Leonov Sergey Nikolaevich - a professional Russian ex-soccer player, speaking in the position of a central midfielder (sometimes a defensive or attacking one). During his 18-year football career, he replaced 14 clubs. Of his main sports achievements, one can single out the championship in the second division of the “Center” in the “Spartak-Orekhovo” in 1998.
First steps in sports
Football player Sergey Leonov was born in 1976 on March 14 in the city of Pikalyovo, Leningrad Region (USSR, now Russia). He was brought up and raised in an ordinary family of workers. My father was a machine operator at the Alumina refinery, and his mother was a pharmacist. Since childhood, Sergey Leonov has always been active and agile, he constantly wanted to play something and never sat still.
At the age of six, parents decided to send the boy to the local football section. Sergey was already familiar with this sport: from morning till night the guy chased the ball with yard guys and did not miss a single match involving St. Petersburg Zenit. Therefore, young Sergey came to the sports section prepared and more or less experienced. Among peers, the guy immediately began to gain not only professional authority.
A few years later he was transferred to a specialized children's and youth sports school of the Olympic reserve (SDYUSHOR, Pikalyovo). Real professional trainings and various competitions have already begun here, both urban and regional. A few years later, Sergey Leonov became the captain of his team.
The beginning of a football career at FC Metallurg
When the guy turned sixteen years old, his football talent was noticed by the coaching staff of the local club Metallurg (Pikalyovo), which participated in the championship of the Leningrad Region. The young footballer was offered a real professional contract and, of course, he could not refuse.
So, in 1994, Sergey Leonov became a player of Metallurg (Pikalyovo). Here the footballer first began to play in midfield. Head coach Anatoly Belov in every possible way experimented with his playing position on the field. It is surprising that the football player was able to play excellently as an opornik, and a midfielder, and a winger.
As part of Metallurg, Leonov played 4 seasons (from 1994 to 1996). In the championship of the Leningrad Region, he spent 52 matches, in which he scored 5 goals and made 23 assists.
Going to Spartak-Orekhovo
After Leonov had a good reputation as a universal midfielder at Metallurg, they began to invite him to the clubs of the second division. For a month, the young football player considered various offers. In the end, he opted for Spartak-Orekhovo (today this club is called the Banner of Labor). In 1997, Sergey Leonov signed a contract with him.
Quickly adapting to the new team, he began to enter the field in the first team. It can be safely stated that the career at Spartak Orekhovo was the most remarkable in the biography of the football player. Indeed, already in the next season, his team won the Cup of the second division “Center”.
In the three seasons that Sergey Leonov spent as part of Spartak-Orekhovo (from 1997 to 1999), he played in 57 matches, where he scored one goal and 17 assists. Nevertheless, Leonov failed to stay in the team. After three gaming rounds, he moved to the club "Spartak" (Tambov).
Tambov Spartak and the Finnish club KTP
In 1999, Sergei Leonov received a lucrative offer from Tambov's Spartak, who played in the second familiar division of Center. Here he managed to play only 15 matches, after which he was seriously injured and dropped out before the end of the season, thereby losing his place in the first team. Unfortunately, this predetermined the future professional career of a football player.
Having recovered from a serious injury, Sergey received an offer from the KTP football club from the Finnish Premier League (Veikkausliiga). This was the first European transfer of his career. However, the game didn’t work out at all here: at the end of the season the team flew to the Yukkönen lower division, and Sergey Leonov returned to his homeland. In total, from 1999 to 2000. he played eleven matches for KTP, but failed to distinguish himself with a goal scored.
Downgrade
Returning to his homeland, Leonov began playing for the semi-professional club Spartak-Kavkaztransgaz from the city of Izobilny. Here he spent half the season, having managed to play 10 matches, in which he scored 10 goals. In the same 2001, he joined the Spartak-Telecom club (Shuya), for which he played 17 matches until the end of the football season.
In 2002, Leonov acted in the team of FC Svetogorets (Svetogorsk). Here he played 26 matches in which he had never scored a goal.
Unfortunately, the injury received in 1999 did not allow Sergei to play at the previous professional level. Leonov's further football career took place in amateur and semi-professional clubs. The midfielder played for such little-known teams as PSG (Gatchina), Metallurg-TFZ (Tikhvin), Pobeda (Kronshtadt) and many others.