Zenit

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The Zenit story is interspersed to the political history in Saint Petersburg, Russia (also known as "Petrograd" as well as "Leningrad" in various times throughout its past). The year was 1897. first recorded football game in Russia was played within Saint Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island in an unofficial game played between local English club "Ostrov" as well as the regional Russian squad "Petrograd," which the English team took the victory, with a score of 6-0. The players of these team were all amateurs, and are not closely associated with each other.

The first Zenit team was a part of several football teams that had owners and names changed many times throughout the Soviet period following the Revolution of 1917, when powerful political forces controlled the careers of certain players and the fate of the entire team. The team was changed names many times, and its leaders and owners were under pressure from the political for a long time. The roots of Zenit go to the early part to the second half of 20th century and includes various predecessor teams in Saint Petersburg that were playing locally. The oldest known predecessor of Zenit is the club "Murzinka," founded in 1914. They played in the Obukhovsky stadium from 1914 to 1924 which was the year that the team began to be named "Bolshevik" (the brand new title of the Obukhovsky industry and the stadium). The stadium and team escaped the calamity during World War I, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 in addition to during the Russian Civil War of 1918 until 1922.

In 1925, a different predecessor group of Zenit was established, consisting composed of employees of Leningrad's Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod (Leningrad Metal Plant) They were known as"The "Stalinets" during the 30s. (Stalinets translate literally into English to mean "Stalinist" but, in Russian the name is an ode to words since"stal" means "steel" in the language.) Historical researchers have discovered that both of the previous teams of Zenit were operating independently up to they officially merged at conclusion of 1939. The Stalinets weren't the same team as Zenit which participated at the 1939 USSR championship. FC Zenit is the current title. FC Zenit was registered in 1936 (as Bolshevik became part of the Zenit sports society, and was changed to Zenit) Three years prior to the time that the Stalinets joined with it. The name Zenit is a reference to "Zenith".

In 1939, under the administration under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod was part of the military industry. The athletes, teams as well as management were transferred to Zenit sporting society. FC Zenit was ordered to accept players from the "Stalinets" workers' metallurgical team following the conclusion the season of 1939. 

Zenit received their first honors in 1944, winning the wartime USSR Cup after defeating CSKA Moscow in the well-received final. Zenit was always loved in Leningrad however it could not create a huge contribution to the Soviet League. The year 1967 was the last time Zenit came in last, however they was saved from being relegated because the Soviet management decided that it was not a good idea to drop an Leningrad team on fifty years of October Revolution, which occurred in the city. The composer Dmitry Shostakovich and film star Kirill Lavrov were well-known as avid supporters of Zenit which can be seen by their presence at numerous matches. [citation requiredIt is believed that Zenit took home Bronze in the year 1980 and also made it to the Soviet Cup Final and winning the Soviet League title in 1984. in 1985, Zenit won over the Soviet Cup holders at the Soviet Super Cup (also called the Season Cup).

The LOMO optical plant assumed the control of the team following the war. In the year 1990, FC Zenit were re-registered as a professional city-owned club. After being dropped in the very first calendar year in the Russian League (1992), Zenit was reinstated to the top division after 1996. The club has performed well ever since. They won their first Russian Cup, finished third in the League in 2001, advanced to it to the Cup finals in 2002. In 2002 they and then became third-placed side of the Premier League and won the Russian Premier League Cup in 2003.

As of December 5, 2005 Gazprom bought a major stake in the team. The announcement was made by Valentina Matviyenko the governor of Saint Petersburg governor. Gazprom purchased the majority of the club.

While Zenit made it to the quarterfinals in the UEFA Cup in 2006, an unsatisfactory start to the season of the league led to the replacement in summer the manager Vlastimil Petrzela. In July of 2006, Dick Advocaat took over as Zenit's manager. Advocaat was working alongside his assistant manager who was Cor Pot, who was the former Netherlands national youth manager Cor Pot. Zenit was crowned the winner of the Russian Premier League in 2007--their most successful league win since they won their first USSR Championship in 1984--allowing them to participate at the level of group competition in 2008-09's UEFA Champions League.

