Who is Igor Akinfeev – Russia’s hero against Spain in FIFA World Cup 2018

Igor Akinfeev wrote his name into the Russian football folklore after his brilliant performance handed his team a brillaint victory over Spain during their FIFA World Cup 2018 Round of 16 encounter in Moscow on Sunday. The 32-year-old captain pulled off two important saves during the penalty shoot-out – which they won 4-3 - to take his team to the quarterfinals of the competition for the first time since 1970.

Both the teams were tied at 1-1 after extra time and it took a heroic effort from Akinfeev to clinch the encounter for the hosts. He saved Koke’s effort to hand Russia the advantage and then, denied Iago Aspas to awaken the subdued 78,000 crowd in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.

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“We are having a fantastic World Cup,” said Akinfeev after the victory. “Not just our fans, but the fans of other countries got a sense of this atmosphere and understood that Russians really know how to play football and want to play football.”

From being one of the longest serving footballers in the Russia football team to recording a couple of songs with the Russian pop group Ruki Vverkh! (“Hands up!”), Igor Akinfeev has truly done it all.

The CSKA Moscow goalkeeper has been a regular for his national team since making his international debut fourteen years ago and while the 32-year old has more clean sheets than any other Russian goalkeeper in history, his club record in European tournaments has been not quite up to the mark.

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The 32-year old held the unwanted record of 43 UEFA Champions League games without a clean sheet, which only ended when CSKA Moscow beat Benfica 2-0. However, he has played 108 times for his country and has turned his once middling club CSKA Moscow into a perennial title contender.

In 2018, he was named Russia’s goalkeeper of the year for a record 10th time and his 669 appearances for club and country far surpass those of Soviet Union goalkeeping legends Lev Yashin and Rinat Dasayev.

“Years ago, I said he could end up being the world number one. Yes, he always made little mistakes, but I think he still has time to write his name into history,” former Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn said about Igor Akinfeev when asked about Akinfeev’s chances in the FIFA World Cup 2018.