FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod

This article is about the current club that was called FC Nizhny Novgorod from 2018 to 2022. For the defunct club, see FC Nizhny Novgorod (2007).

FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Russian: ФК «Пари Нижний Новгород»), also known as FC Pari NN or simply Nizhny Novgorod is a Russian professional football club from Nizhny Novgorod, founded in 2015. It made its debut in the Russian Premier League in the 2021–22 season.

Pari Nizhny Novgorod

Full name	Russian: Автономная Некоммерческая Организация «Футбольный Клуб «Пари Нижний Новгород»/ Football Club Pari Nizhny Novgorod
Founded	2015; 10 years ago (2015)[1]
Ground	Nizhny Novgorod Stadium
Capacity	44,899
Owner	City of Nizhny Novgorod
General director	David Melik-Guseynov
Manager	Aleksey Shpilevsky
League	Russian Premier League
2024–25	13th of 16
Website	fcnn.ru
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

The club has been known under different names:

• 2015–2016: FC Volga-Olimpiyets Nizhny Novgorod
• 2016–2018: FC Olimpiyets Nizhny Novgorod
• 2018–2022: FC Nizhny Novgorod^[2]
• Since 2022: FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod

In the 2015–16 season, it began to play in the third-tier Russian Professional Football League. It was founded as a farm club for FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod. On 15 June 2016, the parent club Volga was dissolved, with Olimpiyets becoming the top club in Nizhny Novgorod.^[3] At the end of the 2016–17, Olimpiyets won their PFL zone and were promoted to the second-level Russian Football National League. At the end of the 2018–19 season, they qualified for the Russian Premier League promotion play-offs, but lost to PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara with an aggregate score of 2–3.

In the 2020–21 season, the club finished 3rd in FNL. As the second-placed club FC Orenburg failed to receive a Premier League license due to issues with their stadium, Nizhny Novgorod was promoted to the RPL for the first time for the 2021–22 season.^[4][5]

Former Nigeria striker Sylvester Igboun suspended his contract with the team because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[6]

On 10 June 2022, the club announced that the name of the club will be changed to FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod (or Pari NN for short) due to a sponsorship deal with a bookmaker Pari, previously known as Paribet.^[7][8] The name change was approved by the Russian Football Union on the same day.^[9] Pari NN finished the 2022–23 season in 14th place, qualifying for relegation play-offs against FC Rodina Moscow.^[10] After winning the first leg of the play-offs away with the score of 3–0, Pari lost 0–2 at home and won 3–2 on aggregate, retaining their Premier League spot.^[11]

In the 2023–24 season, Pari NN finished 14th once again, qualifying for the relegation play-offs.^[12] Pari defeated Arsenal Tula with the aggregate score of 3–2 and remained in the Premier League.^[13]

On 26 December 2024, four players of Pari's Under-19 squad have been punished by the Russian Football Union for match fixing games of the Under-19 Russian Championship. Nikita Milyukov has been banned from football for life, Zakhar Mozin, Maksim Galochkin and Pavel Shalimov were banned for one year (with an additional four years suspended sentence and a two years probation), and Denis Chuprunov received a three-year suspended sentence ban with a two-year probation. None of the club management or staff were punished.^[14]

In the 2024–25 season, Pari finished 13th and qualified for relegation play-offs. However, as 12th-placed Khimki was denied the 2025–26 RPL license, Pari was not expected be relegated even if they lost in the play-offs, as they would be the priority replacement for Khimki in that case.^[15] Pari lost to Sochi in the playoffs with an aggregate score of 3–4.^[16] On 16 June 2025, Russian Football Union confirmed that Pari will remain in the Premier League.^[17]