As of 2008 Zenit took home in 2008 the Russian Super Cup and reached the quarter-finals of UEFA Cup for the second time in their history. In the initial phase of the quarter-final away match against German team Bayer Leverkusen, the team had a win of 4-1. They advanced to the semi-finals as the only time since their inception in spite of a 1-0 loss at home against Leverkusen during the 2nd game, and were scheduled to face German opponents in the semi-finals. Bayern Munich, considered the most superior team left. A determined performance in the first phase of the semi-finals earned Zenit an 1-1 draw in the semi-final against Bayern Munich. In the second leg , at in the stadium at home Zenit defeated Bayern 4-0 beating Bayern 5-1 in aggregate, getting into the UEFA Cup Final for the first time in the history of the club which they faced Scottish team Rangers in Rangers at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester on May 14. Zenit defeated Rangers 2-0. goals scored by Igor Denisov in the 72nd minute, and Konstantin Zyryanov in stoppage time winning Zenit's first ever UEFA Cup. Andrey Arshavin was named man of the match.

On the 29th August 2008 on the Stade Louis II in Monaco, Zenit then defeated Manchester United with a 2-1 win in the 2007 UEFA Super Cup, becoming the first Russian team to take home the trophy. Pavel Pogrebnyak scored the first goal, and Danny got the other, with the latter was named the man of the match for his debut with Zenit.

For the 2008-09 Champions League group stage, Zenit was placed alongside Real Madrid, Juventus and BATE Borisov in Group H that was referred to in some circles as"the "group that died." Zenit ended up finishing third within the Group, just behind Juventus as well as Real Madrid, and was therefore unable to advance into the knockout stage of the tournament. However, this position was sufficient to get Zenit a spot at the 2009-09 UEFA Cup last 32, which saw the team take on VfB Stuttgart for a place in the final 16 of the tournament. After beating Stuttgart by a goal away, Zenit went on to be beaten 2-1 in two games to Italian Udinese.

Luciano Spalletti signed a contract with Zenit in December 2009, along with Italian trainers Daniele Baldini, Marco Domenichini and Alberto Bartali also joining the Russian club. It was the Board of Zenit mandated him to bring back his Russian Premier League title to Zenit and to be the winner of the Russian Cup and progress from the group stage of the Champions League in his first year.

Zenit took home it the Russian Cup on 16 May 2010 after defeating Sibir Novosibirsk at the end of the game (previously defeating Volga Tver in the quarter-finals and Amkar Perm in the semi-finals). After 16 matches of the Premier League, with 12 wins and four draws Zenit earned 40 points, which set an all-time Russian Premier League record for most points earned at this time in the campaign.

On August 25, 2010 Zenit lost its first match under Spalletti against French club Auxerre and did not advance towards the Champions League group stage, instead playing in the Europa League. On October 3, Zenit beat Spartak Nalchik to set a new Russian Premier League record for the longest streak of games in which they have not lost in 21 games since the beginning of the season. On the 27th of October, Zenit suffered its first loss during the campaign at defeat of the rival club Spartak Moscow, just seven games from finishing the season without a loss. On November 14, Zenit defeated Rostov and two games before the end of the season, Zenit was awarded the title of champion first time in Spalletti's coaching career.

Zenit made it to the knockout phase during the 2010-11 Europa League in first place after which they beat Swiss team Young Boys in the Round of 16. On the 6th of March, 2011 Zenit triumphed over CSKA Moscow in the Russian Super Cup, the third Russian trophy to be won by Spalletti. On the 17th of March, Zenit were knocked out of the Europa League, losing to Dutch team Twente 3-3 in aggregate in the quarterfinals.

