I've posted about him in the Detective Work thread before, but his club's web site now confirms that the '95 on FC Dynamo Moscow's second team is American-born. http://fcdynamo.ru/team/jounior/players/profile/?id_4=89 (On the link above, "Камден (Нью-Джерси, США)" translates to "Camden, New Jersey.") Old DW thread post: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...ive-work-thread.1987805/page-11#post-32159833
According to Transfermarkt, he made his Premier Liga debut in May, so he can actually go into YA forum. @bungadiri @Friedel'sAccent
Dynamo Moscow & Russia U19 MF Valeri Saramutin confirmed by his club as being born in NJ. https://t.co/NgwpMrjxj9 pic.twitter.com/mY7bDSbVTR— Nats Abroad (@Nats_Abroad) August 16, 2016
Dynamo Moscow were relegated from the RPL at the end of last season, but he's only played with their reserve team in the third tier so far.
He made a 2 min sub cameo in a 3-0 win at Baltika in the league late last year. Dynamo are still top of 2nd division. They are looking good to bounce back up.
He's moved to FC Dynamo St. Petersburg, who are newly promoted members of the Russian 2nd division. http://www.fcdynamospb.ru/news/item/854-saramutin-prodolzhit-kareru-v-dinamo-spb Translated: 22-year-old midfielder Valery Saramutin moved to Dynamo-SPb, signing a contract with the club, designed for two years. Saramutin, born in the US state of New Jersey and also having US citizenship, since 2012 has played for various teams of the Moscow "Dynamo", and in 2016 made his debut in the Premier League. Last season, Valery played, mainly, for the farm club of Muscovites - the team "Dynamo" -2 in the PFL, having played for it almost all the matches, including two meetings with our teams. (Saramutin came to mind because Timothy Tillman played a friendly today vs. Saramutin's previous club, Dynamo Moscow.)
Apparently, he's a strictly Dinamo guy. That still leaves a lot of options in the future (Kiev, Minsk, Tbilisi, Zagreb...) Anyway, he's played 2 of their 4 games in the beginning of the FNL (Football National League) season: the second half in a 2-0 win over Fakel and the full 90 in a 0-3 loss to Rotor. D-SPb are tied for 3rd in the early going.
And we complain about travel in MLS being tough! That's a nine hour flight. Although you could also opt for the 154 hour ride on the Trans-Siberian.
FC Dynamo St. Petersburg was relocated to Sochi this summer, so maybe that has something do to with him leaving. They probably wanted to reload the squad for a big promotion push. As an aside, relocation is fairly unusual in Russia, and it's unfortunate for the fans as it was a historic club that was the most popular in the city for much of the 1900s. Then again, their average attendance was 647 last season. The ownership is surely hopeful that there will be much larger returns for PFC Sochi who will be playing in the Fisht Stadium that was used for the Olympics and World Cup, especially if they get promoted to the Russian Premier League. Clubs have tended to struggle financially in Sochi, but the Dynamo ownership probably has enough funding to make this one work. It would have been cool for Saramutin to play in Fisht, but maybe there are still better things coming for him.
I guess that's not surprising because Sochi is very small. Then again, while unsustainable sugar daddy clubs can be found around the world, it does seem like they are particularly common in Eastern Europe.
We all managed to miss that Valeri Saramutin signed with USL Austin for 2019. Saramutin appeared in 16 matches this season for FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg, scoring once and adding four assists in 937 minutes of play in his first season with the club. Born in Camden, N.J., the 23-year-old played with the Russian U16, U17, U18 and U19 national teams from 2011-14. He appeared in 21 matches for the squads, often serving as a captain, and advanced to the UEFA U-16/U-17 and UEFA U-19 Championship Elite Round each year. Saramutin started his career with the FC Dynamo Moscow youth academy in 2012, winning back-to-back Russian Football Premier League U-21 Championships in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. He made his professional debut with the senior team in 2016, helping the club to the 2016-17 Russian Football National League Championship. https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/943810
He's popped up with Veles Moscow in the third tier of Russia and has been playing for them, according to Transfermarkt.
A few sites have him as moving to Russian lower-division club FK Olimp-Dolgoprudnyi earlier this year. Since this thread doesn't get much action, I'll take this opportunity to post a song called "Valerie," which I like.
Valerie? Here's a 1969 re-make by Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention of the Jackie & the Starlites (1960) original: