Intersections of football destinies.
Fedor Chalov returned to CSKA and immediately commented the new Spartak coach Guillermo Abascal, who coached him at Basel. It turned out to be of little significance:
We worked with him together. Everything. How can you characterize it? Tactically equipped coach.
Perhaps the young Abascal failed to impress Chalov, or Fyodor thought it incorrect to declaim new coach opponent of principle CSKA. One way or another, Russian football players who dared to play for European clubs were coached by far more famous and successful specialists. Ready to find out their names?
Carlo Ancelotti trained Yuri Zhirkov and Igor Simutenkov
In the 2021/22 season Carlo Ancelotti returned to the technical horizon, winning the Spanish Championship and the Champions League with Real Madrid. A unique coach, there are good reasons to define the Italian as the most successful of the 21st century, because he four times he won the Champions League and won all five top leagues. In both cases, only Pope Charles holds the absolute records.
Among the hundreds of players who have had the opportunity to coach Ancelotti, many stars of the first magnitude and a couple of Russians. The Italian met Igor Simutenkov at Reggiana at the dawn of his coaching career. It was in Serie B, from where Reggiana immediately rose to the elite thanks to the talent of the still inexperienced Ancelotti and the goals of Simutenkov (8 in 33 games).
15 years later, Carlo, already in a completely different situation, after numerous triumphs with Milan, coached Yuri Zhirkov at Chelsea. Under the supervision of an Italian specialist, Zhirkov won Premier League, English Cup and Super Cup, played fifty games (about 3000 minutes of play) and also scored against Spartak in the Champions League. Ancelotti spoke positively of all the qualities of Zhirkov, except the vocal ones:
Zhirkov is a legend. He has many talents, but they are covered by a serious flaw: he cannot sing. To enter Chelsea it is not enough to sign a contract and be able to kick the ball. Every newcomer has his toughest test: karaoke night, our sacred ritual. For Zhirkov, the hour of truth came when we were in Los Angeles. The boys persuaded him for several days and he now he stopped in a chair and sang. To be honest, it was awful, I had never heard anything like it before. He did not play a single note, pieces of bread and fruit began to fly towards him. He still continued to sing. It was like the scream of a pig stuck in a fence, or the scream of a drowning cat. The most interesting thing is that no one took pity on him, no one stopped him. Cech even wanted to wear a helmet. It seems to me that Yuri has not yet recovered from this mental trauma.
Jose Mourinho coached by Dmitry Alenichev and Alexei Smertin
In May he became Mourinho the first coach managed to win the Champions League, the Europa League and the League of Conferences. It would not be superfluous to mention that in the first two big finals Jose scored a Russian footballer for his team: Dmitry Alenichev’s goals helped win over Celtic in the Cup final Uefa 2002/03 and Monaco in the decisive match of the 2003/04 Champions League.
Mourinho called Alenichev “a special player” and “one of the smartest footballers I have ever met”. The Portuguese released Dmitry on the field 79 times, in these matches the Russian scored 13 goals and 16 assists. After moving from Porto to Chelsea in 2004, Jose coached another of our compatriots, Alexei Smertin. Together they won the English Premier League and the League Cup in 2005.
And Denis Cheryshev has another 60 minutes in the cup match for Real under the guidance of Mourinho, but this episode pales against the backdrop of the Special’s happy interaction with Alenichev and Smertin.
Sir Alex Ferguson trained Andrey Kanchelskis
An important cog in Sir Alex Ferguson’s first successful Manchester United assembly was Russian midfielder Andrey Kanchelskis, who played predominantly on the right wing. Kanchelskis played 148 games for Manchester United, scored 34 goals and took part in two league titles (1993 and 1994). Despite the scandalous departure from Manchester United, Kanchelskis and Ferguson maintained their relationship after the break (Sir Alex blamed the agent for what happened) and during his visits to England, Andrei invariably takes a couple of cans of caviar. from Russia to cure the Scot.
Arsene Wenger trained Andrey Arshavin
Do you know which coach has brought Andrei Arshavin onto the pitch more often than others? That’s right, Arsene Wenger. The Frenchman allowed Arshavin to play 144 games with London Arsenal, Andrey repaid with 31 goals and 46 assists. In second place is Vlastimil Petrzhela, under his leadership Arshavin played 122 games with the Zenit shirt, the third is Dick Advocaat (80 games). It is now even difficult to imagine that the Russian footballer played for one of England’s strongest teams and was in good standing with Wenger, who is pleased with Arshavin’s career at Arsenal:
Russian pessimism is painful. Russian journalists often ask me about Andrei Arshavin. And they always use the same wording: “What went wrong with him at Arsenal?” Yes, why not, where did you get it? Arshavin has achieved a lot, he is one of those rare Russian players who really managed to prove himself in the top flight. After all, he arrived at Arsenal when he was already closer to thirty, he was forced to adjust the game due to his age. But he is a great athlete.
