Russia have named Schalke 04 defender Roman Neustadter, who was born in Ukraine and does not yet have Russian citizenship, in their squad for next month’s Euro 2016 tournament.
The Russian Football Union (RFU) announced the squad on Saturday, with head coach Leonid Slutskiy including the 28-year-old Neustadter, who has been living in Germanysince he was a child and has played for Germany’s youth teams.
Neustadter is expected to get a Russian passport in the next few days, which will allow him to play for the national team.
CSKA Moscow’s 19-year-old attacking midfielder Alexander Golovin, who only recently broke into their starting lineup, was also included in the 23-man Russia squad.
Slutskiy is coach of CSKA as well as the national team.
However, two players who have had important roles for Russia in recent years have missed out on the finals.
Former Chelsea wing back Yuri Zhirkov, who now plays for Zenit St Petersburg, and Russia’s all-time leading scorer Alexander Kerzhakov, with 30 goals, will not be going toFrance.
The RFU’s website said that the 32-year-old Zhirkov will miss the Euros due to an inflamed Achilles tendon.
Kerzhakov, 33, missed the first half of the season after falling out with Zenit head coach Andre Villas-Boas and went on loan to FC Zurich, who are bottom of the Swiss Super League.
Russia are in Group B with England, Slovakia and Wales.
RUSSIA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Guilherme (Lokomotiv Moscow), Yuri Lodygin (Zenit St Petersburg).
Defenders: Alexei Berezutski (CSKA Moscow), Vasili Berezutski (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Dmitri Kombarov (Spartak Moscow), Roman Neustadter (Schalke 04), Georgi Schennikov (CSKA Moscow), Roman Shishkin (Lokomotiv Moscow), Igor Smolnikov (Zenit)
Midfielders: Igor Denisov (Dynamo Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow), Alexander Golovin (CSKA Moscow), Oleg Ivanov (Terek Grozny), Pavel Mamaev (Krasnodar), Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Oleg Shatov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (CSKA Moscow)
Forwards: Artem Dzyuba (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexander Kokorin (Zenit St Petersburg), Fedor Smolov (Krasnodar)
