Roman Zozulya

Roman Vyacheslavovych Zozulya (Ukrainian: Роман В'ячеславович Зозуля, born 17 November 1989) is a Ukrainian footballer who plays as a striker for Spanish club Albacete Balompié and the Ukrainian national team.

For the gymnast, see Roman Zozulya (gymnast).
In this Eastern Slavic name, the patronymic is Vyacheslavovych and the family name is Zozulya.

Roman Zozulya
Zozulya with Dnipro in 2016
Personal information
Full name Roman Vyacheslavovych Zozulya
Date of birth (1989-11-17) 17 November 1989
Place of birth Kyiv, Soviet Union
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
 Albacete
Number 10
Youth career
2002–2006 Dynamo Kyiv
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2011 Dynamo Kyiv 35 (3)
2011–2016 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 85 (22)
2016–2017 Betis 6 (0)
2017 → Rayo Vallecano (loan) 0 (0)
2017– Albacete 122 (25)
National team‡
2005–2006 Ukraine U17 14 (2)
2007–2008 Ukraine U19 15 (4)
2008–2011 Ukraine U21 22 (1)
2010– Ukraine 33 (4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 6 December 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17 June 2019

Club career

Dynamo Kyiv

Born in Kyiv, Zozulya was a product of the Dynamo youth system progressing through Dynamo-3 and Dynamo-2. In 2008 after the 2007–08 season he was promoted to the main team.

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

On 27 February 2014, in a Europa League match against Tottenham Zozulya was sent off after he directed a head-butt towards Jan Vertonghen.[1] Zozulya was sent off and had to be restrained from attacking Vertonghen, who was accused of faking the degree of contact.[2] Tottenham went on to win the game 3–1, knocking Dnipro out of the Europa League.[3]

Betis

On 27 July 2016, Zozulya signed a three-year contract with La Liga side Real Betis.[4]

Rayo Vallecano

On 31 January 2017, Zozulya joined Rayo Vallecano on loan until the end of the season. His arrival was met with protests from the club's fans, unhappy over his purported far-right links after a picture of him wearing a shirt with the Tryzub and lyrics of poet Taras Shevchenko was misinterpreted as featuring the logo of the Right Sector. Zozulya vehemently denied any such links in an open letter to Rayo's fans, declaring that he has only assisted the legitimate Ukrainian army during the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.[5][6] On 1 February 2017, Zozulya had his contract cancelled due to the reactions of Rayo fans and returned to Betis.[7] This meant that he could not play anymore in the 2016–17 season because the Royal Spanish Football Federation rules say players cannot register for more than two teams in one campaign.[7]

Albacete

On 8 September 2017, free agent Zozulya signed a one-year contract with Albacete Balompié.[8] On 25 March 2019 Zozulya endured more harassment during an Albacete away game against CD Lugo, when the fans of the latter club sang chants aimed at Zozulya, explicitly wishing him death for supposedly supporting the Nazi political movement.[9] As a result of the incident, the fans of Albacete requested that La Liga seriously punish Lugo. Zozulya received the best player award for the month of October 2019, based on the fans' votes.[10] On 15 December 2019, the league game between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete was abandoned by the referee, after abuse and threats from the home fans over Zozulya's alleged far-right-wing political views.[11] The second half of the game was scheduled to be played the following June, following the resumption of football after the coronavirus pandemic.[12]

International career

Roman debuted for Ukraine on 2 June 2010 against Norway at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo. He scored a goal after Yevhen Konoplyanka fired a long shot at Jon Knudsen, who fumbled with the ball and let Roman kick the ball into the net. He was substituted in the 81st minute.[13][14] He was member of the Ukrainian 23-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016.[15]

Outside of football

Civil involvement
Graffiti praising Zozulya at Dnipro's training ground

Zozulya is the founder of the Narodna Armiya (People's Army) organisation which is a part of the civil volunteer movement helping Ukrainian forces in the war in Donbass. In particular Zozulya's organisation is providing food, clothing and technical equipment to Ukrainian Army and helps families of the military.[16][17] In 2016, he received a special commendation from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for his support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Together with Ruslan Rotan Zozulya is also the co-founder and sponsor of the Rotan and Zozulya Academy of Football in Dnipro.

