Konoplyov football academy


Yu. Konoplyov football academy is a Russian youth football academy based in Togliatti.

History

The academy was founded in 2003 as SDYuShOR Krylia Sovetov. In 2007 the name was changed in honor of its founder Yuri Konoplyov, a local businessman who died in 2006 aged 39. Since then it is sponsored mainly by Abramovich's National Academy of Football.

Present

The academy comprises age-group teams ranging from Under-8's up to Under-18's. Team of Under-18's plays in the Amateur Football League, 4th level of Russian football, under the name of Togliatti-dubl. Russian Second Division's FC Akademiya Togliatti was also fed on the academy players, as was FC Togliatti, now defunct. As of 2015–16 season, the academy was feeding FC Lada-Togliatti. The senior squad of the academy originally received a license to play in the third-tier Russian Professional Football League for the 2017–18 season, but before the season started, it became the feeder team to FC Krylia Sovetov-2 Samara instead.

Alumni

The best known alumni of the Konoplyov academy are Russian international midfielder Alan Dzagoev and 2006 UEFA U-17 Championship winners Anton Vlasov, Yevgeni Korotayev, Denis Shcherbak, Igor Gorbatenko, Dmitri Ryzhov and Roman Savenkov. Another player was Ilya Kutepov who is a Spartak defender.
The list of alumni also includes: Artur Yusupov, Yevgeni Pesegov, Aleksandr Stolyarenko, Vladimir Drukovskiy, Maksim Fyodorov, Ivan Stain, Ivan Zlobin and Sergei Borodin.
Three more academy alumni made their Russia national football team debut in 2015: Roman Zobnin, Dmitri Yefremov and Artur Yusupov. Stanislav Kritsyuk and Ilya Kutepov made their national team debut in 2016. Roman Yemelyanov was called up to the squad but has not played any official games yet.