Sergei Semak

Semak was born in the selo Sychanskoye in the Voroshilovgradskaya Oblast into a peasant family of modest economical background. He was an excellent student and had an ideal behavior. When he was a child his teachers would argue as to whether he would become a mathematician or a football player.[2]

He left Ukraine shortly before the USSR fall, but his parents stayed there. He would become a Russian naturalized citizen, but until today he uses to visit his bornland; he had declared that he misses Ukraine.[3][4][5]

His older brother Andrei Semak and younger brother Nikolai Semak were also professional footballers.

He started training football at the Luhansk football school.

In 1992, he signed in FC Presnya Moscow who played in the Russian Top Division. After 19 matches (where he scored 4 goals) he was sold to FC Karelia Petrozavodsk, but in 1993 returned to FC Presnya Moscow (which changed its name to Asmaral Moscow).

In 1994, he was noted and signed by PFC CSKA Moscow. He became the club's captain and leader. With the club he won the Russian Premier League in 2003, the Russian Cup in 2002 and 2005. He left the club after it finished third in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 2004–05 and did not move on to the knockout stage.

In 2005, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain FC, France, but failed to settle, scoring just one goal. After just one season he returned to Russia.

In 2006, he signed for FC Moscow, where he stayed until 2008 when he moved to Rubin Kazan. In Rubin Semak was moved from the positions of striker and attacking midfielder to the position of a defensive midfielder.

In Rubin he became the captain and leader of the team, and led it to its first two championship titles in 2008 and 2009.

In August 2010, he transferred to FC Zenit St. Petersburg.[6]

Semak made his international debut in 1997 and took part in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

Having lost his place in the national team with the arrival of Guus Hiddink in 2006, Semak missed out on Russia's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, but was recalled to the national team, just prior to the Euro 2008 finals. Semak captained the Russia national team in their first Euro 2008 warm-up friendly against Kazakhstan, and during the rest of the campaign.

Sergei Semak had a good performance in the crucial match against Greece and provided an assist for the only goal Russia scored with a skilled bicycle kick pass from a wide angle. Another notable performance in Euro 2008 came in the quarter-finals during which he was playing his 50th game for his country, when his precise left-wing cross was volleyed in by Roman Pavlyuchenko against the Netherlands.

After his retirement, Semak was named as assistant coach of Zenit Saint Petersburg. He was appointed interim coach of the club after the sacking of Luciano Spalletti on 10 March 2014.[7] He held the position until 18 March when André Villas-Boas was appointed as the team manager.[3][4][5]

On 30 December 2016, he was appointed a manager of the Russian Premier League club FC Ufa.[8]

On 29 May 2018, he returned to Zenit St. Petersburg, signing a 2-year contract with 1-year extension option.[9] In his first year, he won the 2018–19 Russian Premier League. He led Zenit to the title again in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League.[10] On 25 July 2020, he sealed the double for the club by winning the 2019–20 Russian Cup.[11]

As of match played 15 December 2020

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sergei Semak.

• Profile at the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg website at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 February 2012)
• Sergei Semak at National-Football-Teams.com
• Profile at RussiaTeam (in Russian)
• Sergei Semak – FIFA competition record