Artem Makarchuk

Artem Makarchuk took the long route to the Russian Premier League, starting out at age five at the local academy in Svetly under coach Sergei Yashchuk before playing for amateur side Olimpiya Gvardeysk in the Kaliningrad Oblast championship while training alongside Baltika Kaliningrad. That dual path led to his professional debut with Baltika in 2015, and the club would remain the constant thread of his early career either side of loan-style spells elsewhere.

Between his two stints at Baltika, Makarchuk went east to Luch-Energiya Vladivostok, making 11 appearances, then moved to Fakel Voronezh in July 2018, where he was a regular fixture with 32 appearances in the 2018/19 season. He returned to Baltika Kaliningrad on a free transfer in July 2019 and stayed until February 2022, when a move to PFC Sochi took him into a new phase of his career.

With Sochi he won a Russian Premier League runner-up medal in the 2021/22 season. The move also opened the door to international recognition: Makarchuk earned his first Russia cap in a friendly against Kyrgyzstan in September 2022, a match Russia won 2–1. Further appearances followed in draws against Tajikistan and Uzbekistan later that November, and against Qatar in September 2023, taking his tally to four caps, all in friendly fixtures.