Erling Haaland is a defender’s worst nightmare.

The big Norwegian seems to be able to score at will for Manchester City, smashing records into history every Saturday or Sunday – but there’s one record he can never topple, and that belongs to Pavel Pogrebnyak.

The big Russian scored five goals in his opening three Premier League games for Fulham on loan, a feat even Haaland didn’t match. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing from then on for Pogrebnyak, who turns 41 today (November 8), and he would go on to only score six more goals in the English top flight, leaving Craven Cottage for Reading.

Having started his career with impressive stints at Zenit Saint Petersburg and VfB Stuttgart, at least away from the pitch when the goals dried up in England and subsequently with Dynamo Moscow, he could console himself by cosying up with a stunning Russian millionaire.

Pogrebnyak was involved in a marriage saga with his long-term partner Maria, with the pair meeting as children and starting to seeing each other when they were 17. The loved-up duo even starred in a ‘Meet the Russians’ documentary back in 2013, which saw her shoot to fame.

The premise was to lift the lid on wealthy Russians living in London. “It is more about my wife,” he said. “I’m just a little bit-part of this thing. I was asked about going on and I thought, why not? It would be a good experience. A lot of players who stopped playing football are now on TV.”

However, a couple of years down the line, Maria was once forced to hit out in the Russian media after reports they had split. She said: “He said he didn’t want to. We have a completely normal relationship. Everything inside our family, we don’t want to discuss.

“Don’t get in my bed! We don’t have a scandal, we live in the same territory. And what will happen next – I myself will share with everyone.”

She added: “People tell me: ‘Masha, you haven’t seen life.’ What do they mean that I haven’t seen life? That I did not have a bunch of men or did not go clubbing all the time?

“Grandma would always tell me: ‘You should not jump from one man to another, if you fall in love then it should be one person for the rest of your life’.”

However, in September 2023 the pair did go their separate ways – ending their eight year marriage in Moscow when a divorce was finalised. Their children went to live with Maria and a court determined they would not share property.