For the 11-12 Champions League, Zenit began the group stage and was placed in Group G along with Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and APOEL. On the 6th December of 2012, the squad completed the group stage second as the team for the first time ever in the club's history, qualified for the knockout stage in spring of the Champions League. For the round of 16 Zenit were drawn against Portuguese team Benfica and won the first match 3-2 at home thanks to two goals scored by Roman Shirokov and one from Sergei Semak. In the second match in Lisbon the team, however, Zenit lost 2-0 and were eliminated from the tournament.

On April 12, 2012 Zenit was crowned the winner of their third consecutive Russian Championship after beating Dynamo Moscow.

Following a string of poor outcomes in both the Champions League and the Premier League Spalletti was dismissed on the 11th of March, 2014. 10 days later the club announced that they had reached the signing of a two-year contract with Andre Villas-Boas. The latter was also removed a few months before after a dismal period as manager of English club Tottenham Hotspur. The 2014-2015 Europa League, Zenit were defeated in the quarterfinals of the competition by the eventual champions Sevilla. In May of 2015, Zenit won the Russian Championship as the first title of championship under Villas Boas and their fifth championship on the eve of the 90th anniversary celebrations. Zenit won the title after defeating Lokomotiv Moscow in the 2015 Russian Super Cup 1-1 (4-2 with penalties).

In the calendar year 2015, later in the year Villas-Boas announced that he was leaving the club following the season of 2015-16. The year 2015-16, in the Champions League, Zenit began the tournament in the Group stage. They were in Group H along with Valencia, Lyon and Gent. They concluded the group stage with their most successful performance ever in the group stage winning five of six games and becoming the group winners. They werehowever removed from the competition at the end of the 16th round by Portuguese team Benfica.

On May 24, 2016 Villas-Boas was dismissed from Zenit at close of the season. Mircea Lucescu named director of Zenit.

In July 2016, Zenit took home in the Russian Super Cup after a 1-1 win over CSKA Moscow.

In this year's 2016-17 Europa League, Zenit began the group stage and was placed in Group D along with Maccabi Tel Aviv, AZ Alkmaar, and Dundalk. On December 8, 2016 Zenit completed their group phase in top position and qualified for the knockout stage of the spring phase of the Europa League. At the end of the 32nd round, Zenit played R.S.C. Anderlecht and was defeated 3-3 in aggregate because of the away goals rule. Zenit's spring performances were disappointing , and Zenit came in third place and did not qualify for being eliminated from the Champions League for the second year in the same row. Zenit was also knocked out at the end of the 16th round by FC Anzhi Makhachkala 0-4 on average after a disastrous performance. The first (and the last) year of Mircea Luciescu was a total disappointment despite expectations.

1 June 2017 Zenit named Roberto Mancini as the new manager of the team. On the 13th of May, 2018 Mancini ended his term with mutual consent.

In May of 2018, Mancini left to become the director in the Italy national team. Sergey Semak became the new director of Zenit with an agreement for two years.

In August of 2018, in the 1st leg of 3rd qualification round for the UEFA Europa League, Zenit was defeated 0-4 by Dynamo Minsk. The second leg was played at home, Zenit made a comeback beating 8-1 scoring 3 goals during the second period and four goals in the second part of the extra time. Two goals during the 120th minute. Zenit won the match to beat Molde FK by 4-3 in the following round, reaching the group stage of the the 2018-19 UEFA Europa League.

In March of 2020 the tournament was shut down due to the COVID-19 virus in Russia. Zenit was awarded a second title on July 5, 2020 following a win in the final against FC Krasnodar, with 4 games remaining during the competition.

The 2nd May of 2021 was the day that Zenit achieved their third trophy in a row with an 8-1 win over second-placed FC Lokomotiv Moscow. Zenit began the 2021-22 season with a 7th win at the Russian Super Cup after a victory of 3-0 against Lokomotiv Moscow, but without significant key players who quit the club such as Yuri Zhirkov, Andrei Lunev and Sebastian Driussi.

Following the events of 2022, which led to Russian invading Ukraine The the former Ukrainian player Yaroslav Rakitskiy wrote an anti-Ukrainian comment on Instagram and ended his association for the club. FIFA and UEFA have suspended the team indefinitely from participating in games. Furthermore the European Club Association suspended the team.

