Artjoms Rudņevs (born 13 January 1988) is a Latvian former professional footballer who played as a striker for Daugava Daugavpils in his home country, for Zalaegerszegi TE in Hungary, for Lech Poznań in Poland, and for Bundesliga clubs Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, and 1. FC Köln. At international level, he represented the Latvia national team.
Rudņevs was first called up to the national side on 12 November 2008 for the friendly match against Estonia. He started this match in the first eleven. Rudņevs also played for the U-21 side. He was called up to the national side again in January 2010 for the friendly match against South Korea. Rudņevs started the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying matches in the first eleven alongside Māris Verpakovskis, putting Ģirts Karlsons on the bench. On 7 October 2011, he scored his first international goal in the 2–0 victory over Malta in a Euro 2012 qualifying match.
Rudņevs is married and has a daughter born in 2011.
Rudņevs provoked controversy in his native Latvia after switching to using "Rudnev" on the back of his jersey for his second season at Lech, indicating his Russian ethnicity. He also drew the ire of his national team captain, Kaspars Gorkšs, when he stated that he would not learn the Latvian language in addition to Russian. Gorkšs wrote an open letter criticizing Rudņevs for the statement.
Ekstraklasa Hat-Trick 2011-09-16 | Ekstraklasa Hat-Trick 2011-08-15 | Ekstraklasa Hat-Trick 2011-07-29 |
2005-2009 |
2008-2016 |
2009-2010 |
2010-2012 |
2012-2016 |
2016-2017 |