January 2 – Aleksei Bugayev, a former member of Russia’s national team who played at Euro 2004, has been killed in the war in Ukraine, Russian media quoted his father and agent as saying.
“Unfortunately, the news about Aleksei’s death is true. It happened today,” TASS news agency quoted the player’s father Ivan as telling the Sport24 news outlet.
RIA news agency quoted Bugayev’s agent, Anton Smirnov, as saying intense fighting had made it impossible to retrieve Bugayev’s body for burial.
Bugayev, who was 43, played two matches as a defender for Russia at Euro 2004. One of those was against host nation Portugal, facing an attack that included a then 19-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo
In September Bugayev, who retired from football aged 29 in 2010, was sentenced by a court in southern Russia to nine and a half years in prison on drug trafficking charges. He later declared his intention to sign up to fight in the Ukraine war to avoid serving the sentence.
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