Roman Shirokov Net Worth

Biography of Roman Shirokov

Roman Nikolayevich Shirokov is a CSKA midfielder, champion of Russia in 2010, 2012 and 2016, winner of the UEFA Cup and Super Cup (2008) and Russia (2008 and 2011). Bronze medalist of the European Championship 2008 and the Russian Championship 2009. Champions League Player of the Year 2011. In July 2016, he announced his retirement.

Childhood. The beginning of a football career

Roman Shirokov said that his father, a factory worker who was fond of football, was his first coach. He taught the boy the basics of this exciting game. As a child, Roman was sent to a football school at the Torpedo club. After studying for about six months, Roman was injured and had to stop training.

Later, having recovered, he began to train at the CSKA-2 football club, and in 2001 he moved to the reserve team of FC Torpedo-ZIL, only once entering the field as part of this team – at the match against Lokomotiv.

Until 2007, Shirokov was an infrequent guest in the major leagues (perhaps due to frequent problems with alcohol), moved from one amateur club to another: Vidnoye, Saturn, Istra helped coach Vyacheslav Komarov, who said that in a year Shirokov would be in the Premier League. For a long time the team was in first place with an advantage of 15 points, Shirokov took the leading roles.

After Vidnoye, the midfielder went to see Dynamo (at that time the team was headed by Viktor Bondarenko), for a match with Wings of the Soviets. He entered the field when the score was 1:2 and participated in only three scoring situations. The match ended with the victory of the “white-blue” with a score of 4:2. Bondarenko began to insist on concluding a contract with Shirokov, but the team’s head coach Oleg Romantsev did not rush to conclusions.

Roman Shirokov did not wait for the results and accepted the offer of Saturn. In 2005, under coach Alexander Tarkhanov, he had a good season – 3 goals in 18 matches, but with the advent of a new coach, Vladimir Shevchuk, Shirokov left the team.

In 2006, his career began to rise – he played 5 matches for Rubin, but was injured, and after recovering, he was not taken to the training camp during the 2006 World Cup, despite a three-year contract in force. Later, Roman Shirokov went to see the Wings, but it didn’t work out there either. For the next six months, he played in amateur FC Istra.

In 2007, Shirokov began individual physical training classes with former sprint athlete and honored coach Leonid Bartenev. Having played the end of the season for Istra, he signed a contract with the general director of FC Khimki, Mikhail Shcheglov, and he signed the contract without viewing, and did not fail – very quickly Shirokov became a solid player in the starting lineup of the team, which debuted in the Premier League that season. league. A promising player attracted the attention of Guus Hiddink – the coach sent him a call to the national team, but Shirokov never entered the field.

FC Zenit

Leaving Khimki, he thanked his team for all the opportunities, although he realized that he needed to reach a new level. Many leading clubs showed interest in Shirokov – Spartak, Saturn, Wings of the Soviets, even Rubin remembered him; there were offers from Spanish clubs – Celta, Valladolid, Villarreal, but Zenit was ahead of everyone. On November 26, 2007, a four-year contract was signed with the footballer. At the training camp, Roman Shirokov was retrained as a defender. According to head coach Dick Advocaat, the football player had one drawback – the lack of sprint speed, which he compensated for with quick reaction.

In September 2011, Roman was named the best player in the Champions League after two goals scored against Porto.

On February 15, 2012, the historic match Zenit – Benfica took place in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, which ended with a score of 3: 2 in favor of the hosts. Shirokov scored two goals; the second, scored in the 88th minute of the game, broke the Portuguese club’s winning streak. Shirokov broke the record for the number of goals scored in a season, set in the 1993/94 season by Spartak midfielder Valery Karpin and repeated in the 1995/96 season by Yuri Nikiforov, Spartak defender.

In 2013, Roman Shirokov periodically entered the field with a captain’s armband. And in February 2014, he moved to Krasnodar by decision of the new Zenit coach, Andre Villas-Boas.

FC Spartak

In July 2014, Roman Shirokov joined Spartak, signing a 2 + 1 contract for 2 years with the possibility of a year extension. The football player motivated his decision by the fact that his father and godfather, that is, the people who introduced him to the world of football, as well as most of his friends, support the red and white club. In addition, according to Shirokov, playing for Spartak challenged his ambitions. The ninth number was assigned to the newcomer – Shirokov gave him preference, since the famous Yegor Titov played under the same number.

