Sergei Semak

Sergei Semak

Semak in 2018 with Zenit
Personal information
Full name	Sergei Bogdanovich Semak
Date of birth	(1976-02-27) 27 February 1976
Place of birth	Sychanske, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Zenit St. Petersburg (manager)
Youth career
	Luhansk Football Academy
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992	Presnya Moscow	19	(4)
1992	Karelia Petrozavodsk	3	(0)
1993–1994	Asmaral Moscow	21	(3)
1994–2004	CSKA Moscow	289	(69)
2005–2006	Paris Saint-Germain	26	(1)
2006–2007	Moscow	64	(13)
2008–2010	Rubin Kazan	61	(12)
2010–2013	Zenit St. Petersburg	49	(10)
Total		532	(112)
National team
1997–2010[1]	Russia	65	(4)
Teams managed
2013–2016	Zenit St. Petersburg (assistant)
2014	Zenit St. Petersburg (caretaker)
2014–2016	Russia (assistant)
2017–2018	Ufa
2018–	Zenit St. Petersburg
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Sergei Bogdanovich Semak (Russian: Серге́й Богда́нович Сема́к [sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐɡˈdanəvʲɪtɕ sʲɪˈmak]; Ukrainian: Сергій Богданович Семак; born 27 February 1976) is a Russian football manager and a former international midfielder who is currently the manager of Zenit St. Petersburg.

Early life

Semak was born in the selo Sychanskoye in the Voroshilovgradskaya Oblast into a peasant family of modest economical background. He was an excellent student and had an ideal behavior. When he was a child his teachers would argue as to whether he would become a mathematician or a football player.^[2]

He left Ukraine shortly before the USSR fall, but his parents stayed there. He would become a Russian naturalized citizen, but until today he uses to visit his bornland; he had declared that he misses Ukraine.^[3][4][5]

His older brother Andrei Semak and younger brother Nikolai Semak are also professional footballers.

Club career

He started training football at the Luhansk football school.

In 1992, he signed in FC Presnya Moscow who played in the Russian Top Division. After 19 matches (where he scored 4 goals) he was sold to FC Karelia Petrozavodsk, but in 1993 returned to FC Presnya Moscow (which changed its name to Asmaral Moscow).

In 1994, he was noted and signed by PFC CSKA Moscow. He became the clubs captain and leader. With the club he won the Russian Premier League in 2003, the Russian Cup in 2002 and 2005. He left the club after it finished third in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 2004–05 and did not move on to the knockout stage.

In 2005, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain FC, France, but failed to settle, scoring just one goal. After just one season he returned to Russia.

In 2006, he signed for FC Moscow, where he stayed until 2008 when he moved to Rubin Kazan. In Rubin Semak was moved from the positions of striker and attacking midfielder to the position of a defensive midfielder.

In Rubin he became the captain and leader of the team, and led it to its first two championship titles in 2008 and 2009.

In August 2010, he transferred to FC Zenit St. Petersburg.^[6]

International career

Semak made his international debut in 1997 and took part in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

Having lost his place in the national team with the arrival of Guus Hiddink in 2006, Semak missed out on Russia's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, but was recalled to the national team, just prior to the Euro 2008 finals. Semak captained the Russia national team in their first Euro 2008 warm-up friendly against Kazakhstan, and during the rest of the campaign.

Sergei Semak had a good performance in the crucial match against Greece and provided an assist for the only goal Russia scored with a skilled bicycle kick pass from a wide angle. Another notable performance in Euro 2008 came in the quarter-finals during which he was playing his 50th game for his country, when his precise left-wing cross was volleyed in by Roman Pavlyuchenko against the Netherlands.

Managerial career

After his retirement, Semak was named as assistant coach of Zenit Saint Petersburg. He was appointed interim coach of the club after the sacking of Luciano Spalletti on 10 March 2014.^[7] He held the position until 18 March when André Villas-Boas was appointed as the team manager.^[3][4][5]

On 30 December 2016, he was appointed a manager of the Russian Premier League club FC Ufa.^[8]

On 29 May 2018, he returned to Zenit St. Petersburg, signing a 2-year contract with 1-year extension option.^[9]

Career statistics

International goals

Scores and results list. Russia's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	6 June 2001	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	2–1	2–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
2.	16 October 2002	Central Stadium, Volgograd, Russia	Albania	2–1	4–1	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
3.				4–1
4.	20 August 2003	Lokomotiv Stadium, Moscow, Russia	Israel	1–2	1–2	Friendly

Managerial statistics

As of 7 October 2018

Honours

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sergei Semak.

• Profile at the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2012-02-20)
• Sergei Semak at National-Football-Teams.com
• Profile at RussiaTeam (in Russian)
• Sergei Semak – FIFA competition record (archive)