Who is the best footballer on the planet or in the country? There are as many answers to this question as there are people asking it. And any fan, especially a specialist, has a lot of subjective and objective arguments. The Zenit football club from St. Petersburg is no exception, many well-known masters can claim the unofficial title of the best player only in the Russian championships (1992-2014).
Which player is considered the best?
There is no clear criterion, as well as the answer to such a question, in football, and indeed in all big sports. Just for a simple enumeration of its generally recognized stars, perhaps the firmament is not enough. Some experts prefer the beautiful jumps of reliable goalkeepers; the second are more often pleased with the impassability of the harsh defenders; for others, the standard of skill is the filigree transmissions of midfielders-dispatchers; and the fourth come to the podium for the sake of, first of all, accurate strikes of the forwards. And it is the fourth on the planet most of all.
Not a single attack
"Attacking and scoring goals is certainly not bad, but defense and castle goals are also important." This is exactly what many fans of the Zenit football club think, who did not limit the top list to one or four players (in terms of the number of classic football roles), but voted for 33 candidates at once. Among them are three goalkeepers, nine midfielders and forwards, and 12 defenders of different generations.
Five from the unofficial list of "33 best players" play at Zenit to this day. These are Alexander Anyukov, Andrey Arshavin, Alexander Kerzhakov, Vyacheslav Malafeev and Anatoly Tymoshchuk.
Russian Championships: 90s
The first championship of sovereign Russia took place in 1992. He did not bring great fame to the team, the St. Petersburg team parted with the elite division for three seasons. The best player of Zenit -92 must be admitted, since there is no official data, forward Kulik, who scored 13 times in 30 league games. He, as well as his teammates in the attack line Dmitriev and Zazulin, were leaders during the team's stay in the first division.
Zenit celebrated its return to the top league by the appearance of new leaders. The best of the 96 season, in addition to Kulik, who continued to score regularly, were defender Bokov and striker Zubko who made their debut in the St. Petersburg club.
Among those who led their teammates at the end of the twentieth century, one can single out a whole group of football players worthy of the title of the best not only in a single season. Among them are players of different roles - goalkeeper Berezovsky, defender Kondrashov, midfielders Gorshkov and Kobelev, forwards Panov and Popovich.
Alexander Panov entered the history of national football in just 90 minutes. Having scored two goals against the world champion of the French national team on June 5, 1999 in Paris, he became the first star of the match, which ended in a sensational 3: 2 victory for the Russians.
2000s
Zenit fans greeted the beginning of the new century with undisguised optimism. And it's not just about the team's results, which dropped below sixth place only once in ten seasons and won five medals, including two golds. Much more fans of the club liked the appearance of a whole group of young footballers. Including pupils of St. Petersburg schools, which quickly turned into full-fledged stars of an all-Russian scale.
The best in this decade, many experts consider the goalkeeper Malafeev, defender Anyukov, midfielders Bystrov, Denisov and Radimov, forwards Arshavin and Kerzhakov. In the star team of the early 2000s, it is also worth adding defender Hovsepyan, Khavbekov, Zyryanov and Tymoshchuk, forward Pogrebnyak and numerous foreigners from far abroad.
With the arrival of a large Russian industrial corporation and strong foreign coaches in the club, Zenit's backbone was made up of very high class legionnaires. Such as, for example, the Brazilian national team striker Hulk and the Portuguese national team player Danny. Nevertheless, among the Russians there are those who are quite worthy of the title of the best player of this period. These include, in particular, the captain of the Russian national team, midfielder Shirokov, who was recognized as the number 1 player in the country in 2013.