In the first match in the new team, he came on as a substitute and scored a goal against Lokomotiv. However, this ball was the first and last in Spartak. Soon, the footballer’s affairs began to decline, he was tightly registered on the bench, and then completely stopped getting into applications for matches and was rented by Krasnodar for the second time.

Returning to Spartak, Shirokov again entered the main team and changed his number from 9 to 15. At the end of the season, Shirokov and the club’s management terminated the contract by mutual agreement, and Shirokov received the status of a free agent.

Roman Shirokov in the Russian national team

Shirokov’s debut in the Russian national team took place on March 26, 2008 against the Romanian national team. The game ended in defeat with a score of 0:3.

During the match of June 10, 2008 between Russia and Spain in the group stage of Euro 2008, commentator Viktor Gusev said: “Shirokov is not a player of the national team’s level!”, considering the defender guilty of conceded goals. Initially, many of the football community agreed with the commentator: the defeat (4:1 in favor of Spain) was the result of the failed game of the central defenders Shirokov and Kolodin.

The second meeting of the Russian team with Spain took place in the semi-finals of the European Championship on June 26, 2008. This time the Russian team lost to Spain with a score of 0:3, but the defenders Shirokov and Kolodin did not participate in the match. The opinion of experts regarding the guilt of the central defenders changed after the second defeat against the Spaniards. Most recognized the high skill and strength of the Spanish team. At the end of the Championship, Roman Shirokov gave an explanation for what happened at the match with the Spanish team, complaining about the “pseudo-specialists” who made the football player guilty. Commentator Gusev apologized to Roman, but Shirokov refused to accept them.

The qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup took place without Shirokov, since this time Hiddink did not call him to the national team. In 2010, Shirokov appeared on the field during a friendly match against Bulgaria, where the player scored his debut goal for Russia.

At a match against Brazil in March 2013, he proudly showed off the captain’s armband, which he subsequently wore in the two final qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup. Previously, the team captain was Igor Denisov. Russia successfully performed in the selection, and Shirokov took part in all 10 games. He was supposed to go to Brazil for the championship, but Fabio Capello replaced Roman with Pavel Mogilevets.

Conflicts

In August 2009, a conflict occurred between Roman Shirokov and the goalkeeper of the Zenit team Vyacheslav Malafeev – Shirokov accused the goalkeeper of conceded goals. The conflict became known after an interview with the players, during which the players exchanged barbs against each other. Subsequently, it became clear to them that the conflict had no continuation, and they declared that it had been settled.

In 2011, the football player distinguished himself with a number of sharp statements published on his Twitter. After a draw with the Armenian national team, journalist Vladimir Solovyov asked him the question: “How much longer will they shame us?” After which a “Twitter showdown” took place between them.

Before the game with Spartak at the 2011/12 Russian Championship, Shirokov said: “Spartak is not our rival at all!”, And after defeating the Muscovites, he wrote: “All the pigs with a well-deserved defeat!”

After defeating Slovakia in the Euro 2012 qualifying round on October 7, 2011, he attracted the attention of fans with harsh remarks towards rivals, calling the team a “kolkhoz”.

Personal life of Roman Shirokov

Roman Shirokov is married and has a son, Igor (born in 2008) and a daughter, Victoria (born in 2012). The future spouses met during a difficult period for Shirokov, when he changed teams one after another. Ekaterina helped Roman go through all the trials, and now they have a happy and strong family.

Roman Shirokov now

Since February 2016, Roman Shirokov has been playing for CSKA. He signed a contract with the “soldiers” until the end of the current season, but the contract contained a clause on the possibility of its extension. “CSKA is my home club,” Shirokov told the press when asked about his reasons for choosing.

On May 21, CSKA, and with it Roman Shirokov, received the title of champion of Russia – the third for Shirokov.

Shirokov also joined the Russian team for the 2016 European Championship. His teammate Alexander Golovin also went to the World Cup.

In July 2016, Roman Shirokov announced that he was ending his football career. Perhaps the reason was the defeat of Russia at Euro 2016; one way or another, the football player did not renew the contract with CSKA, but noted that he wanted to get into the coaching staff of the national team.