Konstantin Nizhegorodov

Rubin were level with Krasnodar when Konstantin Nizhegorodov was sent on in the 65th minute of a 20th-round MIR Russian Premier League match in March 2026. He scored Rubin's second, and the match finished 2–1.

Nizhegorodov's youth career began at Chornomorets Odesa in 2015, where his father, Gennady, worked as a youth coach. He left for Germany as a free agent in 2018 to join the Schalke 04 academy at under-17 level. A year later he moved again, on another free transfer, to the under-19 side at Hansa Rostock. Through those German seasons he was picked up by Russia's youth teams at under-17 and under-19 level.

The move back east nearly went elsewhere. In the summer of 2021 a transfer to CSKA Moscow fell through over paperwork with the German clubs, and Nizhegorodov instead signed for Rubin Kazan as a free agent. He was handed his Rubin debut on 13 September 2021.

Regular senior football took longer. Between July 2023 and June 2024 he spent a season on loan at Arsenal Tula, and returned to Kazan to sign a contract extension in 2024 that runs to the summer of 2029. He wears the number 4 shirt.

He has not yet been called up to the senior Russian national team, and has won no major titles or individual awards.