The career of the former Zenit striker went downhill. Is there any chance to improve the situation?
The news about the termination of the contract of striker Artem Dziuba with Adana Demirspor two and a half months after the transfer really surprised. Yes, the position of the former Zenit striker in the Turkish club has become deplorable, but hardly anyone expected such a development of events.
The most likely options for continuing the career of a 34-year-old player are now called RPL and Medialiga clubs. However, such transitions certainly will not have a positive effect on Artyom’s legacy. Moving to the UAE or ending a career now looks much nicer.
But after all, there are still vague chances for the player to return to some more or less decent level.
Why didn’t you play in Adana?
In addition to poor form due to the missed pre-season and difficulties with adaptation, by and large, Dziuba simply became a hostage to the coaching thought of Adana’s mentor Vincenzo Montella. In fact, from the very beginning of the striker’s stay in the new club, the Italian specialist chose the game without pure forwards with bottom passes. The most comfortable for Artem throws into the penalty area, crosses and long passes in the game “Demirspor” was not and is not.
Accordingly, there is no need for a heavy, pronounced striker, especially when the team is in the league leaders. Whether Montella switched to this version of the game due to Dziuba’s dissatisfaction or finally decided to change after the transfer of the Russian, we do not know. So far, signing Artem to Adana looks like a mistake both on the part of the player and the club. 4 matches (166 minutes) in the championship and 1 goal scored – an incredibly sad result. Perhaps later details will appear that shed light on this strange situation, but now we are only interested in the further fate of Dziuba.
And purely hypothetically, it looks as contradictory as possible. If the agent of the Russian striker fails to win a lucrative contract for Artem with a more or less decent club, while maintaining the player’s image and earnings, Dziuba’s prospects will play with gray colors.
Outsider RPL and Medialiga – a blow to the legacy
Rumors of interest in signing Dziuba have so far only been linked to Torpedo. In this case, it is not worth talking about the benefit for the player himself, due to its absolute absence. And for the Moscow club, the reason is seen only in the possible performance of the forward. Even from the image side, everything is not so clear, and it’s hard to talk about the financial side due to the lack of information about the needs of the player himself and the club’s capabilities.
Ilya Gerkus / Photo: ©
FC Torpedo
Moreover, the transition to any of the RPL clubs, of course, excluding the giants, will look as ambiguous as possible. In addition, I absolutely cannot believe that Dziuba himself needs it. Based on this logic, the rumors that have appeared about inviting Artem to the Medialiga seem completely ridiculous.
Yes, Artem loves to joke, but it is unlikely that the best scorer in the history of the championship and the Russian team does not value his heritage so much. The contingent of the Medialeague in the person of failed professional football players, veterans, show business stars and other people far from big-time football still does not fit in with a figure of Dziuba’s scale.
And how next?
Purely theoretically, the most attractive, and most importantly, realistic option for Dziuba is the option of moving to the UAE, where they can pay him a lot and are unlikely to be put on the bench even with incredibly poor form and results. High earnings will block all possible gossip about football – they go there only to earn money.
Also, the option with Venice from the Italian Serie B, to which Denis Cheryshev and Paolo Vanoli moved, has its pluses and minuses. The club did not deny the rumors about interest in Dziuba in the club. Surely this option looks much nicer than the same transition to Rubin Leonid Slutsky, with whom Artem has a warm relationship.
The option with Stanislav Cherchesov’s Ferencváros should not be discarded either. This is the perfect chance to play in the Eurocup playoffs. After a stunning result in the group stage of the Europa League, the Hungarian club may lose leading forwards in the winter. But whether Dzyuba is a comfortable option for Cherchesov is hard to say. In the first place in importance is the form of the player, to which all potential buyers will have questions.
A decision to end a career is also possible, although it is the most unlikely. Dzyuba will no longer be able to prove anything to someone or to himself. At least exactly the way he wanted, in a strong European club. Therefore, any of the possible options for continuing Artem’s career will look controversial. And only high performance at least somewhere other than the Medialeague is able to return the talk in a positive way about one of the best forwards in the history of Russian football.
