Sports biography, as they say, “in a big way” began with Andrei Lunev in 2010. During this time, the football player has grown to a responsible position at the gates of one of the best Russian football clubs - St. Petersburg "Zenith", and in the 2016/2017 season he was awarded the title of the main opening national team and not just among goalkeepers.

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Andrey Lunev in the club "Zenith"

In the Eurocup, Zenit went to the 1/8 finals, and finished the 2018/2019 season as the winners of the national championship. The goalkeeper became the club's third record holder in terms of the number of minutes spent on the field (2610), yielding in this indicator to former colleagues Andrei Arshavin and Mikhail Biryukov. Lunev was critical of his own contribution:

“In terms of my game, I’m not very satisfied, I was counting on something completely different. 27 goals conceded in 28 league matches is a lot for the level of Zenit. The championship is great, but let it just be a good psychological background for preparing for the new season.

In another interview, Andrei made it clear that he hoped to enter the field in the official matches of the 2018 World Cup. When asked what would happen after Zenit, he answered that he would like to play in clubs in Spain, England or Germany.

Personal life

Andrey met his wife Diana on vacation in Egypt, when he was still playing for Torpedo. Young people corresponded for a long time in social networks, went to visit each other: the goalkeeper lived in Moscow, Diana - in Ufa. On the next, already joint vacation in the Dominican Republic, the football player made an offer to his beloved girl, but the couple turned this moment from their personal life into a family secret and do not share it with anyone.

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Andrey Lunev and his wife Diana

The couple got married in 2016. Only a modest collage of wedding photos was posted on Lunev's Instagram. After the 2018 World Cup, when the pages of colleagues gained millions of subscribers, the goalkeeper deleted his personal account.

“I don’t do much with Instagram. On the Internet, I just watch some funny videos or chat with old friends. And why you need Instagram, I don’t really understand. It's just a waste of time that can be spent with more useful than lying on the couch and endlessly flipping through someone's photos.

According to Andrei, all the qualities that he was looking for in his second half were combined in his wife: housekeeping, beauty, intelligence. Diana is a therapist, studying in residency with a degree in functional diagnostics.

Her husband conquered Diana, according to her, with a feat, expressed in the fact that he flew in from Moscow every weekend. In addition, Andrei created all the conditions around her to feel calm and confident. The girl turned out to be the only one who spoke out against Andrei's move to St. Petersburg, especially since Lunev could choose between Zenit and Krasnodar. Diana wanted to live where it was warmer, but the spouses chose the place where to settle in the northern capital together.

Andrey Evgenyevich Lunev is a goalkeeper who has been guarding the gates of the Zenit football club since March 2017. An offer from the St. Petersburg team put an end to his career misadventures and gave hope for a brighter future.

Childhood and youth

From the early childhood little Andrei, who was born on November 13, 1991 in Moscow, did not part with soccer ball. Therefore, the parents had no choice but to take their son to the futsal section. At first, the boy was assigned to the place of a field player, but when he got into the goal, everyone saw that Andryusha was a born goalkeeper.

Soon he was spotted by the father of a classmate, former coach, and offered to transfer the boy to an elite sport Club"Dina", founded by an influential metropolitan businessman Sergei Kozlov. In it, Andrey mastered the basic goalkeeping skills: getting out of the gate, playing with his hands, jumping and rolling. The idol of his childhood was the German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

Sports career

At the age of ten, Lunev decided to leave futsal and try his hand at the big field. He moved to a sports school at the Moscow "Torpedo", and three years later he became a player in the club's backup team. By that time, the car factory team had been relegated from the Premier League and relegated to the Second Division.

The next season turned out to be more successful, Andrey spent seven matches for Torpedo and received a good fee, which he spent almost all of it in "evil" establishments. This did not have the best effect on the athlete's reputation, and Lunev was "exiled" first to Istra near Moscow, and then to Kaluga. Having played two seasons for them, Andrei made an attempt to return to Torpedo, but received a categorical refusal from the head coach and advice to look for himself new club. So in October 2014, the goalkeeper went on a free voyage.

But somehow it didn’t grow together with the new teams, the money ran out, and Lunev began to seriously think about leaving the sport. His last hope was Dmitry Gulenkov, one of his first Torpedo coaches, who had just opened his own goalkeeping school at Luzhniki. He went to meet Andrei and undertook to prepare him for the next season.

In the winter of 2015, the athlete received an offer from Saturn from Ramenskoye, and without hesitation, he signed a contract. Lunev stayed at the club for six months, played four matches and soon realized the futility of his being in a team that was experiencing serious financial difficulties. Saturn collapsed. Fortunately, the opportunity to move to Ufa appeared, which was a great chance for him to show his abilities. In addition, this city has recently become his home, as his beloved girl Diana lived in it.

