Category: Zhirkov

HOW ZHIRKOV FARED AT CHELSEA

Veteran Zenit St. Petersburg defender Yuri Zhirkov was initially reluctant to sign for Chelsea as it’s the case with a lot of Russian footballers who receive approach form foreign clubs. In the end, Yuri Zhirkov signed for Chelsea in the summer of 2009. Chelsea were said to have paid £18m ($29m) to sign him from his then Russian club CSKA Moscow. In an interview towards the end of last year, ex-Croatian international striker and former CSKA Moscow teammate revealed how Yuri Zhirkov was not excited about the Chelsea offer when the opposite was the case for his teammates who were happy that a big club like Chelsea want to sign him.


The £18m paid for Yuri Zhirkov made him the most expensive Russian player at that time surpassing the record of Andrei Arshavin who joined Arsenal in a £15m deal at the end of Euro 2008. Yuri Zhirkov scored on his Chelsea debut in a friendly against AC Milan and his strike proved to be the matchwinner.
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ZHIRKOV MAKES LEAGUE APPEARANCE NO. 17

 

Veteran Russian defender Yuri Zhirkov is still going strong at the age of 37 in the colours of Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League. He made his 17th appearance of the current season forZenit St. Petersburg during the recent league win over title rivals Spartak Moscow. Yuri Zhirkov became a Zenit St.


Petersburg player four years ago when he signed for the Russian champions from Dynamo Moscow. The experienced left-back had left AnzhiMakhachkala to sign for Dynamo Moscow in 2013. The player then spent three years at the club before joining fellow Russian side Zenit in 2016. Yuri Zhirkovscored four goals in 54 league appearances for Dynamo Moscow during his time at the capital club. Continue reading “ZHIRKOV MAKES LEAGUE APPEARANCE NO. 17” →

Dynamo Moscow vs PFC Sochi preview and prediction

Dynamo Moscow have a difficult test this weekend when they take on PFC Sochi at the Lev YashinStadium. There has been a lot of inconsistency from both teams this season. However, the upcoming match is a great opportunity for Dynamo Moscow to lay down a marker for the campaign. The team are eighth in the standings after failing to meet expectations so far. The recent derby loss against CSKA Moscow is a major blow for Dynamo Moscow, who are keen to bounce back.PFC Sochi might have started the campaign in excellent fashion but they have been unable to retain the form for much longer.


Table leaders Zenit St Petersburg were able to inflict a 3-1 defeat overPFC Sochi in the recent match. This setback has provided a major reason forPFC Sochi to think about going for a victory.PFC Sochihave surprisingly done well against Dynamo Moscow as they have not been beaten by this opposition. There have been four games between these two opponents with 50% of these matches finishing as a draw.PFC Sochihave been able to pick up a victory in the remaining two games. The most recent encounter between these two outfits produced a 1-1 draw.PFC Sochiwere able to secure a point thanks to Aleksandr Kokorin scoring a late goal. Continue reading “Dynamo Moscow vs PFC Sochi preview and prediction” →

Dynamo Moscow sporting director opens up on relationship with Jurgen Klopp

 

Jurgen Klopp and Zeljko Buvac, who is the sporting director at Dynamo Moscow, have had a long working relationship which stretched to almost 2 decades. The pair worked with each other at the likes of Mainz 05, Borussia Dortmund, and more recently, at Liverpool. However, this partnership has recently come to an end. Zeljko Buvac recently left Liverpool in 2018 and the pair have been exchanging a lot of harsh words media since then.Buvac might have had more experience as the assistant manager to Jurgen Klopp, who experienced strong success at Dortmund and Liverpool, but he has recently taken over as the sporting director of Dynamo Moscow, who are a successful club in the Russian Premier league.


Buvac has now claimed that he did most of the coaching work while Klopp was only handling the interviews for the media. Even now,Buvac claims that he does not want to be in the limelight and prefers to do the job in the background. Despite having several offers from around the globe,Buvac has decided to stick with the Russian Premier League, where he has spent a considerable time. Klopp recently guided to their first league title since the 1980s. A lot of plaudits have been flowing in for the German manager, who also guided the team to Champions League success recently.
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Yuri Zhirkov from Dynamo Moscow of Russia

Transfer from one club to another is the life of professional footballers. Some of them may not pay as per the expectations of the supporters and then plays extremely well for the opponent when he joins the other club. Almost the same thing happened with Yuri Zhirkov who was a former defender of Chelsea some years ago. He made 49 appearances for the Famous club but couldn’t meet the expectations of the supporters.

