We have both a product and a merchant: Zenit demonstrates its own approach to working on the transfer market

Collective intelligence in action

It can even be proudly noted that the transfer of a football player with a Russian passport has never been carried out for such money. Yes, only Malcolm himself spoke about the relationship with the leadership of Zenit. In an interview with the Brazilian press, he stated that he allegedly obtained citizenship at the request of the general director of the St. Petersburg club, Alexander Medvedev. He, in turn, needed to free up a legionary vacancy to buy new Brazilians. Although why, if possible, declare 13 foreigners and invite the strongest Russian players, and even in the absence of European cups, you need to have a dozen and a half foreign players in the application, it is not clear.

Malcolm’s transfer in the Russian football community was assessed differently. Many admire the management of Zenit and the good promotion of the best RPL player of the last season. The opinion of ill-wishers was best expressed in an interview with one of the St. Petersburg newspapers by the famous football agent Roman Oreshchuk.

“This transfer is the sole merit of Malcolm’s agents,” Oreshchuk said. “They were the ones who closed the deal. Definitely not the sports department of Zenit, which, as far as I know, simply does not exist in the club. Like a sports director.”

Oreshchuk himself, as a sports director in the Moscow clubs Torpedo and Dynamo, lasted only a few months. And it is absolutely certain that he is not aware of how things are at Zenith. Medvedev himself told the MK in St. Petersburg correspondent about this.

“When Javier Ribalta left, we thought for a long time about a new sports director,” he said. – There were opportunities to take a specialist with a name, but settled on the option with a collective mind. Candidates for newcomers are negotiated collectively, taking into account the opinions of the scout service, the coaching staff, and the general director. My deputy Andrei Sergeevich Arshavin, who has been playing in the English Premier League for a long time and is aware of all the trends in European football, also keeps his finger on the pulse. Only after that we go to the board of directors and apply for approval to the head of Gazprom, Alexei Borisovich Miller. All decisions made in the virtual office of the sports director are carefully weighed and analyzed.”

Agree, such a model is quite effective. In any case, it is much more efficient than in the capital’s clubs, where either no one can be “sold”, or in the presence of a sports director, agents are still involved in all transfer issues.

The Hulk was also “given away” on time

The transfer of Malcolm made me remember other successful deals with the participation of Zenit players. Of course, the current contract, which raised the bar of the RPL record, was made possible primarily due to the cash flow that Saudi Arabia sent to the development of its teams. They are now sparing no petrodollars and petroeuro to lure world football stars into the local league. If Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema could not resist the tempting offers, then who can blame Malcolm, who was offered a salary of 18 million euros per season? In “Zenith”, according to Medvedev, he did not earn even a third of this amount.

At one time, Hulk went to Shanghai SIPG for 56 million euros in the wake of the infusion of outrageous money into Chinese football. The golden rain did not last long on the football fields of the Celestial Empire, but Zenit managed to send not only the Hulk, but also Axel Witsel there. Although at one time their services were bought for a lot of money for a successful performance in European competitions. As well as Malcoma, along with the rest of the Brazilians, whose feet were mainly used to win the last victories in the Russian championships.

Unlike Hulk, who left for Porto for 40 million euros, Malcom, who arrived from Barcelona for the same money, definitely paid off the costs of his transfer. Although this impression is due to his fantastic game against the background of other RPL players in the last championship. The first two seasons out of four spent at Zenit, the Brazilian (then still without a Russian passport) was treated more than he played, in the third he took a long time to get in shape and only in the fourth showed himself in all his glory. Malcom did not have the opportunity to prove himself in European competition.

Argentine transfers are better than Brazilian ones

If we talk about the best transfer balances in the recent history of Zenith, then the record amounts from the transfers of Brazilians to Asia are perhaps incomparable with the deals for two Argentines. In the summer of 2017, when the then head coach of St. Petersburg, Roberto Mancini, with the support of sports director Konstantin Sarsania, launched the Zenit project from Buenos Aires, midfielder Leandro Paredes was taken from the Italian Roma for 23 million euros. Only in St. Petersburg it didn’t work out for him, he missed and freaked out, but in the summer of 2019 he left for PSG for 40 million euros. In Paris, he also did not go well, and Paredes ended up back in Italy. At the same time, he got into the champion team of Argentina at the 2022 World Cup and even scored a penalty in the post-match series in the final.

