FC Zenit Academy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FC Zenit Academy, formerly DYuSSh Smena-Zenit (Russian: ДЮСШ "Смена-Зенит"[1]) and DYuSSh Smena, is a Russian youth football academy based in Saint Petersburg. It is the youth sector of FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, and is currently headed by Dutchman Henk van Stee.[2]
History
The sports school was founded in 1957 as a football section of Central DYuSSh GORONO of Leningrad.[3] It was reorganized into Football SDYuShOR Smena in 1968.
Present
In 2008 Smena was included into club structure of FC Zenit Saint Petersburg and renamed Smena-Zenit. Since 2010 academy's main U-18 team plays the role of Zenit dissolved farm club FC Smena-Zenit, competing in the championship of Saint Petersburg as well as various international tournaments.
The list of academy's coaches includes former internationals Oleksandr Spivak and Dmitry Vasilyev.[4]
Alumni
The best known alumni of Smena are Russia national football team players Vyacheslav Malafeev, Igor Denisov, Andrey Arshavin, Vladimir Bystrov, Viktor Vasin and retired Vladislav Radimov and Oleg Salenko.