Andrey Lunev. The best saves in the 2017-2018 season

After spending sixteen games in the youth team, Lunev moved to the main team and was about to settle in the capital of Bashkiria, when he received an unexpected offer from Zenit. After moving to St. Petersburg, the athlete seemed to have a second wind: he showed himself well in the team, played several successful matches and soon became the main goalkeeper of Zenit.

Personal life of Andrei Lunev

In 2010, while on vacation in Egypt, Andrei met Diana, a native of Ufa. Young people liked each other and continued to communicate after the holidays. The lovers corresponded in social networks, rested together, went to visit each other, then began to live together.

Diana was next to Andrey when he had no money at all: they lived on 10 thousand a month, and the banks demanded the repayment of debts, which at some point had accumulated more than a million. In 2016, the lovers officially registered their relationship.

Diana moved with her husband to St. Petersburg, here she entered the therapist and dreams of soon becoming the mother of her and Andrei kids.

Zenit Family: Ekaterina Smolnikova visiting the Lunev family

Lunev is involved in charity work, for example, in the spring of 2018, he promised that if 500 thousand rubles were collected for the treatment of a girl with leukemia, he would become a minibus driver (though only for an hour) and ride 5 fans. There were so many people who wanted to see Lunev driving a gazelle that the required amount was more than doubled.

Andrey Lunev now

Lunev was included in the list of players for the Russian national team for the 2017 Confederations Cup, but missed the tournament due to injury. Having recovered, he played a match with Iran as part of the national team, and in the next, with the Spanish team, he was again injured and was hospitalized with a concussion.

Andrey Lunev: "Perfect condition, excellent mood"

Five months later, he confidently played in a match with the French national team and was honored by the national team coach Stanislav Cherchesov to represent Russia at the 2018 World Cup. During the previous season, he conceded 20 goals, but in 16 meetings out of 31 he left his team's gate “locked”.

Andrey Lunev played in "Torpedo" with Bulatov, in "Istra"– with Novoseltsev, and - "Soviet Sport in St. Petersburg" collected the main thing from his career.

Step one
Debut in Torpedo and the third division

The first match of the graduate of "Torpedo" for his native team - the third division, black and white defeated the Moscow "Alliance" 8:0. 17-year-old Lunev entered the field in the 67th minute with the score 5:0. And he missed his first goal in the next meeting against Shchelkovo Zvezda, against which he also appeared during the match (10:1).

Source: FC Torpedo. Lunev is on the far right in the middle row.

After that, Lunev entered the field only from the first minutes and played 7 more games, did not miss in four. By the way, the current one played in that team Main coach"Torpedo" Viktor Bulatov.

step two
"Gubkin" and the beginning in professionals

Lunev played his first professional match in 2010 against FC Gubkin. In the first round of the zone Center "Torpedo" won 2: 1, and Lunev played 6 more matches that season and conceded 6 goals.

Step Three
Rent in Istra and partner Novoseltsev

In 2012, after entering the FNL, Lithuanian Saulius Klevinskas became the main goalkeeper of Torpedo. Lunev spent half of the season on the bench, and therefore went on loan to Istra, who played in the second league.

AT former team Roman Shirokova Lunev became the first number, and with him the defense of the Istra goal was handled by the current Zenit defender of the national team of Russia Ivan Novoseltsev. At the time of Lunev's transfer, Istra had a six-game losing streak, and with the new goalkeeper, the team had a series of eight victories, losing only in the ninth match of Lunev.

This meeting was the last not only for Lunev in Istra, but also for Istra itself in professional football.

Step Four

FNL debut and lost competition

After returning from Istra, Lunev again failed to become the main goalkeeper, although he played three matches for Torpedo: one in the Russian Cup (against Kaluga, 1: 0) and two in the FNL (against Shinnik and Ural "- both times 2: 3). Andrey's competition was won by Alexander Dovbnya, who is now the first number of SKA-Khabarovsk.

By the way, in that season, along with Lunev, the same Ivan Novoseltsev sat on the bench.

Step five
"Kaluga" and the missing agent

Lunev spent the 2013/14 season on loan again. This time in "Kaluga": against this team he had played a dry match in the Cup of Russia a year before. Lunev played 25 matches for Kaluga and conceded 28 goals.

- When I was at Torpedo and realized that they were not counting on me, I asked the agent to look for options. I knew that after my loan at Kaluga, where I played stably, there were enough of them,” Lunev himself says. I was released from the Torpedo training camp by that time, and I went to a friend's match in the second league. And, imagine, I met this agent there! He was still surprised: “Why aren’t you at the training camp?” After that, he found me an option in Volga Nizhny Novgorod, but due to an injury, I couldn’t stay there. And after a while I decided to start working with another agent.

Step Six
Six months without football and a children's coach

After Kaluga, Lunev quarreled with Torpedo: they did not include him in the application for the 2014/15 season, they did not give him a uniform. The goalkeeper filed a complaint, terminated the contract and became a free agent. I had to train until the winter on my own, including with the first coach Dmitry Gulenkov - he has his own goalkeeper school.

step seven
"Saturn" and the transition to the RFPL club

Free Lunev found a job in Ramenskoye. For Saturn, Andrey played only four matches, conceded three goals. And he was left without a contract after the collapse of the Moscow Region team.

