Pavel Pogrebnyak

Early career

Pogrebnyak started playing football at the age of six for the Spartak Moscow football school. In 2001, he made his debut for the Spartak reserve team and one year later he was selected for the first team squad. Between 2001 and 2003, he scored eight goals in 23 appearances. In 2003, Pogrebnyak played 40 matches and scored 15 goals while on loan with Baltika Kaliningrad. He played 16 times and scored two goals for Spartak Moscow the next season. The same season he also scored six goals for FC Khimki in 12 appearances. In 2005, Pogrebnyak played for Shinnik Yaroslavl and scored four goals in 23 matches. Pogrebnyak made his true breakthrough during the 2006 season with Tom Tomsk scoring 13 goals in 26 matches and became one of the favorites amongst the local fans.

Zenit St. Petersburg

Pogrebnyak was signed in the off-season by Zenit St. Petersburg. In 2007, he scored 13 goals as Zenit won the national league. Zenit won the 2008 Russian Super Cup 2–1 over Lokomotiv Moscow, with Pogrebnyak scoring the winner in the 82nd minute. Along with Luca Toni, Pogrebnyak was joint top-scorer in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup season, scoring ten goals and helping Zenit reach the final to be played at the City of Manchester Stadium. However, Pogrebnyak was to miss the final because of suspension following a third tournament booking in the semifinal's second leg win over Bayern Munich. In the final, Zenit still triumphed over runners-up Rangers to add their first European…

Pogrebnyak debuted for the Russian national team on 16 August 2006 in a friendly match against Latvia, where he scored his first goal. He was also initially called up as part of the Russian squad for UEFA Euro 2008, but because of a knee injury he picked up in a friendly match versus Serbia, he was replaced by Oleg Ivanov before Russia began the tournament. He was confirmed for the finalized UEFA Euro 2012 squad on 25 May 2012. On 12 May 2014, Pogrebnyak was called up to the provisional 30-man Russian World Cup squad, however four days later he was replaced by Denis Cheryshev as the squad was cut down to 25 players.

Club

As of match played 13 May 2018

International

Scores and results list Russia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pogrebnyak goal.

Pogrebnyak is married to Maria Shatalova-Pogrebnyak and they have three sons. In July 2023, Shatalova-Pogrebnyak filed for divorce. He is the brother of Kirill Pogrebnyak and Nikolai Pogrebnyak, they are both free agents as of June 2021. In March 2019 Pogrebnyak was accused of racism after saying it was "laughable" for black players to represent the Russian national team. Russian Football Union fined him 250,000 rubles (approximately €3,300) and put him on probation until the end of the 2018–19 season for his statements.