Dmitri Alenichev

Alenichev in 2008

Despite being a Spartak Moscow fan, Alenichev debuted 1991 for Moscow rivals Lokomotiv, where he played four years before moving to Spartak, where in five years he won three Russian leagues and two cups, and was also elected Russian player of the year in 1997. He won a transfer to Serie A side AS Roma, played 21 matches in the first season, but after only seven matches played, he moved to AC Perugia in December 1999. His stint in Italy overall proved to be unsuccessful and he was eventually considered to be one of Italian football's biggest foreign flops.

In 2000, he was bought by FC Porto, where he made a good first impression (scored the tying against Sporting in the Portuguese Super Cup), and made a good first season where Porto captured the Portuguese cup 2–0 against CS Marítimo, Alenichev scoring the second goal. In the following season, Alenichev suffered some animosity from new Porto coach Octávio Machado (the same happened with compatriot Sergei Ovchinnikov) and spent most of the first half of the season sidelined, under the shadow of Deco. As soon as Octávio was fired and replaced with José Mourinho, Alenichev's luck changed. Although he still didn't play in the starting eleven, he was usually the first player to jump from the bench, especially when Mourinho passed from a 4–3–3 to a 4–4–2 formation. A starting player in the UEFA Cup final and mid-game substitute in the Champions League final, Alenichev scored on both: against Celtic he scored the second goal, following a pass from Deco, and against AS Monaco he closed the scoreline with a powerful volley shot following a deflected through cross from Derlei. This made him one of only three players to score goals in two consecutive Cup Finals of different European competitions, the others being Ronald Koeman and Ronaldo.

During Euro 2004, where he played all three matches Russia played, he announced his desire to return to Spartak Moscow, and in appreciation for the services done for the club, the FC Porto board made no objections to the transfer.

On 8 April 2006 Sport-Express published Alenichev's interview containing severe criticism of Aleksandrs Starkovs, Spartak's head coach at the time. Following that, Alenichev was fined, dismissed from the first team, transfer listed 14 April and on 10 September his contract was finally terminated by mutual agreement. This became the end of Alenichev's football career.

Alenichev then joined the United Russia party. On 14 June 2007 he was voted the representative of the Omsk Oblast in the Federation Council of Russia. He represented it until 2010, when he accepted the position of the head coach with the Russian national under-18 team.

In 2009, he was part of the Russia squad that won the 2009 Legends Cup. In June 2015 Alenichev became the manager of FC Spartak Moscow, where he had played previously. He resigned as Spartak manager on 5 August 2016, following Spartak's elimination in the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round by AEK Larnaca.

On 5 June 2017, he signed a two-year contract with FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk.

Club

Spartak Moscow

• Russian Premier League: 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998
• Russian Cup: 1993–94, 1997–98

Porto

• Portuguese Liga: 2002–03, 2003–04
• Portuguese Cup: 2000–01, 2002–03
• UEFA Champions League: 2003–04
• UEFA Cup: 2002–03

Individual

• Footballer of the Year in Russia (Sport-Express): 1997
• Footballer of the Year in Russia (Futbol): 1997

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	11 February 1996	Ta' Qali National Stadium, Attard	Slovenia	2–0	3–1	1996 Rothmans International Tournament
2.	11 October 1997	Dynamo Stadium, Moscow	Bulgaria	1–0	4–2	1998 World Cup qualifier
3.				4–0
4.	31 March 1999	Republican Spartak Stadium, Vladikavkaz	Andorra	6–1	6–1	Euro 2000 qualifier
5.	6 June 2001	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1–0	2–1	2002 World Cup qualifier
6.	14 November 2001	Skonto Stadium, Riga	Latvia	2–0	3–1	Friendly

His older brother Andrei Alenichev also played football professionally.