PROFILING ARSHAVIN’S ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER

Former Arsenal star, AndreyArshavin recently announced his retirement from professional football after his short spell in Kazakhstan for Kairat.

The Russian maestro ended his career at the Kazakhstan club FC Kairat this year, a decade after announcing himself to the world in the 2008 European Championships for Russia.

Though he started the tournament on the sidelines, he marked his return to the side with superb performances as he showed the Russia fans what they have been missing, assisting his team to reach the semifinals.

The highlight of the tournament was perhaps, a quarter final game against the Netherlands where he produced a phenomenal performance, leading Russia singlehandedly to the semi-finals against Spain. He was the cream of the crop for Russia, bagging two assists and a goal – a sublime effort from a few yards out.

Russia were beaten by a rampant Spain side in the semifinals but Arshavin would have been delighted with his performance in the tournament.

A good month for the 37 year old turned better as he lifted the UEFA Cup with Zenith St. Petersburg and defeated then-European champions, Manchester United in the UEFA Super Cup.

Such performances didn’t go unnoticed by major European powerhouses as the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid had the Russian forward on their radar. Barcelona, most notably, tabled a bid for Arshavin thought to be in the region of $15 million but the player instead opted for a move to England to play for Arsenal.

Playing for Arsenal, he managed 31 goals including an unforgettable performance at Anfield against Liverpool, scoring four goals in one of the best games in the history of the Premier League.

He later returned to Zenit in 2012, where he again won the Russian Premier League in 2012 and 2015 and left to Kuban Krasnodar, where he didn’t manage to score a single goal in four months.He then moved to Kairat, where he spent the last three years of his career.