Double Nationality: Latvian
/ Russian 
- Spoiler: show
Artyom Rudnev Russian: Артём Руднев (born January 13, 1988 in Daugavpils) is a Russian football forward from Latvia. His current club is Lech Poznań. He plays as a striker, but can also play as a right winger.
He started his career in the local club FC Daugava but in February 2009 signed a contract with the Hungarian club Zalaegerszegi TE. At first there was a problem with the new contract because the old one with Daugava was still active, so FIFA was involved. In May 2009 he finally made his debut.
In July 2010 rumors appeared that the Ekstraklasa giants Lech Poznan were interested in signing him. Later on this rumors were verified and Rudnev joined the club on trial. After a successful trial at the club and after passing the medical tests, Lech started signing talks with ZTE. Clubs couldn't come to a conclusion for a very long time and when it was done, the Polish side failed in talks with the player about the individual contract. It seemed that the talks were over but in August the same year, after Rudnev had scored two goals in the season opener, the Polish club board and ZTE sat to table again. This time talks were successful and Rudnev signed a four-year contract with the Polish giants.
In his debut in Lech Poznań jersey against Widzew Łódź he scored a goal. He scored two goals again in the third round of the championship in a 5-0 win over Cracovia. He scored his fourth goal in consecutive five matches against Śląsk Wrocław on September 11, 2010. It turned out to be the winning goal as Lech won 2:1.
Five days later he was on the score sheet again, scoring a hat-trick in a game against Juventus in the Europa League, the first goal a cooly slotted penalty, the second a scissor kick from 3 yards and the third an equalizing amazing long-yard kick deep into injury time. After this match he gained very big attention from football fans and specialists in his homeland Latvia as well as all over Europe. Rudnev himself stated that this had been "the best match of his career so far".
After 8 matches of silence Rudnev scored 2 goals on October 27, 2010 in the Polish Cup 1/8 final match against Cracovia and his team won 4:1, going through to the quarterfinals. On November 10 Rudnev scored a brilliant goal for Lech in a 2:2 draw against Polonia Warsaw. In the next game three days later he scored again - this time a header against Lechia Gdansk in a 2-0 victory. This was his sixth goal of the league season. It wasn't long to wait for the seventh goal of the season. Rudnev scored his seventh in the next league match - this time that was the only and the winning goal in a league match 1-0 victory over Polonia Bytom on November 20. So far Rudnev has scored 7 goals in the Ekstraklasa and 12 goals all together in all tournaments.
On December 1, 2010 he yet again shot a goal against Juventus, which made him saying afterwards that Juventus' goalkeeper Alexander Manninger is his "favourite goalkeeper to play against". The match ended 1-1, a result that gained Lech progress to the next round and at the same time eliminated Juventus from the competition.
He was firstly called up to the national side in November 12, 2008 for the match against Estonia national football team. He started this match in the first eleven. Rudnev also played for the U-21 side and was the team's leader together with Edgars Gauračs, who currently plays in Moldova. He was called up to the national side again in January 2010 for the friendly match against South Korea national football team. Rudnev started the EURO 2012 qualifying matches in the first eleven alongside Māris Verpakovskis, putting Ģirts Karlsons on the bench. Rudnev is still waiting for his first goal in the national team.
The top scorer, Rudnev showed many times that he is able to take shots from different angles, places. He doesn't need too much place to do it.
Hamburg in July:
