Four Russian duets and one from Zambia: brothers who scored in the RPL from each other's passes

Evans and Kings Kangwa are the first foreign brothers to score a goal together in an RPL match. Before the Zambian midfielders, four other fraternal duos in the Premier League had done this.

Georgy and Dzhambulad Bazaev

The Bazaev brothers started their professional careers in 1996, but played for different teams in the third tier: Georgy, the eldest in the family, played for Spartak Anapa, while Dzhambulad featured for FC Mozdok. In 2001, they were reunited at Alania, but a year later Bazaev Jr. went to Zenit on loan, then spent two seasons at Saturn, until he returned to Vladikavkaz in 2005.

That season, Dzhambulad became the top scorer of Alania in the RPL with nine goals. Georgy scored once, but from his brother’s pass on 15 May against Rubin Kazan. Alania beat Rubin 4-3 at home, and Dzhambulad added a double to his assist. The brothers switched roles on matchday 28. Georgy assisted his younger brother in the match with Terek Grozny, and Alania won 2-1 in Pyatigorsk. However, in the next match, the Bazaev’s team lost 2-1 on their own field to Tom Tomsk and later were relegated from the RPL.

Next season Georgy moved to Luch-Energia, while Dzhambulad switched to Rubin. In 2008, they met again at Alania, and in 2010 returned to the RPL, but scored one goal between the two of them. Dzhambulad scored it in the 2-1 defeat to Spartak Nalchik on the second matchday. Alania eventually left the Premier League as the senior Bazaev finished his career at Luch in 2011, and the younger at Alania in 2012.

Dmitry and Kirill Kombarov

The twins trained together at Spartak and went to Dynamo, but Dmitry was the first to play for the Blue-Whites: in July 2005, at the age of 18, he played for Muscovites in a goalless draw against Dynamo Bryansk in the last 32 of the Russian Cup. Kirill made his debut at the same stage of the Cup, only in September 2006 in a 2-0 win over Spartak Nizhny Novgorod.

In 2007,the Kombarovs gained a foothold in Dynamo as the main wide midfielders, and the following season they scored family goals for the first time. In July 2008, Kirill scored the only goal against Zenit from his brother's cross, and a month later Dmitry scored a header in the 1-1 draw against Moscow. During his Dynamo career, Dmitry scored more often from his brother's passes (3) than vice versa (2). After returning to Spartak in 2010, the twins managed one joint goal, against Legia Warsaw in the 3-2 Europa League playoff round defeat.

The Kombarovs played together for Spartak until 2016, with a break for the 2014/15 season, when Kirill was loaned to Torpedo. He was the first to leave the Moscow club: in June 2016, he signed a contract with Tom Tomsk, and since January 2017, he has been playing for Arsenal Tula. Dmitry became an RPL champion with the Red-Whites in the 2016/17 season, and in the summer of 2019 moved to Krylia Sovetov, for whom he continues to play in the second-tier FNL.

Ruslan and Rustem Mukhametshin

The Mukhametshin brothers began their career at Rubin in the second team in 2008, before leaving their hometown and heading to SOYUZ-GAZPROM from Izhevsk. In the middle of 2009 they appeared for Mordovia Saransk, which in three years had risen from the second division to the RPL. In the FNL championship-winning season for Mordovia, Ruslan, the elder of the brothers, won the scoring race in the championship with 31 goals, and Rustem was the team's third highest goalscorer (11).

In his debut season in the RPL, Ruslan was also productive; he scored 10 goals and became one of the best Russian scorers along with Aleksandr Kokorin from Dynamo and Aleksandr Kerzhakov from Zenit. In one of the goals, his brother directly helped him: when playing with Rustem, the forward scored against Terek in November 2012, but Mordovia lost 2-1 in Grozny. Mukhametshin Jr. scored once in the championship in a 2-0 win over Anzhi in March 2013.

The team left the RPL after the first season, but Ruslan quickly returned to the league in the summer of 2013, when he was signed by Rubin. The brothers were reunited a year later, when Mordovia rose back from the FNL, but they never assisted each other. The Mukhametshins ended their careers at the same Mordovia: the elder in 2019, and the younger in 2020.

Aleksey and Anton Miranchuk

Almost four years separate the debut matches of the Miranchuk brothers in the RPL: on 20 April 2013, Alexey, who was 17 years old, played for the first time, and on 9 April 2017, a 21-year-old Anton made his debut in the league. By that time, Aleksey had already played more than 50 games in the Premier League, while Anton spent a year at Estonian outfit Levadia Tallinn.

But then the twins became the main players of Yury Semin's championship-winning team. In the 2017/18 season they missed one game playing together when Anton did not play on matchday 25, and scored a combined 11 goals. Aleksey scored the majority with seven, three of them assisted by his brother, and all of them were decisive. The first brought a 2-1 victory over Ural, the second secured a 3-0 defeat of Dynamo, and the third was the only one of the match against Anzhi. The following season, this link worked against Zenit, but it did not save Lokomotiv from a 5-3 defeat in St. Petersburg.

Anton didn't score from his brother's assist in the RPL – only in the Champions League 3-1 defeat against Porto at the RZD Arena – but he converted a penalty awarded for a foul on Aleksey: with his goal, Lokomotiv began their 4-0 demolition of Rubin in May 2019. Last season, Aleksey finished top scorer for the Railwaymen with 12 goals, and at the end of August, he moved to Italian side Atalanta. After the departure of his brother, Anton made his way into the starting lineup, and now plays one of the leading roles in the team.

Kings and Evans Kangwa

The older of the Zambian brothers went abroad earlier: Evans moved to Arsenal Tula in August 2017 after two years at Israel's Hapoel Raanana and a year at Turkey's Gaziantepspor. In the summer of 2019, his younger brother Kings joined the Gunners. He moved to Tula from Zambia, although before that he also played in Israel for Hapoel Beersheba.

Kings played just eight games in his first season, while Evans scored three times in 22 games. Now at the heart of Arsenal, the brothers play together. This season, they have not only scored, but have also been sent off. In 3-2 defeat to Ufa, both midfielders received red cards in the last five minutes.

Kings scored his only RPL goal in the same game, while the older brother later scored in two games. And the last goal turned out to be just a fraternal one: Kings swung in a corner which Evans accurately met with his head. With the help of the Zambians, Arsenal inflicted Sochi's first defeat of the season, and the Africans became the RPL's first foreign brothers to score a goal together in the league.

Photo: Arsenal Tula; Konstantin Rybin/RPL; Mordovia Saransk