Igor Leshchuk

Igor Leshchuk
Leshchuk with Dynamo in 2018
Personal information
Full name Igor Alekseyevich Leshchuk
Date of birth (1996-02-20) 20 February 1996 (age 28)
Place of birth Moscow, Russia
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
 FC Dynamo Moscow
Number 31
Youth career
0000–2019 FC Dynamo Moscow
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014– FC Dynamo Moscow 41 (1)
2016–2017 → FC Dynamo-2 Moscow 11 (0)
2020–2021 → FC Dynamo-2 Moscow 3 (0)
International career‡
2010 Russia U15 2 (0)
2010–2011 Russia U16 4 (0)
2016–2017 Russia U21 5 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 2 December 2024
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 14 November 2017

Igor Alekseyevich Leshchuk (Russian: Игорь Алексеевич Лещук; born 20 February 1996) is a Russian football player who plays as goalkeeper for FC Dynamo Moscow.

Club career

He made his debut in the Russian Professional Football League for FC Dynamo-2 Moscow on 28 August 2016 in a game against FSK Dolgoprudny.[2]

He made his Russian Premier League debut for FC Dynamo Moscow on 10 August 2019, when he had to come in for injured Anton Shunin in a game against FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.[3] He started the next 6 games as Shunin was recovering (including 2 clean sheets) and won the Dynamo fans' vote for "player of the month" for August 2019.[4]

On 30 August 2021, he signed a new four-year contract with Dynamo.[5] After another Shunin injury in September 2021, he kept clean sheet in 3 consecutive games and was voted as player of the month once again.[6]

On 15 March 2023, Leshchuk saved two penalty kicks in the shootout to eliminate Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg from the Russian Cup.[7]

He was voted player of the month by Dynamo fans for the third time for October 2023.[8]

On 18 January 2024, Leshchuk extended his contract with Dynamo to 2028.[9]

On 2 December 2024, Leshchuk scored a late added-time equalizer in a 1–1 away draw against Akhmat Grozny, with a header after a corner kick.[10] He became only the second goalkeeper in the history of the Russian Premier League (which was originally organized under a different name in 1992) to score a goal after Andrei Novosadov in 2001, and the first to not score it from a penalty kick (like Novosadov did).[11] Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, best Russian clubs participated in the Soviet Top League, and on all occasions in that league when goalkeepers scored a goal, it was from a penalty kick.[12] Thus Leshchuk became the first ever goalkeeper in the history of Russian football to score a non-penalty-kick goal in a top-tier club league.

Career statistics

As of match played 2 December 2024
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Dynamo Moscow 2014–15 Russian Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 0
2015–16 Russian Premier League 0 0 0 0 — — 0 0
2016–17 Russian First League 1 0 0 0 — — 1 0
2017–18 Russian Premier League 0 0 1 0 — — 1 0
2018–19 Russian Premier League 0 0 2 0 — — 2 0
2019–20 Russian Premier League 8 0 0 0 — — 8 0
2020–21 Russian Premier League 3 0 0 0 0 0 — 3 0
2021–22 Russian Premier League 4 0 6 0 — — 10 0
2022–23 Russian Premier League 6 0 6 0 — — 12 0
2023–24 Russian Premier League 15 0 5 0 — — 20 0
2024–25 Russian Premier League 4 1 6 0 — — 10 1
Total 41 1 26 0 — — 67 1
Dynamo-2 Moscow 2016–17 Russian Second League 11 0 — — — 11 0
Dynamo-2 Moscow 2020–21 Russian Second League 3 0 — — — 3 0
Career total 55 1 26 0 0 0 0 0 81 1

References

  1. ^ "Igor Leshchuk" (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Game Report by PFL". Russian Professional Football League. 28 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Dynamo v Zenit game report". Russian Premier League. 10 August 2019.
  4. ^ "Игорь Лещук – лучший игрок августа" [Igor Leshchuk is the best player of August] (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 12 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Игорь Лещук продлил контракт с "Динамо"" (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 30 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Игорь Лещук — ВТБ Игрок месяца в сентябре" (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 2 October 2021.
  7. ^ "Zenit v Dynamo game report" (in Russian). Russian Football Union. 15 March 2023.
  8. ^ "Игорь Лещук — ВТБ Игрок месяца в октябре" (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 10 November 2023.
  9. ^ ""Динамо" продлило контракт с Игорем Лещуком" (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 18 January 2024.
  10. ^ "Akhmat v Dynamo game report". FC Dynamo Moscow. 2 December 2024.
  11. ^ "Лещук – первый вратарь, забивший с игры в чемпионате России" (in Russian). Sports.ru. 2 December 2024.
  12. ^ "Вратарь-неудачник переписал историю. Такого в России не удавалось еще никому!" (in Russian). Sportbox. 2 December 2024.


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