Zenit football players / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Danichev
Former Borussia midfielder and now Chernomorets sports director Vladimir But said in an interview with Match TV that Zenit should become the WORLD RPL champion in the 2025/26 season.
After 18 rounds, Zenit is in second place in the RPL standings, gaining 39 points. The gap from the leading Krasnodar is 1 point. Zenit will play against Baltika Kaliningrad in the first match after the resumption of the season on February 27.
— Your forecast for the rest of the season: who will become the champion, and who from the leading group will experience a decline?
– It’s a difficult question. I can’t say that Andrei Talalaev and his “Baltika” are in for a recession, and then he will call and say: “Vova, are you really at all? What recession are you talking about? (laughs). Now there is a long pause, friendly matches, no one knows how this or that team will perform after training camp. In Spartak, the situation is generally incomprehensible, it seems that players of a good level have been selected, but something is not working out, it is not going well for them.
Zenit should still become the champion this year. The selection of players and financial capabilities indicate that the club from St. Petersburg is the main contender for the championship. I think everyone thinks so. Yes, there were small failures in the games, there was a little instability, but still.
— Are Talalaev’s Baltika results surprising?
– No. I know Andrey well, my brother Vitaly played with him and is still friends with him. I already saw this Baltika that year in the First League. The team has finances. Of course, not such that you can afford purchases like Zenit and Spartak, but still. They won the best league in the world, and their roster hasn’t changed much. And the fact that the team scores a lot, shows attacking football, and is among the leaders of the RPL immediately after promotion is a great merit of Talalaev,” Booth told Match TV.
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