Daniil Lesovoy

Daniil Lesovoy did not start out choosing between countries. Born in Moscow, he moved to Kyiv at the age of six and came up through Dynamo Kyiv's academy, where he was named the best player of the DFL Under-15 tournament in the 2012/13 season. He represented Ukraine at Under-16 and Under-17 level, but an injury at seventeen coincided with a switch in allegiance: having taken Russian citizenship, he moved into the Russia youth setup at Under-20 and Under-21 level instead. His move into senior football went through Zenit St Petersburg, whose academy he joined in 2015 before turning professional a year later. He was loaned out and then sold to Arsenal Tula, where he became a regular fixture on the left wing despite being naturally right-footed. That form earned him a move to Dynamo Moscow in 2020, including a bronze medal in the Russian Premier League in the 2021/22 season. A knee operation interrupted his time there, but he still made over fifty league appearances for the club. The following years turned into a string of loans — to Maccabi Haifa in Israel, then to AEL Limassol in Cyprus, where he scored four goals in a season. Dynamo Moscow eventually let him go permanently to Pari NN, though they kept a buy-back option. From there he moved on loan again, this time to Dynamo Makhachkala, where he has made seven league appearances and scored once so far.