Victor Olerskiy: A Brief History of Zenit St Petersburg Football Club

Former Head of the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport for the Russian Government Victor Olerskiy supports Zenit St Petersburg. This article will explore the club’s history, identifying some of its most talented players over the years.

Based in the historic Russian city of St Petersburg, Zenit is a professional football club that was founded in 1925. Today, the club competes in the Russian Premier League and is currently its reigning champion.

World War II changed the team’s course, with the club coming under the management of the State Optical-Mechanic Plant during the war and its coaches and players evacuated to Kazan. However, some players remained in Leningrad, playing in matches during the city’s blockage, and many of the team’s players went off to fight. The team’s renowned Shelagin brothers, Evgeny and Valentin, died fighting for their country, as did Samuil Kozinets, Nikolay Lepeka and Nikolay Salostin. Leonid Dorofeyev, Arkady Larionov and Boris Ivin did not survive the blockade.

In the spring of 1944, when peace was restored, Zenit returned to its home city of Leningrad, causing a sensation when the club won the USSR Cup. Unfortunately, Zenit struggled to build on this success, with the team’s results sliding year upon year. By 1948, there was even talk among club managers of breaking up the team.

However, in 1958, Georgy Ivanovich Zharkov made history as the first coach from outside Leningrad to head the team. Zharkov emphasised the need to cultivate players from local sports schools. Although the team enlisted many talented natives of Leningrad, including Anatoly Dergachev, Vadim Khrapovitsky, and Stanislav Zadidonov, it could not climb higher than fourth place.

In 1963, under the leadership of Evgeny Eliseyev, Zenit St Petersburg narrowly missed out on claiming the USSR Championship once more. In 1966, Zenit player Vasily Danilov was on the USSR national football team that came third in the World Cup. A defender, Danilov holds the record for most caps by a Zenit St Petersburg player in the national team, having represented his country 23 times in international matches.

At the end of 1982, Pavel Fyodorovich Sadyrin was appointed Zenit’s coach. The young coach encouraged footballers to improvise more on the pitch. In 1984, under Sadyrin’s leadership, Zenit reached the USSR Cup final for the third time, ultimately losing out to Dynamo Moscow.

Coach Anatoly Byshovets gave the team new creativity while appointing foreign players for the first time. Under his stewardship, Zenit claimed the Russian Cup title in May 1999. The hero of the hour was Alexander Panov, scoring twice.

At the start of the new millennium, Yury Morozov retook the helm, leading the team to finish third place in the Russian Premier League in 2001. In 2006, Dutch specialist Dick Advocaat took over as coach, leading the team to victory in the Russian Premier League for the first time.

In 2008, Zenit St Petersburg beat the UEFA Champions League winners, Manchester United, winning 2:1 in the UEFA Super Cup and making history as the first Russian team ever to win the title. The team went on to win the Russian Premier League for a second time in 2010, beating Rostov 5:0 at Petrovsky Stadium.