| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrei Konstantinovich Karyaka | ||
| Date of birth | 1 April 1978 | ||
| Place of birth | Dnipropetrovsk, Soviet Union | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Dynamo Moscow | ||
| Number | 7 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1985–1990 | Dnipropetrovsk Youth Sports School | ||
| 1990–1995 | Dnipropetrovsk Olympic Reserve School | ||
| 1995–1996 | Metalurh Zaporizhya | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1996–1998 | Metalurh Zaporizhya | 49 | (8) |
| 1998–2000 | CSKA Kyiv | 35 | (4) |
| 2000–2005 | Krylia Sovetov Samara | 130 | (49) |
| 2005–2007 | Benfica | 12 | (3) |
| 2007–2010 | Saturn Moscow Oblast | 108 | (18) |
| 2011– | Dynamo Moscow | 11 | (0) |
| National team | |||
| 2001–2005 | Russia | 27 | (6) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 August 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Andrei Konstantinovich Karyaka (Russian: Андрей Константинович Каряка; born 1 April 1978) is a Ukrainian-born Russian association football midfielder who currently plays for FC Dynamo Moscow.
He has previously played for FC Metalurh Zaporizhya and FC CSKA Kyiv in Ukraine, for FC Krylia Sovetov Samara and FC Saturn Moscow Oblast in Russia and SL Benfica in Portugal and was a Russian national football team regular. He is one of best Russian midfielders in recent years. He is a winger/attacking midfielder who is known for his dribbling, passing and goalscoring ability.
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Growing up in Dnipropetrovsk in the 1980s, Karyaka was deeply influenced and inspired by the performances of the local club – FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. After multiple championships and two quarter-final finishes in European competition, it is not surprising that his major heroes were the Dnipro leaders, such as Gennadiy Litovchenko and Oleg Protasov. Karyaka attended the Dnipropetrovsk Sports Youth School, coached by W. M. Nikulin, starting at the age of 7, and the Dnipropetrovsk Olympic Reserve School starting at the age of 12. In 1985 he moved to Zaporizhzhia where he initially played for the FC Metalurh Zaporizhya youth team.
Karyaka's debut for the main team occurred on 3 March 1996, in the 1/16 round of the Ukrainian Cup against the FC Shakhtar Donetsk reserve team, and ended in a 1–0 victory for Metalurh, while Karyaka earned a yellow card. His Ukrainian Premier League debut occurred on 26 March 1996 against his original home team FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, and ended with a 2–1 Metalurh victory. He scored his first goal on 13 November 1996 in the Ukrainian Cup, and on 10 April 1997 in the Ukrainian Premier League. Other memorable games include a tie against Dynamo Kiev in blistering heat on 30 June 1997.
In 1998, Karyaka transferred to CSKA Kyiv, trained by the ex-Dynamo Kiev midfielder Vladimir Bessonov. With CSKA, he was able to participate in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, first playing against Cork City F.C., and consequently, against FC Lokomotiv Moscow. Yet in the next season, things did not work out as well, and he spent the majority of the 99/00 season playing for the reserve team.
In the summer of 2000, Karyaka was able to impress the at-the-time FC Krylia Sovetov Samara coach Aleksandr Tarkhanov during a trial match against Lada with his approach and style. He debuted for Samara against FC Anzhi Makhachkala on 13 August 2000, earning a penalty and rescuing a tie. He spent 5 games on the pitch in the 2000 season. After a thorough preparation for the 2001 season, he secured a regular spot as a left midfielder on the main team. In 2002, Karyaka became the top scorer of Samara with 12 goals in 28 games, and on 19 August 2003 he became the top scorer of the team overall in the history of the Russian Premier League with 29 goals. That season he scored 10 goals total in 29 games, but his real success at Samara would come in 2004, where he tallied 22 goals in 37 games. 17 of these came in the Russian Premier League and he missed the best scorer title by only one goal. A number of his goals came from free kicks from 30 yards out and more.
In 2005 FC Krylia Sovetov Samara encountered financial difficulties and saw this as a fitting moment to have Karyaka move on to a bigger club along with rescuing money to help the budget. As a result, he moved to SL Benfica for a comparatively small fee of 2 Million Euros. After excelling in the pre-season, Karyaka initially appeared somewhat regularly on the pitch, but as the season progressed these appearances became more and more rare. Some have attributed this to Ronald Koeman's desire to get the non-EU players to obtain the required number of games to obtain Portuguese passports.
In January 2006, the Russian sports newspaper Sovetskiy Sport published an interview with Karyaka in which he called Portugal backward and uncomfortable, and complained about his role for SL Benfica. As a consequence of this publication, he was suspended from the team for an extended period of time. However, the interview turned out to be fabricated and in July 2006 Karyaka won a lawsuit against the publication.
Although many expected Karyaka to leave SL Benfica as a result of not getting enough playing time, he stayed, and has been used actively in the pre-season training and matchups. Nevertheless, he did not receive any game-time until 21 October 2006, when he was finally substituted in the 69th minute, and scored his first goal of the season 20 minutes later. During the winter 2007, he went back to Russia to play for FC Saturn Moscow Oblast.
Although born in Ukraine, and called up for various of their youth national teams, Karyaka never came on pitch for a single national team game. He received a call up to the Ukraine national football team on 24 May 2001, but the Russian and Uzbek national teams were interested in him as well. On 29 May, he made the decision to play for the Russian team, and consequently received his first call-up on 7 August of the same year, playing his first game on 16 August against Greece. Since then, Karyaka has been one of the vital players for the Russian midfield, starting 27 games and scoring 6 goals. He was part of the 2004 European Football Championship and played all 3 games for 140 minutes.
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