Samat Smakov

Samat Kabiruly Smakov (Самат Қабірұлы Смақов; born 8 December 1978) is a Kazakhstani football manager and a former player who played as a defender. He is the manager of FC Yelimay Semey.

Club career
Smakov started his career in his home town Semey playing for FC Elimay, and has since played for different teams, including FC Rostov in Russian Premier League. He is a four-time champion of Kazakhstan with four clubs. Having strong leadership qualities, he has captained most of his teams. He held FC Aktobe's club record for most Premier League appearances, before being surpassed by Yuri Logvinenko, in August 2013.

In October 2014, Smakov, along with Dmitri Khomich, Mikhail Bakayev, Zaurbek Pliyev and Aleksandr Kislitsyn, was banned from training with FC Kairat by the club. On 6 January 2015, Smakov, along with Aleksandr Kislitsyn, moved to FC Irtysh Pavlodar.

On 4 August 2016, Smakov signed for FC Ordabasy until the end of the 2016 season.

International career
Samat received his first cap for Kazakhstan on 31 March 2000 in an Asian Cup qualifier against Jordan at the age of 18. Since that time Smakov was capped in all major matches of Kazakhstan, including World Cup 2002, World Cup 2006 and Euro 2008 qualifiers. As of June 2016 he has played 74 international matches and scored two goals, his first goal a penalty against Belgium in September 2007. Many times he led the team as a captain. Currently he holds a record as the most capped player of the Kazakhstan national football team with 74 matches as of June 2016.

Post-playing career
On 7 January 2018, Ordabasy announced that Smakov had joined his former club Aktobe as their new General Director.

International
Statistics accurate as of match played 11 October 2016


 * Scores and results list Kazakhstan's goal tally first.

Honours
Yelimay
 * Kazakhstan Premier League: 1998

Irtysh-Bastau
 * Kazakhstan Premier League: 1999

Zhenis Astana
 * Kazakhstan Cup: 2002

Kairat
 * Kazakhstan Premier League: 2004

Aktobe
 * Kazakhstan Premier League: 2007, 2008, 2009
 * Kazakhstan Cup: 2010
 * Kazakhstan Super Cup: 2008, 2010

Individual
 * Kazakhstani Footballer of the Year: 2004, 2008
 * GOAL Journal Player of the Year: 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010