Arsen Zakharyan did not grow together with London – Newspaper Kommersant No. 161 (7362) of 09/02/2022

The peculiarities of the political situation may have become one of the reasons that disrupted the transfer, which could become the most noticeable in domestic football in recent years. 19-year-old Dynamo Arsen Zakharyan still remained in the Moscow club, despite active attempts to acquire him from London Chelsea. Various sources believe that the transition was hindered, among other things, by the economic sanctions applied against Russia.

On Thursday, Dynamo released the official statementdedicated to one of the most relevant topics for Russian football in recent days. It says midfielder Arsen Zakharyan will “continue to perform” at the Moscow club.

The announcement came just hours before the close of the next summer transfer window in all of Europe’s top leagues, including the English Premier League. And the case of Arsen Zakharyan could become his absolute hit for Russia. At the end of last week, a number of sources, both Russian and foreign, reported that Zakharyan was ready to acquire London Chelsea in the coming days, which had a very active transfer campaign after the change of owner, who parted ways with the club under pressure from the British authorities, Roman Abramovich , to a consortium led by American entrepreneur Todd Beley. Within its framework, he spent almost € 300 million on newcomers. At the same time, several British media resources, including The Times, claimed that the 19-year-old attacking midfielder Zakharyan, who spends his third season at Dynamo, having scored 13 goals in 54 official matches for him , was recently recognized by the Russian Football Union as the best young player in the country and has already managed to make his debut in the national team, is among the priority options from the point of view of Londoners coach Thomas Tuchel to strengthen the team that is conducting a rather large-scale restructuring and not having a very successful start in the English championship. And when discussing the price of Arsen Zakharyan, they were in solidarity with the fact that we are talking about €15 million. It is believed that this amount appears as a release clause in Zakharyan’s contract with Dynamo, it coincides with the assessment of the player according to Transfermarkt.

Arsen Zakharyan could have made something of a breakthrough by the standards of the Russian Premier League.

At the moment, several domestic football players play in strong foreign leagues, but they have not been included in the undisputed top club like Chelsea, who won the Champions League in 2021, for a very, very long time, since nine years ago from the English Arsenal to ” Zenit” Andrey Arshavin returned.

However, the transition never took place. Commenting on this fact, Dynamo confirmed that there were “substantive negotiations” between him and Chelsea, in which Dynamo took a “constructive position”. “However, due to a number of technical reasons beyond our control, it is not possible to transfer the player to this summer transfer window,” the club stated.

What is most likely meant by “technical reasons” is easy to understand. Earlier this week, some British publications such as Evening Standard and The Sun, said that Chelsea’s desire to acquire Arsen Zakharyan ran into the need to reckon with British “economic sanctions” imposed on Russia amid its military special operation in Ukraine. They made the transfer difficult.

As a result, in order to strengthen the attack, Chelsea bought on Thursday instead of Zakharyan for €14 million a veteran from Barcelona, ​​Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Dynamo informed that, despite the failure of Zakharyan’s transfer, “remains open to offers” that will suit team and player. A Kommersant source in the club did not rule out that over time, Dynamo management could “return to negotiations” with the Londoners.

Alexey Dospekhov