Aleksandr Sobolev

Aleksandr Sobolev started out at Dynamo Barnaul before playing for Tom Tomsk and Krylia Sovetov Samara, the latter signing him for a fee of around €366,000 in January 2018. A loan spell at Yenisey Krasnoyarsk the following season brought three goals in ten league games but was not enough to keep Krylia Sovetov up.

The move that changed his career came in January 2020, when Spartak Moscow took him on loan with a €4.5 million buyout clause, which they triggered that June. Sobolev became a fixture at Spartak, winning the Russian Cup in 2021–22 and picking up the Russian Premier League Player of the Month award three times, in July 2019, March 2021 and August 2022. Supporters voted him the club's Fan Player of the Season for 2021–22.

In August 2024, Zenit Saint Petersburg paid a reported €10 million to sign him from Spartak, and he signed a three-year deal with a club option for a fourth. He was named Zenit's Player of the Month for July–August of the 2024–25 season, and has since won the Russian Premier League with the club in 2025–26 as well as the Russian Super Cup in 2026.

Sobolev made his debut for Russia on 8 October 2020 against Sweden, scoring in a 2–1 defeat. He has gone on to earn 15 caps and score six goals for the national team, and was part of Russia's squad at UEFA Euro 2020, coming on as a substitute against Finland and Denmark without finding the net.