Whatever Happened to Yegor Titov?

About 6 years ago, Spartak Moscow playmaker Yegor (Egor/Yeghor/Igor/etc) Titov was one of Europe's hottest properties. He was impressive in the Champions League, and for the national team. They were narrowly eliminated from the Champions League in a tough group that featured Arsenal, Lyon and Bayern Munich, and it was widely thought that Titov would move on to greener pastures and settle in Serie A or La Liga where he could pull the strings from midfield. He was a gifted player, and at 6'1", was no pushover either. Certainly one could imagine him gracefully constructing play on the Spanish pitches where his compatriots Valery Karpin and Alexandr Mostovoi had excelled not too long ago.

Instead, he's now 30 years old, still playing for Spartak and very unlikely to make an impact on any kind of larger scale. The emergence of CSKA Moscow has seen Spartak lose control of the league, and as a result their effect on the Champions League has been minimised. Russia beat Andorra 4-0 today in the Euro 2008 Qualifiers, but there was no sign of Titov. He will probably finish his career as a club hero at Spartak, but no doubt he will have a deep sense of unfulfillment at the way his career has panned out.

Umm... I should also mention that he was tested positive for Nandrolone after a Euro 2004 qualifier and banned for 12 months, but talent is still talent. Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids, Frank de Boer, Abel Xavier, Adrian Mutu and a few others have all had lengthy drug bans, but come back to excel again. It's not THAT big a deal! Or is it? Who knows? I don't. Do you?

Anyways, i'm sure he still had a fantastic career and won many European and World Cups on Championship Manager. That's always something to fall back on.