Sergei Aleksandrovich Kornilenko (Belarusian: Сяргей Аляксандравіч Карніленка; Russian: Сергей Александрович Корниленко; born 14 June 1983) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player who played as a striker. In Belarus, both Belarusian and Russian languages are official. Thus his name, usually transliterated as Sergei Kornilenko (Russian: Серге́й Корниленко), can be alternatively spelled as Syarhey Karnilenka (Belarusian: Сяргей Карніленка).
Career
Vitebsk-born Kornilenko began his career in his native Belarus as a trainee with FC Dinamo Minsk before joining his hometown club. After an unsuccessful half a season with Vitebsk he returned to Minsk, where he spent three seasons before moving to Ukraine with Dynamo Kyiv and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
In 2008, he moved to the Russian Premier League with FC Tom Tomsk, with whom he enjoyed a successful first season. On 19 July 2009 FC Zenit signed the striker until December 2013. The Russian club had needed a new striker after a serious injury to Danny and after transfer listing Fatih Tekke. On 9 March 2010 Kornilenko was loaned back to Tom Tomsk for the remainder of the 2009–10 season. He returned to Zenit in the summer of 2010 but was loaned out again, this time to Rubin Kazan, until January 2011. On 31 January 2011, Kornilenko signed on loan for English Premier League club Blackpool, turning down a move to Standard Liège in the process.[2] In June 2011, he signed a contract with Russian Premier League club Krylia Sovetov Samara.[3]
He announced his retirement on 10 July 2019.[4] On 17 February 2021, Krylia Sovetov announced that he will be registered as a club player again to play a farewell game at the home field.[5] He scored the last goal of a 6–0 victory over FC Krasnodar-2 on 8 May 2021, one minute after appearing as a substitute in the 83rd minute. Krylia Sovetov had secured their return to the Russian Premier League two games prior to that one.[6]