Dmitri
Alenitchev born 20 October 1972 in Velikie Luki, Soviet Union)
is a professional footballer.
Despite being a Spartak Moscow fan, Alenichev debuted 1991 for
Moscow rivals Lokomotiv, where he played during four years
before moving to Spartak, where in five years he won three
Russian leagues and two cups, and was also elected Russian
player of the year in 1997. He won a transfer to Serie A side AS
Roma, played 21 matches in the first season, but after only
seven matches played, he moved to AC Perugia in December.
In 2000 he was bought by FC Porto, where he made a good first
impression (scored the tying against Sporting in the Portuguese
Super Cup), and made a good first season where Porto captured
the Portuguese cup 2-0 against CS Marítimo, Alenichev scoring
the second goal. In the following season, Alenichev suffered
some animosity from new Porto coach Octávio Machado (the same
happened with compatriot Sergei Ovchinnikov) and spent most of
the first half of the season sidelined, under the shadow of Deco.
As soon as Octávio was fired and replaced with José Mourinho,
Alenichev's luck changed. Although he still didn't play in the
starting eleven, he was usually the first player to jump from
the bench, especially when Mourinho passed from a 4-3-3 to a
4-4-2 formation. A starting player in the UEFA Cup final and mid-game
substitute in the Champions League final, Alenichev scored on
both: against Celtic he scored the second goal, following a pass
from Deco, and against AS Monaco he closed the scoreline with a
powerful volley shot following a deflected through cross from
Derlei. |
