Yuri Kotov: the career of a professional football player who switched to beach soccer

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Yuri Vladimirovich Kotov is a Russian professional footballer who currently plays beach soccer for the Spartak club. Previously, he played professional football for such clubs as CSKA, Istra and Maccabi Moscow. In beach soccer, he won the bronze medal of the European Championship and the Intercontinental Cup 2012 as part of the Russian national team.

Biography

Yuri Kotov was born on November 24, 1987 in Moscow (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, now the Russian Federation). From a young age, Yuri began to play football, is a pupil of the CSKA youth sports school, where he played at the youth level for a long time. The guy had good technique and a powerful shot, which was impossible to say about his teammates. Thanks to his talent, Yuri Kotov held a leading position in the team. It is worth noting that as a footballer he was universal - he could play a match in all existing roles, except for the goalkeeper.

Professional football career

In 2004Kotov began to play in the understudy league for the "Red Army". This season, he managed to play only one match, because he received a serious injury that knocked him out of the game. For a long time, the football player could not adapt after the injury. Only in 2006, Yuri Kotov managed to enter the field again. True, as part of the Istra club from the city of the same name (the second division of Russia, the West zone). During the season, Kotov demonstrated a high-quality game, played in the position of a defensive midfielder. In total, he played twenty-three matches and managed to score one goal. It seemed that soon the footballer would move to one of the clubs of the top division, but another injury again crossed out all the plans and hopes of the footballer for a brighter future.

In 2007, Yuri Kotov moved to the semi-professional club Maccabi Moscow (founded in 2003), which plays in the Russian amateur league. As part of the Muscovites, Yuri had one fight, after which he decided for himself that he would end big football for life.

Retraining: Beach Soccer Career

In 2008, Yuri Kotov became a player in the B altika Millennium beach football team, in which he played only three matches. Despite a more or less successful performance, the former professional footballer could not gain a foothold in the beach team and was forced to find another. In 2009, Kotov joined the MGUP team, where he also did not stay long. After spending only three fights in their composition, the footballer leaves the team. All these failures can be argued by the fact that Kotov could not fullyto adapt to the beach game, however, he was making progress.

Success in beach soccer, invitation to the national team

In 2010, Kotov signs a professional contract with the Strogino team, with which he spends a season in the Russian beach soccer championship. Yuriy Kotov played 13 great matches, thus helping the club to win the second place in the standings. Kotov's phenomenal game was noticed by the Russian association, and the footballer was invited to the Russian national beach soccer team in 2012. As part of the national team, the player became the champion of the Intercontinental Cup 2012 and the bronze medalist of the European Championship.

Transitions to other clubs (beach soccer)

From 2012 to 2015, footballer Yuri Kotov played for the Dynamo Moscow beach club. As part of the "white-blue" he played 107 matches and recorded over a dozen amazing goals in his statistics. In 2016, he moved to the Wings of the Soviets (Samara), and six months later he ended up in the Moscow Spartak, where he plays to the present. In an interview, the football player said that he was not going to end his career for at least three more seasons.