Pavel Pogrebnyak

Pavel Viktorovich Pogrebnyak (Па́вел Ви́кторович Погребня́к ; born 8 November 1983) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

In 2001, he made his debut for the Spartak reserve team and one year later he was selected for the first team squad.

Between 2001 and 2003, he scored eight goals in 23 appearances.

Born in Moscow, Pogrebnyak began his career at Spartak Moscow, making his professional debut in 2002.

In 2003, Pogrebnyak played 40 matches and scored 15 goals while on loan with Baltika Kaliningrad.

He played 16 times and scored two goals for Spartak Moscow the next season.

The same season he also scored six goals for FC Khimki in 12 appearances.

In 2005, Pogrebnyak played for Shinnik Yaroslavl and scored four goals in 23 matches.

Over the next three years, he spent time away on loan at Baltika Kaliningrad, Khimki and Shinnik Yaroslavl before joining Tom Tomsk in 2006.

After a season with them, he moved to top Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg.

There he spent three seasons and had his greatest spell of success, winning the Russian Premier League, the Russian Super Cup, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup.

Pogrebnyak made his true breakthrough during the 2006 season with Tom Tomsk scoring 13 goals in 26 matches and became one of the favorites amongst the local fans.

Pogrebnyak was signed in the off-season by Zenit St. Petersburg.

In 2007, he scored 13 goals as Zenit won the national league.

Along with Luca Toni, Pogrebnyak was joint top-scorer in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup season, scoring ten goals and helping Zenit reach the final to be played at the City of Manchester Stadium.

However, Pogrebnyak was to miss the final because of suspension following a third tournament booking in the semifinal's second leg win over Bayern Munich.

In the final, Zenit still triumphed over runners-up Rangers to add their first European silverware.

Zenit won the 2008 Russian Super Cup 2–1 over Lokomotiv Moscow, with Pogrebnyak scoring the winner in the 82nd minute.

In the 2008 UEFA Super Cup he scored one of the Zenit's two goals in the 2–1 over English champions Manchester United.

In 2009, he joined German side VfB Stuttgart.

On 28 January 2009, Zenit officials declared that they were on the verge of accepting a bid from Blackburn Rovers which would see the player move to the English side during the January transfer window, but the transfer did not take place.

On 1 August 2009, he agreed to join VfB Stuttgart.

Pogrebnyak made his Bundesliga debut seven days later by playing all 90 minutes in the opening day 2–0 defeat to the defending champions Wolfsburg.

He scored his first goal in his second game, on 15 August 2009, in Stuttgart's 4–2 win over Freiburg, in which he also won a penalty.

He ended his first season in German football scoring eight goals (six in the league).

He then started the 2010–11 season scoring four goals in the first four games including his first hat-trick in Stuttgart's historic 7–0 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

After two-and-a-half seasons, he moved to English Premier League side Fulham in January 2012, and then to Reading six months later.

He is nicknamed The Pog, Pogreb ("The Cellar") or Velikiy Po ("Po the Great"), the latter popularized by his former Zenit teammate Andrei Arshavin.

He is a "powerful player who holds the ball up well."

Pogrebnyak started playing football at the age of six for the Spartak Moscow football school.

On 31 January 2012, Pogrebnyak moved to Premier League side Fulham and signed a contract until the end of the season.

He then scored on his debut in the 2–1 win over Stoke City on 11 February 2012.

In the following game he scored again, this time against London rivals Queens Park Rangers giving Fulham a 1–0 win.

He then scored a perfect hat-trick in his next game, in a 5–0 win against Wolves on 4 March, meaning he had scored five goals in his first three games for Fulham.

This made him the quickest player to reach five goals in Premier League history.

On 21 April 2012, he returned from an ankle injury to score in a 2–1 win against Wigan Athletic at Craven Cottage.

He was released by Fulham on 1 July after failing to reach terms to extend his contract.

Pogrebnyak announced that whatever happens over his contract he will remain in England.

On 8 July 2012, shortly after UEFA Euro 2012, Pogrebnyak signed a four-year contract with Reading on a free transfer.

Manager Brian McDermott confirmed that it had been a "long process" as the deal was subject to Pogrebnyak obtaining a work permit while the club also denied rumours that he would be earning £65,000 a week.