Transition of Anatoly Timoshchuk to Zenit in February 2007 -th became a powerful sensation. I was especially impressed by the transfer amount — $20 million. For a football player from the post-Soviet space (the Ukrainian played 227 matches for Shakhtar) this was a record. In St. Petersburg they seriously said that part of the money paid was addressed to Ukrainian politicians fighting for seats in the Verkhovna Rada.
Very quickly, the Ukrainian legionnaire became the favorite of the St. Petersburg team and the captain of Zenit. In Dick Advocaat's team, which won gold at the Russian Championship in the fall of 2007, won the UEFA Cup in the spring of 2008, and the UEFA Super Cup in the summer, Tymoshchuk was not only the captain, but also a real leader in the locker room. With Andrei Arshavin, Igor Denisov and other players not lacking leadership qualities alive.
Anatoly parted ways with Zenit in the summer of 2009, moving to Bayern. In winter, he went to Munich for negotiations, but categorically denied this fact. He claimed that he simply did it at the airport. Franz Josef Strauss had a transfer on his way to Milan for a fashion exhibition, where he had long promised to take his wife. It was only in the summer that the contract with Bayern was signed. Surprisingly, the Munich team made an exception for the Ukrainian football player. At that time, and even now, Bayern did not sign older foreign players, and Anatoly had already turned 30 by that time.
Moreover, Louis van Gaal, who coached Bayern at the time, almost openly stated that he did not see Tymoshchuk in the squad. They say that the head coach’s compatriot Marco van Bommel does an excellent job in his position. After the first season, dissatisfied with the lack of playing time, the ex-Zenit player even wanted to leave the German superclub, fortunately, there were options in Italy and Russia, as well as interest from Wolfsburg.
Only the board of directors of Bayern vetoed this transfer, believing that Tymoshchuk, by his very presence, had a positive effect on the microclimate in the team. In Munich, he very quickly became one of the leaders in the dressing room, and then won the competition from van Bommel for a place in the squad. Tymoshchuk spent four seasons at Bayern, and in June 2013 he returned to Zenit. Don't finish the game — play. In two seasons, he brought the number of matches for the St. Petersburg club to a beautiful figure of 150.
I am sure that Anatoly would have ended his club career at Zenit, but in 2015, politics still overtook the footballer who shied away from politics. The captain of the Ukrainian national team really wanted to play at Euro 2016, but in his native country there were constantly calls not to call up the football player from the RPL. Tymoshchuk was even accused of going to the Piskarevskoye cemetery on May 9 to lay wreaths. Although even the Italian Luciano Spalletti participated in these events. Zenit understood the fact that, together with his partners in the Ukrainian national team, Tymoshchuk regularly visited soldiers who participated in the ATO in hospitals. This is how the operation against the residents of Donbass was called in Ukraine.
As a result, the captain of the Ukrainian national team at Euro 2016 ended his playing career in Kairat Almaty, bringing the record for the number of matches for the national team to 144. He still hasn't been beaten. Tymoshchuk was considered a legend of Ukrainian football. Even while playing for Zenit and Kairat, he actively participated in his life. Organized a foundation that held tournaments in memory of Andrei Gusin. In the spring of 2015, Tymoshchuk became a member of the Council for the Strategic Development of Professional Football of the FFU.
At the same time, starting in February 2017, he was regularly criticized in his home country. After all, having received a PRO coaching license, Tymoshchuk began working on the Zenit coaching staff. Sergei Semak has a lot of assistants, but Tymoshchuk, of course, ranks first in the hierarchy of assistants. It was he who replaced the head coach on the bench and at the press conference when Semak missed one of the RPL matches due to disqualification. At Zenit, the Ukrainian specialist is responsible for “standards” in training and actively participates in transfer campaigns. This winter, he looked through potential newcomers to the Asian Cup.
If before February 24, 2022 In Ukraine, Tymoshchuk was criticized, but after the start of the North Military District he was declared an enemy and a traitor. Although Anatoly himself spoke about what was happening only once. “We need peace for the sake of our children and parents, for the sake of life on Earth,” he wrote on social networks on February 24, 2022.
However, even those who until recently considered Tymoshchuk an idol launched a barrage of accusations and insults at him.
““Tymoshchuk is no longer a legend of Ukrainian football, everyone has forgotten about his services to the country,” midfielder of the current Ukrainian national team Ruslan Malinovsky expressed general thoughts.
The leaders of Ukrainian football went even further, depriving Tymoshchuk of the right to engage in any football-related activities in the country and his coaching license. They even took away the title of Honored Worker of Physical Culture and Sports of Ukraine, awarded to the captain of the St. Petersburg team for winning the UEFA Cup with Zenit.
Tymoshchuk did not accept this decision and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) with a claim against Ukrainian Football Association (as FFU is now called). Before this, he appealed the decision to the UAF Appeal Committee. Naturally, I achieved nothing. The consideration of Tymoshchuk's case in CAS is scheduled for April 22.
Tymoshchuk celebrates his 45th birthday in Samara, where Zenit is playing an RPL match. He does what he loves in his family. If the coach of the football team is not busy preparing for the next game, he can always be seen at the matches of the basketball team “Zenith” and the hockey team “SKA”. In January, during a television broadcast of one of SKA's games, cameramen specifically showed Anatoly in the box to refute another fake about his alleged departure to the USA.
Tymoshchuk loves football and serves football, becoming a true legend of Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St. Petersburg and ( I insist on this) of Ukrainian football. No matter what they say in Ukraine today.
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