Defender Ezequiel Garay was taken away from the Portuguese Benfica in the summer of 2014 for only 6 million euros. The football world wondered why it was so cheap. After all, the Argentine just became the silver medalist of the World Cup, and even earlier – the champion of the Beijing Olympics, playing in the same team with Messi. Few believed that the football player himself insistently asked to change Lisbon to St. Petersburg because of the desire to train under the guidance of the great coach Andre Villas-Boas.

Despite a five-year contract, Garay stayed on the banks of the Neva for only two years and in September 2016 left for Valencia for 24 million euros. The British offered more, but the wife of the football player Tamara Gorro insisted on the Spanish version. Model, TV presenter, businesswoman, mother of two children of Ezequiel and just a beauty.

Garay even threatened the leadership of Zenit to end his career if he was not released. This story ended badly. Ezequiel ended his career at the age of 33, having failed to reach the level that he showed at Zenit, and divorced his wife last year.

Accounting secrets

Of course, in recent years there have been transfer deals that did not bring new victories to Zenit, but made a serious hole in the budget. In the summer of 2014, Spaniard Javi Garcia signed a contract with Zenit. The transfer cost, according to the then CEO of the club Maxim Mitrofanov, 15 million euros, and Manchester City willingly agreed to these conditions. The English needed to unload the payroll and get some money to show UEFA that they were in line with financial fair play principles. Three years later, the once-star Spaniard was released for just one and a half million to the Spanish Real Betis.

The transfer market in football is both a black hole in which millions of euros disappear, and a real Klondike for those who spin in this business. No one knows the exact amounts that went into the budget of the club-seller and left the budget of the club-buyer, as well as settled on the accounts of agents. In Portugal, however, clubs are required to demonstrate the transfer list, but in the deal for the same Hulk, as Brazilian journalists assure, 40 million euros is only what Porto received from Zenit. But part of the rights to the Brazilian star belonged to his former club, Rentistas, and a small amount belonged to the agent. So the amount of 60 million euros appeared in the Brazilian press, into which the Hulk flew to Zenith.

Even the most knowledgeable website transfermarkt is not always aware of the specifics of the Russian football business. The transfer of Ivan Novoseltsev from Rostov to Zenit was estimated at 5 million euros, and the former general director of the club, Mitrofanov, in an interview with the author of these notes, assured: they paid 10 million rubles prescribed as compensation. Well, the transfer of Alexei Sutormin for 50 thousand rubles, either from Orenburg, or from Rubin, in general, for a long time served as an occasion for ironic smiles. Many regulars of sports bars also wanted to pick up a player and then transfer them to Zenit for a large sum.

PSV is not a decree for us

Only jokes are jokes, but today the transfer philosophy of the St. Petersburg team raises questions. Until recently, the club worked in the style of PSG, Manchester City and other Real Madrid. He took stars, regardless of their real value and declaring the need for such transfers for victories in the Russian championship and successful performance in European competitions. Now young Brazilian talents are invited in large numbers, who still need to adapt to European football.

Such a philosophy has the right to life. The best example is one of the strongest clubs in the Netherlands, PSV Eindhoven. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s of the last century, it was the Dutch who intercepted two of the brightest Brazilian stars, Romario and Ronaldinho. The first played in the Dutch championship for five seasons, the second for two, after which they were sold to Barcelona.

How Zenit will conduct business in the transfer market in the absence of European competitions is a mystery to most. Now they tried to give away Wendel, who, in terms of longing, sadness and statements about an unhealthy situation in the St. Petersburg team (this is certainly not true), outdid all his predecessors. The leadership of Zenit first announced that it had allowed the midfielder not to come to the club’s location, but his agent to look for a new team. Then, having fined the Brazilian for a decent amount, she took a tough stance towards Flamengo. The club from Rio de Janeiro was ready to take away the prodigal son, but there is no such money in Brazil now as in Saudi Arabia. Advertising the trademark “Vendel”, Medvedev jokingly said: “We have a product – you have a merchant.”

Only those who want to pick up a football player with such an attitude to the profession are not visible, but Zenit takes on more and more new players not only in Brazil, but also in Russia. It seems that we have both a product and a merchant. In any case, Vendel, a few weeks after the start of the Russian championship, was announced to participate in the tournament and they hope that he will help solve the tournament problems. And then you can “sell” it. Preferably Saudi Arabia.