023/24 season he became the champion of Cyprus and the best player of the tournament, and last season he won the silver medal. As for last season, Kokorin scored 11 goals and nine assists in 30 league and cup matches. And most importantly, he became the captain of the team on a permanent basis.

For sure, Alexander can prove himself next season. And then, perhaps, he will finish his career.