30 April 2022 was the day that Zenit won their fourth win in succession and their the eighth overall. Zenit's international players haven't been able escape Russia in the past, and are unable to obtain departures from Russian clubs because of western sanctions that have been imposed on Russia as a result of Russia's military aggression that has not been provoked. That includes Brazilian player Malcom who was a victim of hate speech based on racism imposed against him by supporters of the club because he is the first Black player the club has been able to sign in its history.

Zenit's stadium of home is the 67,800 capacity Krestovsky Stadium, known as Gazprom Arena to honor sponsorship reasons, located in Saint Petersburg. [citation requiredThe stadium is located in Saint Petersburg. Petrovsky Stadium used to be the home stadium of the team prior to when construction of the Krestovsky Stadium was built. [citation needed] Prior to shifting to the Petrovsky stadium Zenit's stadium was Kirov Stadium. It was located on the same site of the site where was the Krestovsky Stadium was later erected.

Domestic & International.

Soviet Top League / Russian Premier League

• Champions (9): 1984, 2007, 2010, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22

Soviet Cup / Russian Cup

• Winners (5): 1944, 1998–99, 2009–10, 2015–16, 2019–20
• Runners-up: 1939, 1984, 2001–02

Soviet Super Cup / Russian Super Cup

• Winners (8): 1984, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2022
• Runners-up: 2012, 2013, 2019,

USSR Federation Cup / Russian Premier League Cup

• Winners: 2003
• Runners-up: 1986

Soviet First League / Russian National Football League

• Runners-up: 1993 (Center)

The Atlantic Cup

• Winners (2): 2016, 2022

UEFA Cup

• Winners: 2007–08

UEFA Super Cup

• Winners: 2008

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As of 22 July 2022

Zenit's reserve team played professionally in the form of Zenit-2 (Russian Second League from 1993 ), Russian Second Division from 1998 until in 2000) in addition to Zenit-d (Russian Third League from 1994 until 1997). Another team which was formed under the name Lokomotiv-Zenit-2, played as Zenit-2 within Zenit-2 in the Russian Second Division from 2001 until 2008. In 2008 there was no connection between the group as well as FC Zenit. A different farm club, FC Smena-Zenit debuted in the Russian Second Division in 2009 and took over the place of FC Zenit-2, which was previously the club's name. FC Smena-Zenit disbanded after the 2009 season as it failed to meet the initial expectations of Zenit. Zenit-2 returned to professional football during the 2013-14 season of the Russian Professional Football League.

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As of 8 December 2021

By competition

USSR/Russia

•  Mikhail Biryukov
•  Vasily Danilov
•  Sergey Dmitriyev
•  Vladimir Golubev
•  Aleksandr Ivanov
•  Leonid Ivanov
•  Anzor Kavazashvili
•  Vladimir Kazachyonok
•  Nikolay Larionov
•  Fridrikh Maryutin
•  Dmitri Radchenko
•  Sergei Salnikov
•  Sergei Shvetsov
•  Yuriy Voynov
•  Anatoli Zinchenko
•  Vasili Kulkov
•  Valeri Broshin
•  Aleksandr Anyukov
•  Andrey Arshavin
•  Zelimkhan Bakayev
•  Aleksandr Bukharov
•  Vladimir Bystrov
•  Dmitri Chistyakov
•  Maksim Demenko
•  Igor Denisov
•  Artyom Dzyuba
•  Viktor Fayzulin
•  Alexandr Gorshkov
•  Aleksei Igonin
•  Aleksei Ionov
•  Maksim Kanunnikov
•  Vyacheslav Karavayev
•  Aleksandr Kerzhakov
•  Andrey Kobelev
•  Aleksandr Kokorin
•  Sergei Kolotovkin
•  Andrei Kondrashov
•  Stanislav Kritsyuk
•  Daler Kuzyayev
•  Vladimir Lebed
•  Yury Lodygin
•  Andrey Lunyov
•  Ilya Maksimov
•  Vyacheslav Malafeev
•  Pavel Mogilevets
•  Andrei Mostovoy
•  Elmir Nabiullin
•  Ivan Novoseltsev
•  Magomed Ozdoyev
•  Aleksandr Panov
•  Sergei Petrov
•  Sergei Podpaly
•  Pavel Pogrebnyak
•  Dmitry Poloz
•  Vladislav Radimov
•  Aleksandr Ryazantsev
•  Oleg Salenko
•  Sergey Semak
•  Igor Semshov
•  Oleg Shatov
•  Roman Shirokov
•  Igor Smolnikov
•  Aleksei Sutormin
•  Renat Yanbayev
•  Aleksandr Yerokhin
•  Artur Yusupov
•  Anton Zabolotny
•  Yuri Zhirkov
•  Denis Zubko
•  Konstantin Zyryanov

Other former USSR countries

•  Roman Berezovsky
•  Sargis Hovsepyan
•  Yervand Krbachyan
•  Artem Simonyan
•  Ramil Sheydayev
•  Dmitry Ogorodnik
•  Boris Gorovoy
•  Sergey Gerasimets
•  Sergey Kornilenko
•  Yuri Zhevnov
•  Solomon Kvirkvelia
•  Nuraly Alip
•  Andrei Kurdyumov
•  Peter Neustädter
•  Yevgeni Tarasov
•  Egidijus Majus
•  Darius Miceika
•  Robertas Poškus
•  Irmantas Stumbrys
•  Ovidijus Verbickas
•  Serghei CleÈ™cenco
•  Alexandru Curteian
•  Andrei Manannikov
•  Vazgen Manasyan
•  Dmitri Khomukha
•  Dmitri Nezhelev
•  Vladimir Gorily
•  Roman Maksimyuk
•  Sergey Popov
•  Yaroslav Rakitskiy
•  Aleksandr Spivak
•  Aleksandr Svistunov
•  Anatoliy Tymoschuk
•  Igor Zhabchenko

Europe

•  Nicolas Lombaerts
•  Axel Witsel
•  Ivica Križanac
•  Dejan Lovren
•  Pavel Mareš
•  Radek Šírl
•  Michael Lumb
•  Boris Rotenberg
•  Szabolcs Huszti
•  Domenico Criscito
•  Claudio Marchisio
•  Alessandro Rosina
•  Mikhail Zaritskiy
•  Veliče Šumulikoski
•  Luka ĐorÄ‘ević
•  Erik Hagen
•  Bruno Alves
•  Danny
•  Fernando Meira
•  Luís Neto
•  Milan Rodić
•  Branislav Ivanović
•  Mateja Kežman
•  Danko Lazović
•  Aleksandar Luković
•  Kamil ÄŒontofalský
•  Tomáš Hubočan
•  Róbert Mak
•  Martin Škrtel
•  Miha Mevlja
•  Javi García
•  Fatih Tekke

South and Central America

•  Cristian Ansaldi
•  Ezequiel Garay
•  Matías Kranevitter
•  Emanuel Mammana
•  Leandro Paredes
•  Emiliano Rigoni
•  Giuliano
•  Hulk
•  Douglas Santos
•  Wílmar Barrios
•  Christian Noboa
•  Yordan Osorio
•  Salomón Rondón

Asia

•  Sardar Azmoun
•  Hyun Young-min
•  Kim Dong-jin
•  Lee Ho

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•  Schalke 04
•  Shakhtar Donetsk
•  Red Star Belgrade
•  Sepahan

• MegaFon
• Rossiya Airlines
• Nissan
• Obi (store)
• Rostelecom
• Corinthia Saint Petersburg
• St. Peter Line
• Google

Zenit's most famous rivals are large Moscow clubs, including FC Spartak Moscow, CSKA Moscow, FC Dynamo Moscow and FC Torpedo Moscow. There were also rivalries with big Ukrainian club FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Shakhtar Donetsk during the Soviet time.