The Guardian recently looked at footballers around the world who scored more own goals than goals for their own teams. I checked the Russian game. There are plenty of candidates — from a Spartak defender who scored a scorpion-kick own goal to the man who opened the scoring in Baltika's first win after returning to the RPL.
Top scorer, appearance record, fastest goal — those statistical lines get claimed immediately. But there is another column nobody wants beside their name: more own goals than goals at the right end.
To avoid drowning in one-off accidents, I set one simple rule: at least two own goals. And I compare like with like — league goals in Russia against league own goals in Russia.
I'll start with Baltika — where else?
On 10 March 1996 Baltika met Spartak for the first time in their history. Spartak would go on to become champions that season. In the fourth minute, after Silin's low cross, Aleksandr Lipko turned the ball into his own net. 1-0 — and that score held to the end.
▶ Watch on YouTubeLater that season Lipko scored another own goal, against Torpedo-Luzhniki in a 2-2 draw. He did not score once at the right end for Spartak in the 1996 league campaign. His only senior goal for the red-and-whites came in the cup final against Lokomotiv. Spartak lost that one 2-3.
His seasonal balance was 0-2. But Lipko does not make this club overall: he later scored twice for Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod, bringing his top-flight balance level at 2-2.
Baltika in the 1990s were quite good at accepting other people's generosity. In June 1997 Zenit's Aleksey Igonin scored an 85th-minute own goal and Kaliningrad escaped with a 2-2 draw.
But Baltika gave gifts too.
Daev and Navochenko: someone save us
Vyacheslav Daev scored two top-flight own goals for Baltika. The first came on 23 July 1997 in Nizhny Novgorod: Baltika thrashed local Lokomotiv 4-1 and, judging by the scoresheet, Baltika players scored all five goals. Daev got the one at the wrong end.
The second came on 28 March 1998 in Moscow. By the 10th minute Daev had put Dynamo ahead. Viktor Navochenko rescued him in the 69th minute by equalising: 1-1.
Three months later Baltika went to St Petersburg and the roles reversed. This time Navochenko scored the own goal, sending Zenit into half-time 2-0 up. Ruslan Adzhindzhal pulled one back after the break, and in stoppage time the equaliser was scored by... Daev.
In spring Navochenko saved Daev. In summer Daev repaid the debt.
Andrade: VAR says no, own goal says yes
On 27 February 2026 Kevin Andrade scored against Zenit, but VAR ruled it out. The offside was not Andrade's: Brian Gil was judged to have interfered with the goalkeeper's line of sight. Baltika lost 0-1.
On 23 April in Grozny, Andrade did make the scoresheet — in the own-goal column. Akhmat equalised, 1-1.
That summer he moved to Zenit. On 5 August he scored his first goal for his new club. Against whom? Not hard to guess: Baltika, in the cup, 1-0.
He was not allowed a goal for Baltika against Zenit. The own goal stood. And once he was playing for Zenit, nobody ruled out his goal against Baltika.
Andrade still does not qualify for this club: in the 2025/26 RPL he also scored against Akron. Balance: 1-1.
Cherov: the man who helped Baltika
On 6 August 2023 Baltika hosted Fakel and had still not won since returning to the RPL. Visiting defender Vasily Cherov helped: in the eighth minute he deflected the ball into his own net. A few minutes later he partly made amends by assisting Vyacheslav Yakimov. But early in the second half Tamerlan Musaev scored the winner and Baltika won 2-1.
It was already Cherov's second RPL own goal — the first had come a year earlier against Dynamo Moscow in a 3-3 draw. He has one normal league goal, against CSKA in April 2024.
Balance: 1-2. So the man who gifted Baltika their first win after promotion is officially a member of this club.
Spartak and the fatal 0-1s
In summer 2020 Sport-Express counted that Spartak had by then lost four Russian league matches 0-1 because of an own goal by one of their defenders. Lipko against Baltika in 1996. Nikolay Rasskazov against Ufa in 2019. Ilya Kutepov against Zenit later that same year. And Pavel Maslov against Sochi in 2020.
You already know Lipko. Kutepov and Maslov are the main Russian representatives of the "more for your own side than the opposition" club.
Pavel Maslov — 1:3. In that Sochi game, in the 24th minute, Maslov put the ball into his own net with a scorpion-style touch. Sport24 called it the own goal of the season. Then came Dynamo in March 2021 and Rostov in April. Before that, only Lipko had scored two own goals for Spartak in a single season. After the Rostov game, statistician Kirill Burdakov calculated that only Yuri Sedov, who played from 1948 to 1958, was ahead of Maslov in Spartak's all-time own-goal list. Maslov had needed only 36 matches.
▶ Watch on YouTubeMaslov finally scored at the correct end in October 2022, against Khimki in a 5-0 win. Even including a cup goal against Dynamo, his Spartak balance in all competitions remains negative: 2-3.
Ilya Kutepov — 1:2. 1 December 2019, St Petersburg, 21st minute: after Maksimenko's save the ball bounced off Kutepov's knee into the net. The only goal of the match. In May 2021 Kutepov added another own goal in Tula, turning in a cross. His only league goal at the other end came against Anzhi in 2018.
There is a European bonus too. In February 2018 Spartak lost 1-3 to Athletic, and UEFA records the third goal as a Kutepov own goal. Sportbox still credits it to Mikel Rico. If UEFA is right, Kutepov's Spartak balance in all competitions is 2-3.
First your own net, then the opponent's
Several players here have something in common: the own goals came before their proper goals. Maslov scored three times against his own side before he first scored against an opponent. Daev did it twice. And then there is Jovan Tanasijevic.
On 19 May 2004 Dynamo Moscow were 2-0 up in Vladikavkaz by the 14th minute. Alania pulled one back, and in the 57th Tanasijevic equalised — into his own net. Final score: 2-4. Three years later the Serb scored another own goal, against Saturn in a 1-1 draw. His only goal at the correct end in the Russian league came in September 2008 against Krylia Sovetov, 3-3. Balance: 1-2.
The other club members
Denis Evsikov — 1:2. In 2001 CSKA led Lokomotiv 2-0 and lost 2-3. Evsikov scored an own goal in the 86th minute; Oleg Kornaukhov followed in stoppage time. Sport-Express noted that two players from the same team had never before scored own goals in the same Russian league match. In 2003 another stoppage-time own goal from Evsikov handed Rubin a win and the bronze medals. His only normal top-flight goal came against Amkar in 2006, by then for Spartak Nalchik.
Artyom Mamin — 0:2. No goals against opponents in the top division, but two own goals for Ural within two months in autumn 2021. In September against Rubin, a 0-4 defeat. In November against Krylia Sovetov: Mamin put Samara ahead, and only Yuri Zheleznov's 90th-minute goal rescued a draw for Ural.
Andrey Shkurin — 0:2. More than 100 top-flight appearances, no normal goals and at least two own goals for Chernomorets: against Lokomotiv Moscow in 1995 and Lada in 1996.
Albert Oskolkov — 1:2. His only top-flight goal came against KAMAZ in May 1996. Two own goals: one in 1995, one in 1996.
And the record holder?
The best-known own-goal specialist in RPL history is Solomon Kvirkvelia: he scored his fifth own goal in 2021. But he also scored six times at the right end — three for Rubin and three for Lokomotiv. Final balance: 6-5. The own-goal record holder is not necessarily a member of this club.
The most famous own goal in Russia national-team history belongs to Yuri Kovtun. In Reykjavik in 1998, in the 89th minute, he turned the ball into his own net and Russia lost 0-1 to Iceland. But Kovtun does not qualify: he scored 12 league goals against opponents in Russia, and he also scored for the national team against Yugoslavia. One miserable leap is remembered better than twelve goals.
▶ Watch on YouTubeTwenty-three years later the plot almost repeated itself. In November 2021 in Split, Fyodor Kudryashov turned the ball into his own net in the 81st minute, Russia lost 0-1 to Croatia and went to the World Cup play-offs instead of qualifying directly. But Kudryashov is not a member either: he once scored at the correct end for Russia, against San Marino in a 9-0 win. Exactly 1-1.
Sergey Savichev came even closer to the line: two RPL goals against opponents and two own goals. Exactly zero — a rare case where football lets you say "neither yours nor ours" literally.
Instead of an afterword
So the Russian-league "more own goals than goals against opponents" club looks like this:
- Maslov — 1:3
- Kutepov — 1:2
- Evsikov — 1:2
- Tanasijevic — 1:2
- Oskolkov — 1:2
- Cherov — 1:2
- Mamin — 0:2
- Shkurin — 0:2
Eight players. There are no villains and no failures here: Evsikov became a champion with CSKA, Maslov and Kutepov spent years at Spartak. It is simply a defender's job to get between the ball and the goal. Sometimes that means getting between the ball and your own goal.
There is a kind of fairness to this list. A striker who does not score is a problem. A defender who does not score is normal. So a zero in the "goals" column scares nobody until the neighbouring column contains a bigger number.
Baltika appear on both sides of the story. Their own players scored own goals and later made amends, as Daev did. Opponents scored for Baltika, and some of them earned permanent membership in this little club. Vasily Cherov, if you're reading this: thank you for August 2023.
One honest admission at the end. There does not appear to be a complete register of own goals in Russian league history: older databases are incomplete, and different sources sometimes credit the same goal to different players. So this club is almost certainly bigger than the one I found.
If you remember another candidate, leave it in the comments. One condition only: more goals for their own opponents than for their own team. I'll check every name.
