Ex-footballer of the Russian national team, 42-year-old Alexey Bugaev detained in the Krasnodar region for disobedience to police officers; he is suspected of drug distribution. Bugaev was found to have 0.5 kg of mephedrone (methylephedrone derivative). Before his arrest, Bugaev placed bookmarks near the dormitories on the campus of the Kuban Agrarian University in Krasnodar. The former athlete resisted law enforcement officers during a special operation to control the circulation of prohibited drugs.
By a court decision, Bugaev was placed under administrative arrest for seven days. If he is proven guilty of involvement in drug trafficking, the punishment will be very severe. And the former titled athlete may spend the next few years in a colony.
Bright rise A native of Moscow went through the youth school of the famous “Torpedo” and, as part of the capital’s team born in 1981, became the winner of the Russian championship. Then the defender played for two years in the reserve team of the Automobile Plant and, in transit through the Tomsk Tom in 2003, returned to the base of the “black and whites”, where he spent perhaps the best seasons of his career.
The team led by Sergei Petrenko, a Torpedo player with many years of experience who played almost 300 matches for the team, was in the lead after the first round in 2004 and was eager to win the national championship. The leaders were such bright players as Igor Semshov, Konstantin Zyryanov, Sergei Kormiltsev, Alexander Panov, and in defense, along with the experienced Mantas Samusevas and Andrei Stepanov, 22-year-old Bugaev stood out.
In 2004, impressed by Bugaev’s performance, the head coach of the Russian national team, Georgy Yartsev, included the defender in the team to participate in the European Championship. Alexey communicated, trained and played next to such stars as Alexander Mostovoy, Sergei Ovchinnikov, Vadim Evseev, Alexey Smertin, Marat Izmailov, Dmitry Alenichev, Alexander Kerzhakov… At the tournament in Portugal, the defender played two matches, and in the meeting with the home team he played against skilled attacking players Luis Figo and Pedro Pauleta. In total, he has seven games for the national team.
“But in the second round, the craving for alcohol took over and, perhaps, the defender who caught the “star” after Euro 2004 did not show up for one of the team’s away matches. He just disappeared. The main goalkeeper of Torpedo, Dmitry Borodin, later recalled: “After the Euro, we had two away games — to Rubin and Shinnik. When we were gathering at the hotel on the eve of departure, Lech simply did not come. Then there was a beer festival in Moscow and Bugaev started drinking. Then he wrote to our doctor: “Fly away without me.” As a result, we lost both matches. So Lech could have set the team up at any moment.”
“Torpedo” eventually became feverish, the team lost its tournament rhythm and finished the season is only in fifth place.
Downhill In 2005, the footballer moved to Lokomotiv Moscow, with whom he achieved the biggest achievements in his career — victory in the Russian Super Cup and bronze medals in the national championship. But this was the last bright splash of a talented player with a weak character. Even the highly experienced Yuri Semin, who was able to cope with many problem players, was unable to find the keys to a person who was unpredictable in his actions, who, for example, could easily turn off his phone and disappear for several days. Semin's trust in Bugaev gradually evaporated, and the club's management soon parted with him easily, despite the previously concluded three-year contract.
Then there were three seasons again in Tom, a contract with Khimki near Moscow, for which the player ultimately did not play a single match, and 20 games in less than a year in Krasnodar. Coaches and partners changed, the player was punished, fined, coded, but no one was able to find the right approach to a wayward football player prone to violating the rules. The craving for the “green serpent” turned out to be stronger; in May 2010, the contract with Krasnodar was terminated — and at the age of 29 Bugaev ended his career.
«»He was a good, very smart football player. He seemed to be short (180 cm), but he read the game very well. And when he was in normal condition, he played strongly, at the level of the Russian national team. But the (alcohol) problems he had , outweighed everything. Anything happened. It was the weakness that, apparently, was most likely associated with a genetic level. It was not his fault, but the person’s misfortune. I haven’t seen him for many years,” said the head coach of Voronezh “Fakela” Sergei Tashuev, who headed Krasnodar in 2010.
After some time, it turned out that the former Russian national team football player works at a regular waste paper collection point and is engaged in occasional cargo transportation. Bugaev completely forgot about football, did not go to matches and did not even follow events in the world. In the world that once gave him a rare chance to become a star on a Russian scale. But the player did not pass the “copper pipes” test, and his tendency to violate the sports regime and an idle lifestyle played a fatal role.
The accumulated financial problems apparently pushed the ex-football player onto a slippery slope. From the outside, making money as a drug courier seems easy and quick, but in Russia they are judged very strictly for this. And if Bugaev’s guilt is proven, then the once football star will spend the next few years in prison.