Andrei Karyaka - International Career

International Career

Although born in Ukraine, and called up for various of their youth national teams, Karyaka never came on pitch for a single national team game. He received a call up to the Ukraine national football team on 24 May 2001, but the Russian and Uzbek national teams were interested in him as well. On 29 May, he made the decision to play for the Russian team, and consequently received his first call-up on 7 August of the same year, playing his first game on 16 August against Greece. Since then, Karyaka has been one of the vital players for the Russian midfield, starting 27 games and scoring 6 goals. He was part of the 2004 European Football Championship and played all 3 games for 140 minutes.