He played in the third-tier Soviet Second League and lower levels during the existence of the Soviet Union, and made his second-tier debut when the Soviet Union dissolved and the Russian football pyramid was created in 1992, in the Russian Football National League.
Ponomarev was the first foreign professional footballer to play in the Iranian Football League (Azadegan League) after the Iranian Revolution.
In 1994, he was invited to Isfahan, Iran by his countrymen Yevgeny Liyadin who was coach of F.C.
He coached FC Ryazan in the third-tier Russian Professional Football League in 2001 and 2002.
This biographical article related to a Russian association football defender born in the 1950s is a stub.