Accusations of Nazi sympathies

In December 2019, a match between the Spanish teams Rayo Vallecano and Albacete (Roman Zozulya's former and current clubs) was suspended,[18] when the former club's fans loudly accused the player of being a sympathizer of Nazi ideology, due to his known support of the Azov Battalion[19] as well as other images he had posted on his Twitter account, which contained references to Nazi symbolism or organizations claimed to support Nazism.[20][21]

Career statistics

Club
As of 17 June 2019
Club Season League Cup Europe Super Cup Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Dynamo Kyiv 2007–08 Ukrainian Premier League 1000000010
2008–09 111301000151
2009–10 112110010133
2010–11 120318100232
Total 353729110526
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2011–12 Ukrainian Premier League 153211000184
2012–13 2382093003411
2013–14 24710104003511
2014–15 131209100242
2015–16 103421000155
Total 85221133080012633
Betis 2016–17 La Liga 6000000060
Albacete 2017–18 Segunda División 309000000309
2018–19 37110000003711
Total 67200000006720
Career total 193451853991025159

International
As of 14 June 2019[22]
Ukraine
YearAppsGoals
201011
201100
201240
201392
201470
201510
2016111
Total 334

International goals

Source:[22]

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.2 June 2010Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo, Norway Norway0–10–1Friendly
2.22 March 2013National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland Poland1–31–3WC 2014 Qual
3.15 November 2013Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine France1–02–0WC 2014 Qual
4.29 May 2016Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin, Italy Romania1–13–4Friendly

Honors

Dynamo Kyiv

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Orders

References
  1. Mike Dyce. "Europa League: Roman Zozulya gets straight red for head butting Tottenham player, chaos ensues (GIF)". fanside.com. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  2. "Jan Vertonghen Defends Himself Over Accusations of Simulation for Roman Zozulya Red Card. In May 2015 Zozulya and Dnipro went on to the final of the Europa League, but his team lost, 3-2". insidefutbol.com. 1 March 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  3. "UEFA Europa League: Tottenham 3 Dnipro 1". FourFourTwo. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  4. "Real Betis signs Roman Zozulya". Real Betis. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  5. "Zozulya: Rayo sign forward following ideology controversy". AS English. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  6. Ukrainians cry foul over accusations of neo-Nazi links against striker Zozulia, UNIAN (1 February 2017)
  7. Roman Zozulya: Player's Rayo Vallecano loan spell ends as fans call him Nazi, BBC News (1 February 2017)
  8. "Roman Zozulya, nuevo jugador del Alba" [Roman Zozulya, new player of Alba] (in Spanish). Albacete Balompié. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  9. Zozulya helped Albacete to sack Lugo, fans of which shocked by songs which death to the Ukrainian (Зозуля допоміг Альбасете розгромити Луго – фанати шокували піснями з побажанням смерті українцю). Football24.ua. 23 March 2019
  10. "Zozulia, Jugador Cinco Estrellas de octubre | Albacete Balompié". Zozulia, Jugador Cinco Estrellas de octubre | Albacete Balompié (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  11. "Rayo-Albacete game suspended after nazi insults to Zozulia". AS.com. 15 December 2019.
  12. "Spanish football to resume a day early with second half of abandoned match". BBC Sport. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  13. (in Ukrainian) God loves Trinity
  14. Zozulia nets winner on Ukraine debut
  15. Ukraine team
  16. Юрий Сай (29 April 2015). Роман Зозуля презентовал фонд "Народная армия", который будет помогать нашим воинам (in Russian). fakty.ua. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  17. Роман Зозуля совместно с волонтерами Днепропетровска основали фонд "Народная Армия" (in Russian). dneprpost.com.ua. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  18. "Rayo Vallecano v Albacete abandoned as fans call Roman Zozulya a Nazi". BBC Sport. 15 December 2019.
  19. https://twitter.com/zozulyaroman18/status/569983512012562433
  20. https://www.vocativ.com/falsestart/414086/did-espn-let-a-nazi-soccer-player-off-the-hook/index.html
  21. https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/deportes/2019/12/16/llaman-nazi-roman-zozulia/00031576492318355426557.htm
  22. "Zozulya, Roman". National Football Teams. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  23. https://styler.rbc.ua/ukr/zhizn/eto-moya-zasluga-ukrainskiy-futbolist-udostoilsya-1509001180.html
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