There are football players who, although they did not achieve great heights in their profession, however, remained for a long time in the hearts of the fans, and their names are still widely known. Among modern Russian players, one can cite Alan Gatagov as an example. A still quite young midfielder, who had previously played for Lokomotiv and Dynamo, had already left the Russian Premier League and is now playing in Kazakhstan. But there Alan Gatagov does not let himself be forgotten: last March, the name of the football player appeared on the same list with such star players as Paul Pogba (Juventus), Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli) and Khabi Alonso (Bayern) . How did it happen and what else did Gatagov celebrate in his career? About it below.
The beginning of Alan Gatagov’s career
Gatagov Alan is a football player born on January 23, 1991 in Vladikavkaz. Alan started playing football in his hometown at the age of three. When Gatagov was six, he ended up in the football school of the Vladikavkaz Alania. And at 12 he was taken to the Moscow Lokomotiv, when the Alan family moved to the capital.
At the Lokomotiv school, Gatagov tried on various positions, from the central defender to the striker, but over the years he has formed just like an attacking midfielder. In 2008, a football player was attracted to training with the base and offered a professional contract.
Gatagov's debut for the first Loko team took place on May 16, 2009 in a match against Grozny's Terek. On August 9, the footballer scores his first goal. Alan also receives the first call to the Russian youth team.
At the end of the 2010 season, Gatagov manages to take a strong place at the heart of Lokomotiv. At the end of the year, the midfielder takes second place in the vote for the title of best young player.
Leaving Lokomotiv and further career
The club extends the contract with Gatagov at the beginning of 2011, but already in the summer the player is being sold to Dynamo Moscow. In the same year, changes come in the personal life of the newly-made midfielder of the “white and blue”: the speech is about a gift that was received from his wife by twenty-year-old Alan Gatagov. The wife of a football player Olga gave birth to his son.
Gatagov did not work out at Dynamo (he did not really play for the club), and a year later he was rented to Tom. The following is a rental to Makhachkala “Anji” and “Maccabi” from Petah Tikva (Israel). In January 2015, Gatagov finally leaves the “blue and white”. The footballer signed an agreement with the Irtysh Kazakhstan club (Pavlodar). Gatagov played for him in 18 matches, after which he moved to another Kazakhstan club - Taraz. Now there are rumors that Alan Gatagov is leaving Taraz.
What Gatagov remembered
Perhaps the most memorable episode with the participation of Gatagov in the Russian Championship was, unfortunately, not one of his goals, but a miss. This happened when Alan was still playing for Lokomotiv, in the match against Siberia. The Moscow team struck a free kick, which the goalkeeper of Siberia dealt with, but hit the ball right in front of him, and the notorious Lokomotiv striker Dmitry Sychev was the first to finish. Sychev hit directly to the goalkeeper, but the attack did not end there: the ball bounced to Alan Gatagov. The midfielder was literally a couple of meters from the absolutely empty goal, and yet Gatagov somehow managed to break through higher. That match ended in a draw 1: 1.
We must pay tribute to Gatagov: this fantastic mistake did not break him. Soon after, he scored an important goal for France for the Russian youth team. That goal, according to rumors, even attracted the interest of some European clubs to the football player.
Gatagov scored not often, but almost always beautifully. You can recall his goal to Nalchik “Spartak”, scored in the fall “through himself”. Alan was always fine with the technology, and some of his tricks still fall into YouTube collections.
The famous goal for the "Irtysh"
A separate mansion in the career of Alan Gatagov is his goal for the Pavlodar "Irtysh". This was the first (and last) goal of Gatagov for the new team, and he was scored in his debut match.
In the spring of 2015, in the first round of the Championship of Kazakhstan, Irtysh hosted Ordabas. The footballer scored his goal after filing “Ordabas” from the flank to the corner. Alan Gatagov managed to hit the heel in the fall. As the midfielder himself later said: “in the style of Ibrahimovic.” This goal brought the Irtysh 1-1 draw.
Gatagov’s goal was on the list of sixteen most beautiful goals of the week according to the British newspaper The Guardian. Together with the Russian midfielder, Paul Pogba, Gonzalo Higuain, Xabi Alonso and Diego Forlan entered the list .
It remains only to wish good luck to Alan Gatagov and hope for his return to the Russian Championship. The footballer is still young, and so who knows, maybe in the future he will be able to make his debut for the first national team.