Roman Shishkin

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Personal information
Roman Shishkin
Full name	Роман Александрович Шишкин
Date of birth	January 27, 1987
Place of birth	Voronezh, Russia
Height	1.77 m
Playing position	defender defensive midfielder
Club information
Current club	Spartak Moscow
Number	49
Youth clubs
	FC Fakel Voronezh Spartak Moscow
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2004–present	Spartak Moscow	14 (1)
National team²
2007–	Russia	1 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 January 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 25 March 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Roman Shishkin (Russian: Роман Александрович Шишкин) (born 27 January 1987 in Voronezh) is a Russian footballer, who currently plays for FC Spartak Moscow in Russian Premier League, and the Russia national team. Being a versatile player, Shishkin can play as fullback on either flank or defensive midfielder.

[edit] Biography

Born in Voronezh in family of driver Aleksandr Shishkin and his wife, salesperson,^[1] Shishkin graduated from local football school and at age of 15 secured his first professional contract with FC Fakel. After some time with Fakel he moved to Spartak Moscow. He made his professional debut for Spartak in 2004 when Nevio Scala started using a lot of young players, however later when team signed new players such as Nemanja Vidić and Clemente Rodríguez, Roman lost chances to play for the first team. After playing for some time for Spartak reserves team he decided to leave, but Vladimir Fedotov, who at this time was club's sporting manager, convinced him to stay.^[2] In 2006 when Fedotov was appointed as a manager, Shishkin became a first team regular after Egor Titov's injury. Fedotov moved Radoslav Kováč to the midfield, Martin Jiránek took Kováč's place in the center of defense, and Shishkin started playing as a right fullback. After a couple of matches Roman received numerous praises from press and specialists and consequently Guus Hiddink invited him to participate in the national team training sessions. When Titov recovered after his injury, Shishkin did not lose his first team status even though Spartak signed another defender, Géder.

On 12 September 2006 Shishkin made his European debut after he came in as a substitute in the UEFA Champions League match against Bayern Munich. At the end of 2006 UEFA named Shishkin among Europe's eight most prospective footballers.^[3] His debut for the national team took place on 24 March 2007 as he played whole match during Russia's 2-0 victory over Estonia.^[4]