In Ufa, the 23-year-old goalkeeper was known: goalkeepers are coached there by Yuri Pereskokov, and before that Lunev crossed paths with him in Kaluga. Scouts from Ufa came to one of the four matches of Saturn with Andrey and were impressed. In the summer of 2015, Lunev moved to Bashkiria and played in the youth team: 16 matches, 25 missed. "Ufa" took the last place, but Lunev was connected to the main team.

Step eight
Premier League debut and 357 minutes clean

Ufa started the 16/17 season with three goalkeepers: Giorgi Shelia was considered the main goalkeeper of the Russian youth team Mikhail Borodko, who came from Yenisei in the off-season, had to compete with Lunev.

After Shelia's injury, it was Lunev who was entrusted with the place at the gate for the match with Krasnodar. Andrei did not miss the first 357 minutes of his career in the Premier League, including a clean sheet with Krasnodar, Lokomotiv and Spartak.

Shelia recovered, he was put in the base against Rubin, but already in the 8th minute he earned a direct red card. The coaches did not experiment more, Lunev finished the rest of the matches in 2016: a total of 10 Premier League matches and 4 goals conceded.

Step nine
Transfer to Zenit

In the penultimate week of 2016, Andrey Lunev took another step up - to the Russian top club: he successfully passed a medical examination at Zenit and signed a contract for 4.5 years.

Andrey Evgenievich Lunev. Born November 13, 1991 in Moscow. Russian football player, goalkeeper. Champion of Russia (2019).

Andrey is a pupil of FSM "Torpedo". In 2010 he began to play for the first team of the Moscow "Torpedo".

Loaned out in 2011/2012 season football club"Istra". In the summer of 2013, he was rented by Kaluga. In October 2014 he became a free agent. In the winter of 2015, he signed a contract with Saturn Ramenskoye, played 4 matches.

In the summer of 2015, he became a player of Ufa, where he played the first season in youth team. September 11, 2016 debuted in the Premier League. Until the end of the year, he played 10 matches for Ufa, conceded 7 goals, kept 6 games to "zero", being the main goalkeeper of the team.

December 23, 2016 moved to St. Petersburg "Zenith". The contract was concluded for a period of 4.5 years.

He played his first official match for Zenit on March 19, 2017 against the Tula Arsenal (2: 0). After several successful matches, Lunev managed to become the main goalkeeper of the team, having won the competition and received the status of one of the most promising goalkeepers in the country and Europe.

Football commentator Vasily Utkin said this about Lunev: “I don’t want to say anything bad about Lunev, he is an absolutely healthy person. But he has an autistic temperament. I will tell one story. Zenit went to the game with Spartak. The players have already gathered in the lobby, waiting for the bus. Everyone had jitters except Lunev, who was the last to arrive, and it was clear that he had just woken up, he had a pillow mark on his face. Lunev has no nerves.”

On August 13, 2018, in a match with Rubin, he kept a clean sheet and entered the symbolic Club of Leonid Ivanov.

Andrey Lunev in the Russian national team:

He got into the extended squad of the Russian national team for the Confederations Cup, but did not go to the tournament, having been injured in the match against Krasnodar.

On August 16, 2017, he joined the extended squad of the Russian national team to participate in a training camp in Novogorsk. Lunev's debut for the national team took place on October 10, 2017 in a friendly match with the Iranian national team (1: 1). On November 14, he played the second match for the Russian national team against Spain (3: 3), at the end of the meeting he received a head injury and was hospitalized. In March, in the game with France, he came out in the first team in a friendly match and showed a confident game.

He played the first match of the Russian national team in the League of Nations against Turkey (2:1). He also played matches with the German national team (0:3) and Sweden (0:2). In matches against San Marino and Cyprus, he was on the bench (Marinato Guilherme defended the national team).

The growth of Andrey Lunev: 190 centimeters.

Personal life of Andrei Lunev:

Married. The wife's name is Diana, originally from Ufa. We met while on vacation at sea, when Lunev was still playing for Torpedo. We corresponded for a long time on the Internet. Then we met when Andrei flew in to play for Ufa. A serious relationship began between them.

We got married in the summer of 2016.

Sports achivments Andrey Lunev:

"Zenith":

Champion of Russia: 2018/19;
Silver medalist Finalist of the Russian Super Cup: 2019;
Bronze medalist of the Russian Championship: 2016/17

Personal:

The best player of the month of the Russian Football Championship: September 2016;
Honorary Diploma of the President Russian Federation(July 27, 2018) - for a great contribution to the development of domestic football and high sporting achievements;
Listed 33 the best football players championship of Russia: No. 3 - 2017/18, 2018/19