As a football fan, you are sure to read sports magazines, watch all the matches and enjoy keeping up with the latest news and updates. There are so many ways you can keep up with footy news, from visiting blog posts and websites like us here at Footandball, to checking the scores on your football app. As a keen sports fan, you are sure to keep up with the latest news one way or the other.
So if you and your friends get together every week to play a bit of fantasy football or have a game or two at PartyCasino before settling down and watching the match, then you might be interested in reading some fun football facts. Now is your chance to impress your friends and show off your football knowledge with these fun and quirky facts about some of Russia’s football players.
Did you know that Andrey Arshavin (attacking midfielder for Arsenal and captain of the Russian national team) studied fashion at the St Petersburg State University of Technology and Design? Many of his creations are on show in the college’s museum.
It’s thought that Russia’s Dutch boss, Dick Advocaat, racked up a £36m deficit on transfers during his spell at Rangers. However, he managed to get himself free hair transplants from Glasgow firm Laser Aesthetic.
The Russian national anthem used to be a wordless piano piece. It was changed in 2000 to the current Russia, Our Holy Realm anthem after Spartak Moscow players complained that having nothing to sing made them depressed before big European matches.
Pavel Pogrebnyak has a whole bank of entertaining nicknames. He’s known as The Cellar, Mighty Po, Mr White, Death From Above and, to Fulham fans, The Pog.
Yuri Zhirkov (who once played for Chelsea as wing back) sometimes had to miss training as a youngster to help his poor family grow vegetables for the winter. He and his family lived in a two-bed Moscow flat with young Yuri sleeping on a fold-out camp bed.