Arshavin was recognized as the best football player in Russia in the 21st century.

Andrey Arshavin was recognized as the best football player in Russia for the 21st century. The results of the voting for this title were summed up by Sport-Express on February 4.

The newspaper writes that a survey was conducted among sports journalists and commentators, in which they were asked to evaluate the achievements of Russian players and make a list of the top 10. Each candidate from the list was awarded the appropriate number of points according to the 10-point system.

"50 sports football journalists, commentators, and writers participated in the survey — from veterans Viktor Gusev to bloggers and leading telegram channels - in general, the most, the most," said Konstantin Alekseev, head of the football department of the Sport—Express publication.

The top three are the winners of the UEFA Cup and the players of the Russian national team at Euro 2008. The bronze medal went to Yuri Zhirkov. Igor Akinfeev, who has played for CSKA throughout his career, won silver.

The rating is headed by Andrey Arshavin, the leader of Zenit's championship in 2007, and the winner of the UEFA Cup. In 2008, together with the national team, he won the bronze medals of the European Championship.

"When I was young, the newspaper Sport-Express was the main one, and maybe it still is, but there is no newspaper, it is the main sports portal, so it is valuable. On the other hand, it is clear that opinions may vary, I did not ask, I did not think whether any polls would be conducted. But the fact that I won is nice," Arshavin shared.

Then the Russian moved to Arsenal in London. In England, he provided eight assists and scored six goals in his first 12 matches, four of them against Liverpool at Anfield Stadium.

"It's very difficult to compete in the team there, especially as a foreign player, and Andrey proved that he can be not just a player in the main squad, but a leader, he was the captain many times," said football player Alexei Smertin.

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Last year, on November 22, Arshavin himself named Monaco midfielder Alexander Golovin the best Russian national football team player in 2025. In 2025, Golovin played three matches for the Russian national team, in which he scored two goals. In the French championship this season, the Russian football player played nine matches and scored two goals.

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