League

Season	League										Russian Cup	Europe	Top goalscorer		Manager
	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P			Name	Goals
2015–16	3rd	3rd	27	15	8	4	38	19	19	53	2R	—	Igor Belyakov	11	Valeri Bogdanets Konstantin Galkin
2016–17	3rd	1st	24	17	4	3	47	17	30	55	2R	—	Igor Gorbunov	10	Konstantin Galkin Nikolai Pisarev
2017–18	2nd	12th	38	11	11	16	37	50	-13	55	R16	—	Radik Khayrullov	9	Nikolai Pisarev
2018–19	2nd	4th	38	18	8	12	41	31	+10	62	R16	—	Maksim Paliyenko	9	Dmitri Cheryshev
2019–20	2nd	11th	27	9	9	9	28	29	-1	36	R16	—	Maksim Paliyenko Pavel Ignatovich Igor Portnyagin	5	Dmitri Cheryshev Robert Yevdokimov
2020–21	2nd	3rd	42	27	7	8	67	28	+39	88	R16	—	Timur Suleymanov	9	Robert Yevdokimov
2021–22	1st	11th	30	8	9	13	26	39	-13	33	R16	—	Nikolay Kalinsky	8	Aleksandr Kerzhakov

Players

Current squad

As of 31 July 2025, according to the RPL website.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  RUS Vadim Lukyanov 2 DF  RUS Viktor Aleksandrov 7 MF  RUS Vladislav Karapuzov 8 MF  MLI Mamadou Maiga 9 FW  URU Thiago Vecino (on loan from Vélez Sarsfield) 10 MF  RUS Aleksandr Troshechkin 15 DF  RUS Aleksandr Ektov 16 DF  RUS Yaroslav Krashevsky 19 MF  RUS Nikita Yermakov 20 FW  URU Juan Manuel Boselli 21 MF  JAM Renaldo Cephas 22 DF  RUS Nikita Kakkoyev 23 DF  COL Juan Castillo 24 DF  PAN Edgardo Fariña

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 DF  SVN Sven Karič 27 FW  RUS Vyacheslav Grulyov 29 MF  SVN Luka Vešner Tičić 30 GK  RUS Nikita Medvedev 32 DF  BLR Vadim Pigas 40 DF  NGA Olakunle Olusegun (on loan from Krasnodar) 51 GK  RUS Yegor Koshkin 52 DF  RUS Artyom Chistyakov 70 DF  RUS Maksim Shnaptsev 75 FW  RUS Matvey Fyodorov 77 MF  RUS Andrey Ivlev 78 MF  RUS Nikolay Kalinsky 88 MF  RUS Daniil Lesovoy

Other players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  RUS Valeri Tsarukyan — FW  GNB Zé Turbo

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  GEO Vakho Bedoshvili

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  RUS Ivan Kukushkin (at Baltika Kaliningrad until 31 December 2025) — DF  RUS Kirill Glushchenkov (at Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino until 31 December 2025) — DF  RUS Yevgeny Lukinykh (at Zenit-2 until 31 December 2025) — MF  RUS Anton Mukhin (at Sokol Saratov until 30 June 2026)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  RUS Ivan Sutugin (at Spartak Kostroma until 30 June 2026) — FW  UZB Ruslanbek Jiyanov (at Navbahor until 31 December 2025) — FW  GEO Nikoloz Kutateladze (at Kolkheti-1913 Poti until 31 December 2025) — FW  RUS Stanislav Lapinsky (at Veles Moscow until 30 June 2026)

Reserve team

Further information: FC Pari NN-2 Nizhny Novgorod

Club officials

As of 16 June 2022

Position	Staff
Chairman	Ravil Izmaylov
Director of Football	Igor Kudryashov
Manager	Artyom Gorlov
Assistant managers	Leonid Ablizin
First-team coach	Oleg Levin
Senior Goalkeeper Coach	Valeriy Kleimenov
Fitness coach	Dmitriy Polyanin Kirill Zhinkin
Chief analyst	Vladimir Savchenko
Video analyst	Andrey Ankudimov
Scout	Pavel Naboyshchikov
Head of Medical	Oleg Vinokurov
Doctor	Sergey Vjalitsyn
Masseur	Vyacheslav Vishnevskiy
Team Organiser	Aleksandr Trishin