Bryan Idowu — footballer (left-back) with roots in the Russia
Bryan Oladapo Idowu, also spelled Brian, was born in St Petersburg on 18 May 1992, the son of a Nigerian father and a mother who is half Russian and half Nigerian. Apart from three years in Owerri, in south-eastern Nigeria, between the ages of three and six, he grew up in St Petersburg.
Inspired by watching Ronaldo and Roberto Baggio at the 1998 World Cup, he began playing at the local Smena club, first as a striker and briefly as a goalkeeper before settling at twelve as an attacking full-back, and in 1999 he joined the youth academy of Zenit St Petersburg. As a Black boy in the city he faced racist hostility, and he later recalled having to run from groups of attackers into the metro. He did not break into the Zenit first team, and at eighteen he left for Amkar Perm in the Urals.
After a loan to Dynamo St Petersburg in 2013-14, he signed a new three-year contract with Amkar in June 2014 extended it in February 2017 until the summer of 2020, and established himself in the Russian Premier League, scoring his first goal for the club in a Russian Cup quarter-final against Zenit in April 2016. The Russian national team coach, Stanislav Cherchesov, did not consider him, and he accepted an invitation from Nigeria's German coach, Gernot Rohr. On his debut, on 14 November 2017, he scored the third goal in a 4-2 friendly victory over Argentina, and in 2018 he was named in Nigeria's squad for the World Cup in Russia, returning to St Petersburg to play for the country of his father.
In July 2018, after Amkar was dissolved for financial reasons, he signed a three-year contract with Lokomotiv Moscow, where he played in the Premier League and the Russian Super Cup, and in August 2020, seeking more regular football, was loaned to Khimki. He has continued to play in Russia since, although, like his father, he holds Nigerian citizenship. He has said that he wanted to go to the World Cup for Nigeria because they believed in him.
"Born in St Petersburg in 1992; lived in Owerri, Nigeria, from three to six; returned to St Petersburg and made his whole club career in Russia."
Migration storyTracing the roots — St Petersburg (Russia)
Born in St Petersburg in 1992 to a Nigerian father and a half-Russian, half-Nigerian mother, he grew up there, trained at Smena and the Zenit academy and played his entire club career in Russia, including Amkar Perm and Lokomotiv Moscow, before representing Nigeria.
Father Nigerian; mother half-Russian, half-Nigerian.
St Petersburg (Russia). Today, the former Soviet space comprises fifteen sovereign independent states.