Roman Pavlyuchenko factfile: 10 things you need to know about the Tottenham striker
Published 00:00 06/01/09 By By Jonathan Goldsmith, Mirror.co.uk
Tottenham splashed out £13.8million on Roman Pavlyuchenko in the summer as Dimitar Berbatov headed for the exit door. Here's your essential need to know about the Russia hitman who has found the Carling Cup to his liking, scoring four goals on Spurs' run to the semi-finals.
1) Pavlyuchenko is a 6ft 2in 26-year-old striker born in Mostovskoy, Russia, on 15 December 1981.
2) He had already been scouted by Manchester United, Everton, Ajax and Celtic before Tottenham put in their bid.
3) He was a goal machine in Russia's Premier League. He scored ten goals in his debut season and reached double figures in each of the next four, including being the Russian Premier League Golden Boot winner in 2006 with 18 goals in 27 matches. He was joint top scorer the following season, netting 14 times in 22 games.
4) Pavlyuchenko paved the way for Spartak's first win in 23 UEFA Champions League matches when his spectacular overhead kick opened the scoring in a 3-1 victory at Sporting Lisbon during the 2006/07 tournament.
5) He started his career at his local side Dynamo Stayropol then moving to the top flight with FC Rotor Volgograd where he played for two years.
6) During his spell at Rotor he made a break through into the Russian Under-21 side.
7) He played at Spartak Moscow from 2003 to 2008, playing 141 times for the club and finding the back of the net 69 times.
8) In the summer he made five appearances at Euro 2008 scoring three times. He made his international debut in August 2003 but was left out of the squad for the next two years before being recalled.
9) To go with his impressive record at club level, Pavlyuchenko boasts 10 goals for Russia in 24 appearances.
10) Before the crunch qualifier against England, Guus Hiddink labelled the striker a "sleeping giant" - Pavluchenko responded by scoring a brace and putting Russia in pole position to qualify for Euro 2008. He became a Russian hero overnight - and was invited onto Star Factory - Russia's equivalent of Fame Academy.
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