Ilyos Zeytulayev
Ilyos Zeytulayev (, born 13 July 1982) is an Uzbek retired footballer who played as a midfielder or as a forward. He is currently the head coach of Italian amateur club San Salvo. Zeytulayev has spent most of his career in the Italian Serie B and Lega Pro Prima Divisione (formerly Serie C1). His first name is sometimes spelled Illyos, or Ilyas (Cyrillic: Ильяс), the latter of which is the Russian equivalent. Moreover, Zeytulayev is also romanized as Zeytulaev. Club career Zeytulayev started his professional career in the Juventus youth teams along with Serhiy Kovalenko and Viktor Budyanskiy, making him the first Uzbekistani player to play in Italy. He signed a 5-year contract on 10 August 2001. He joined Juve permanently in February 2002 along with Kovalenko after a loan from Sportakademklub Moscow, the team he played since he was 13. The Turin club paid US$400,000 (about €454K) to buy the duo's image and registration rights. He also played both legs against Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia 2001–02. Reggina and various loans After graduating from the U20 team in June, along with Viktor Budyanskiy, they were unable to register as a Juve players. At first, FIGC declared that their remaining