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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