Russian football stars Safonov, Batrakov on national team’s roster for upcoming friendlies

Russian football stars Safonov, Batrakov on national team’s roster for upcoming friendlies According to last week’s reports from the Russian Football Union, the national squad is set play friendly matches next month against Namibia and NigeriaMOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. French Paris Saint-Germain’s goalkeeper Matvey Safonov and Turkish Galatasaray FC’s midfielder Alexey Batrakov have entered the final squad of the Russian national football team’s upcoming international friendly football matches, the Russian Football Union (RFU) stated on Tuesday. Besides the above-mentioned Safonov and Batrakov, 29 Russian players have been entered into the preliminary roster and it includes: goalkeepers Anton Mitryushkin (Lokomotiv Moscow FC); Stanislan Agkatsev (Krasnodar FC), Alexander Maximenko (Spartak FC), defenders Arsen Adamov (Akhmat FC), Mingiyan Beveyev (Baltika FC), Ilya Vakhaniya (Krasnodar FC), Kirill Danilov and Danil Krugovoi (both from CSKA FC), Igor Diveyev (Zenit FC), Viktor Melekhin (Rostov FC); Yevgeny Morozov and Alexander Silyanov (both from Lokomotiv FC), Maxim Osipenko (Dynamo Moscow FC), midfielders Artyom Karpukas, Maxim Glushenkov (both from Zenit FC), Danil Prutsev, Nail Umyarov (both from Spartak FC), Matvey Kislyak, Ivan Oblyakov, Kirill Glebov (all from CSKA FC), Alexey Miranchuk (US-based Atlanta soccer club), Maxim Petrov (Baltika FC), Lechi Sadulaev (Akhmat FC), Alexander Golovin (Monaco FC), strikers Konstantin Tyukayev (Dynamo Moscow FC), Dmitry Vorobyov (Krasnodar FC) and Alexander Sobolev (Zenit St. Petersburg FC). According to last week’s reports from the Russian Football Union (RFU), the national squad is set play friendly matches next month against Namibia and Nigeria. The match against Namibia will be played on October 3 in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg while Russia will play against Nigeria on October 6 in Nizhny Novgorod. Before that, on September 29, the Russian national football squad will meet for a friendly match with Iran in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. Russia’s matches against Iran, Namibia and Nigeria will be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA, according to the RFU. Namibia is currently 121st in the FIFA World Rankings, while Russia stands at 35th. The two teams have never played each other. The match in Yekaterinburg will be the first for the Russian national team at the over 35,000-seat capacity Central Stadium, which was one of the 12 venues in 11 cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Nigeria is currently 26th in the FIFA World Rankings. Russia has played Nigeria once before. In June 2025, the teams met in a friendly match at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, finishing in a 1-1 draw. Iran is 22nd in the FIFA World Rankings. Russia and Iran have played against each other four times prior - all exhibition matches. In their most recent encounter in Russia’s Volgograd in October 2025 the hosts defeated the Iranian team 2-1. The other three matches ended in two draws and one Iranian win. Russia’s football ban The world’s governing football body, FIFA, announced on February 28, 2022, that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from participating in FIFA tournaments. In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision regarding the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments. Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as grounds for their respective bans on Russian teams’ participation in competitions. 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