Daniil Khudyakov

Daniil Khudyakov on 25 November 2021, aged 17 years, 10 months and 16 days, came on for Lokomotiv Moscow's UEFA Europa League tie against Lazio and became the youngest Russian goalkeeper ever to appear in the main stage of a UEFA competition.

He had come up through Lokomotiv's own academy, starting out with the reserve side, Lokomotiv-Kazanka, before being pulled into the first-team squad. He was part of the group that won the Russian Cup in the 2020/21 season, though he did not feature in the final itself. He stayed with Lokomotiv until the summer of 2024, when he moved to SK Sturm Graz for a fee of around €340,000.

His first season in Austria was a quiet one in terms of minutes: two league appearances, one of them a clean sheet, and two outings in the Champions League, the first of them against Girona in November 2024. The team around him fared rather better — Sturm Graz took the Austrian Bundesliga title that season. Khudyakov's own moment came later, in the 2026/27 Europa League: away to Stade Rennais, he made six saves and was named Man of the Match as the game finished goalless.

Internationally, he has moved up through Russia's youth ranks, from the under-16s through to the under-21s.