He scored once and let others score on 11 occasions. As he was released by Chelsea, his career started moving around his homeland Russia. Clubs like Anzhi Makhachkala, Dinamo Moscow gave him the honor to represent their teams. Since 2016 he has been part of Zenit St. Petersburg. He represented his country in the World Cups of 2014 and 2018. He helped Russia to qualify for the 2008 UEFA EURO cup Semi-finals. He also won the FUTBOL’s Russian Footballer of the year. In front of the home crowd, his performance was actually astonishing as Russia was the host of the 2018 World Cup. Continue reading “Yuri Zhirkov from Dynamo Moscow of Russia” →

Former Lokomotiv Moscow chief reveals Tottenham’s interest in Russian star

Former Lokomotiv Moscow chief executive Ilya Gerkus has revealed that Tottenham Hotspur had expressed an interest in signing Artem Dzyuba during the January transfer window. The north London side were reported to be looking for a new striker after the long-term hamstring injury for Harry Kane but ultimately, they were unable to pursue anyone.

Speaking to a Russian outlet, Gerkus has now revealed that manager Jose Mourinho was keen on landing the services of Dzyuba from Zenit St. Petersburg but the deal failed to materialise as the Russian outfit declined to sanction his departure, he told: “I know his agent, the man who did this.I know what Mourinho wanted Dzyuba. I know this for sure. Mourinho knows who Dzyuba is. He worked at the World Cup in Russia as a commentator on Russia Today and discussed, among other things, the Russian team. Continue reading “Former Lokomotiv Moscow chief reveals Tottenham’s interest in Russian star” →

Many players test positive in Russian football league

 

The Russian football league has been thrown into more doubt with multiple cases of coronavirus being discovered in recent days. The potential for a restart has been hit by players of clubs like Dynamo Moscow and FC Rostov testing positive for the virus. Now, FC Orenburg have also been able to test positive with at least one case so far. Russian league president Sergei Pryadkin has said that a couple of Orenburg players have displayed signs of the virus during the routine testing process. Without revealing the names of the individuals have been affected,Pryadkin said that the individuals have been placed in isolation.


A total of six players and a couple of staff members have tested positive in theOrenburg club. All these members were able to test negative in the latest match. The upcoming game against Krasnodar has been put into doubt as a result of the latest revelation. Even though the game will not have a major thing riding on forOrenburg, it is key forKrasnodar since they are fighting for Champions League qualification. The Russian league recently went into a three-month long down as a result of the country experiencing a significant bout in the number of cases. In recent weeks, however, the cases have started subsiding. Russia has also been able to benefit from mortality compared to other countries.
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WAS YURI ZHIRKOV A FLOP AT CHELSEA?

 

The Premier League is used to players coming from various parts of the world to carve a niche for themselves. Yuri Zhirkov was one mysterious player from theFar East that popped up in the English topflight for the Blues. He moved from CSKA Moscow in 2009 for over 18 million pounds – a big deal then.


It remains unknown if it was Carlo Ancelotti or Roman Abrahimovich who sanctioned the transfer deal but Zhirkov was wearing the Blues jersey. It is likely that the Russian club owner saw him in action in Moscow and wanted him to play for his club and Ancelotti followed through. However, Zhirkov failed to make the expected impact at Stamford Bridge.
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Another Dynamo Moscow player tests positive for coronavirus

The Russian Premier League have had a major setback in the attempts to revive the season, asDynamo Moscow have had a defender test positive for the coronavirus. Roman Evgeniev is the latest player to contract the virus and he is one of the two staff members who has tested positive from the club. The other member is the goalkeeping coach.Evgeniev may be a defender, but he has already contributed one assist to the team in his 12 matches. The assist almost helped Dynamo Moscow get something out of the game against FC Sochi, who picked up a 3-2 victory.


Dynamo Moscow were in the sixth place in the table before the Russian Premier League came to a halt because of the coronavirus hiatus. The team has picked up a decent record of eight victories and eight defeats during this period. Zenit St Petersburg remain at the top of the table with 15 wins and they have only suffered losses. There has been a gulf in class between the two teams this season with the Zenit St Petersburg getting a 5-0 victory on aggregate in the last two meetings with Dynamo Moscow. The number of cases in the country has increased tremendously with Russia now sitting in the top three positions after having contracted almost 300,000 cases. However, the death rate remains very low with less than 3000 deaths.
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Zenit St Petersburg Announce 50% wage cut due to Coronavirus

Zenit St Petersburg have been able to come to an agreement with all the players about a wage cut. Under the terms of the agreement, the players have decided to take a 50% pay cut for the months of April and May. The director-general of the club revealed that such a measure had to be taken in order to prevent the club’s finances from collapsing. The Russian league is certainly not one of the richest in the world, but Zenit do have a substantial wage bill. The players, though, had done extremely well up until now, as Zenit were able to go top of the table after 22 games in the campaign.


However, the rapid spread of coronavirus forced the Russian Premier League to suspend football on March 17. It was initially expected that the suspension would last until April 10. However, Russia has become one of the nations with a fast spread and this is likely to force the season into an indefinite postponement. For the official records, football has been postponed until May 31. The clubs are expected to undergo a severe drop in finances with TV money expected to dry up. Since most of the wages were being taken care of by the TV money, this situation became untenable before players agreed to take the wage cut.
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