FC Zenit

FC Zenit is the only team in the history of Russian football to win all Russian and Soviet trophies. In 1944, the club scored its first major success, winning the USSR Cup in the same year that the Nazi siege of Leningrad was broken during the Second World War. But the greatest triumph in the history of FC Zenit came in 2008, when the team won both the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.

Home Ground

Zenit plays its home matches at the Petrovsky Stadium. Known as the Lenin Stadium until 1992, the sports complex was originally designed by Alois Vejvoda and opened on 26 July 1925. The stadium has been reconstructed on a number of occasions – by Nikolai Baranov, Victor Fromzel and Oleg Guriev (1961), for the Moscow Olympics (1980) and, finally, for the Goodwill Games (1994).

The Main Arena has a capacity of 21,560. The football pitch is 105 x 68 metres in size with natural grass, a liquid heating system and three colour video screens. The Lesser Arena, where the U21 squad plays its matches, has an artificial turf pitch with undersoil heating and 2,809 seats.

A new stadium with sixty thousand seats is currently being built on the site of the former Kirov Stadium on Krestovsky Island. The new arena will be designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. The complex will have a moveable pitch 105 x 68 metres in size and a retractable roof, so that games can be played in winter.

Training Ground

The previous training ground was specially built for the club in 1968 in Chelyuskintsev Park (renamed Udelny Park in the early 1990s). In 1994, the team became the official owners of this property. The complex underwent major reconstruction in 2002. The training ground now has two pitches with undersoil heating, a medical recuperation centre and housing.

A new complex is being planned on the outskirts of St Petersburg, at Mistolovo in Vsevolozhsky District. This fifty-acre centre will include ten pitches (five with artificial grass), an indoor arena, a medical recuperation complex and accommodation for the main team and the youth squads, who will train nearby.

Achievements

1944 – Winners of the USSR Cup

1980 – Bronze medallists in the Soviet Championships

1984 – Champions of the USSR

1985 – Winners of the Season Cup

1999 – Winners of the Russian Cup

2001 – Bronze medallists in the Russian Championships

2003 – Silver medallists in the Russian Championships

2003 – Winners of the Russian Premier League Cup

2007 – Champions of Russia

2008 – Winners of the Russian Super Cup

2008 – Winners of the UEFA Cup

2010 – Champions of Russia

2010 – Winners of the Russian Cup

2011 – Winners of the Russian Super Cup

2012 – Champions of Russia

Records

Greatest number of matches in the Soviet Championships: Lev Burchalkin with 400 (played for Zenit 1957–72)

Greatest number of matches in the Russian Championships: Andrei Arshavin with 228 (plays for Zenit since 2000)

Most goals scored in the Soviet Championships: Lev Burchalkin with 78 (1957–72)

Most goals scored in the Russian Championships: Alexander Kerzhakov with 64 (2001–06)

Most goals scored in a single Soviet Championships: Anatoly Korotkov with 22 (1950)

Most goals scored in a single Russian Championships: Alexander Kerzhakov with 18 (2004)

Most goals scored by a player in a Soviet Championship match: 4 by Alexander Markin in the 5-0 victory over Ararat Yerevan (autumn 1976)

Most goals scored by a player in a Russian Championship match: 3 by Andrei Arshavin (three times), Alexander Kerzhakov (twice), Sergei Gerasimets and Gennady Popovich

Youngest player to appear in a Soviet Championship match: Oleg Salenko (made his debut for Zenit against Moscow Dynamo on 1 March 1986 at the age of 16 years, 3 months, 4 days)

Youngest player to appear in a Russian Championship match: Yevgeny Zezin (made his debut for Zenit against Asmaral Moscow on 6 August 1992 at the age of 16 years, 3 months, 23 days)

Youngest player to score a goal in a Soviet Championship match: Oleg Salenko against Moscow Dynamo on 1 March 1986 at the age of 16 years 3 months, 4 days

Youngest player to score a goal in a Russian Championship match: Igor Zazulin against Kuban Krasnodar on 5 May 1992 at the age of 18 years, 22 days

Oldest player to appear in a Soviet Championship match: Victor Bodrov at 36 years, 5 months, 15 days (1948)

Oldest player to appear in a Russian Championship match: Anatoly Davydov at 43 years, 9 months, 20 days (1997)

Oldest player to score a goal in a Soviet Championship match: Victor Bodrov at 36 years, 4 months, 13 days (1948)

Oldest player to score a goal in a Russian Championship match: Olexandr Gorshkov at 36 years, 5 months, 22 days (2006)

Appearances by Players in Major International Tournaments

Summer Olympics 1952 – goalkeeper Leonid Ivanov; striker Friedrich Maryutin

World Cup 1958 – striker Alexander Ivanov

World Cup 1966 – defender Vasily Danilov

World Cup 1986 – midfielder Nikolai Larionov

Euro 1988 – striker Sergei Dmitriyev

World Cup 2002 – striker Alexander Kerzhakov

Euro 2004 – goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev; defender Pavel Maresh; midfielders Vladislav Radimov, Vladimir Bystrov; striker Alexander Kerzhakov

World Cup 2006 – defender Pavel Maresh

Euro 2008 – goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev; defenders Alexander Anyukov, Roman Shirokov; midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov; striker Andrei Arshavin

Summer Olympics 2008 – defender Kim Dong-Jin