Zheludkov Yuri is a former Soviet and Russian footballer who is best known for playing for Zenit. He ended his football career in 1996, and now he is 57 years old. Zheludkov Yuri played in the position of the central striker.
Carier start
Zheludkov Yuri was born on March 8, 1959 in the USSR in the city of Leningrad, where he began his sports career. From childhood, he studied at a sports school, speaking for the local football team. When he turned 21, Yura was invited to the Smena football school, from where his movement to the world of professional sports began. As a result, he ended up at the Dynamo Leningrad Academy, for which he made his debut in 1976, when he was only 17 years old.
The young football player spent three years in a team in the second division - he played 65 matches, scoring 16 goals, after which he was seen by a stronger club, namely the Leningrad Zenit, which is now one of the leading forces in football in Russia. However, in the USSR this club was far from the strongest, but still had to be reckoned with. Therefore, Yuri Zheludkov, of course, was very happy to go for an increase - then he did not yet know that this particular club would become his real home.
The heyday of the Zenith
In 1980, the transfer of Dynamo player St. Petersburg Zheludkov to Zenit was arranged, where he immediately began to adapt to more serious conditions. Quite quickly, Yuri joined the new team and began to fall into the starting lineup of the team. He experienced a lot with the club, in 1984 achieving an excellent result: Zenit won the USSR championship, and also reached the final of the USSR Cup. It was the peak of a career that Yuri Zheludkov could climb.
The footballer, naturally, attracted attention from other clubs - representatives of the German “Bremen” who even wanted to see him in his team even directly came to him. Zheludkov was already ready for the transition, packed his things in order to start a new life, received permission from the club management. But already at the final stages, something went wrong somewhere, and the transfer was blocked. It is assumed that the transition was imposed by the Soviet Sports Committee itself. As a result, Yuri remained in Leningrad and continued to play for his former club.
The footballer spent a lot of time at Zenit, nine years in general. He played 202 matches, scoring 70 goals in them. And only in 1990 he went to Sweden, where he decided to try his hand abroad. The Östersund club of Sweden was chosen as the goal of the experiment, with which the player signed a contract for a year.
Relocation to Sweden
Yuri Vladimirovich Zheludkov was already at a rather honorable age for a football player - in 1990 he turned 31 years old. However, this did not stop him from trying his hand at another championship. But this experience was not crowned with success - the striker entered the field in 16 matches without scoring a single goal, and in the end he returned to Zenit.
Return to the USSR
So, in 1991, Yuri Zheludkov returned to his homeland - Zenit received him joyfully, but the player himself did not want to stay in the club for a long time. He understood that his age was far from the same to play at the same level, so he wanted to try himself in other championships. Having played the season at Zenit and scored eight goals in 25 matches, Zheludkov announced that he was moving to Israel, where he was waiting for a contract with Maccabi from the city of Netanya.
The game for Maccabi
In the new club, the striker spent only one season and practically did not appear on the field - he played only ten matches, in which he scored two goals. In 1992, Yuri turned 33 years old, and many football players decide to end their careers at this point. But Zheludkov still wanted to play, despite his age. Therefore, he signed a contract with the Finnish club "KaIK", for which he played another two years.
Performances in the club "KaIK"
After Zenit, this period was the most successful for the Russian striker. For two seasons, he managed to score 31 goals, remembered by these fans of the Finnish club. Flesh until 1995, Yuri Vladimirovich played for KaIK, and when his contract came to an end, he still did not hang his boots on a nail, deciding to play another season. In 1996, he went to Armenia, where he spent another season at the Kapan-81 club. And only after the season ended, the 37-year-old player announced that he was completing his professional football appearances.
Team appearances
Despite the fact that during his stay at Zenit Zheludkov showed good performance, he never received a call to the USSR national team. Only in 1983, he began to be called up to the USSR Olympic team, as well as to the second USSR team, but not once in the main national team.
Coaching career
After completing his career, Yuri Zheludkov took a long break, during which he practically did not participate in football matters. Only in 2006 he returned to the sport, joining the coaching staff of the Petrotrest club. As a result, he became a coach of this club, however, he did not stay in office for too long. In 2007, Yuri Vladimirovich returned to his native Dynamo St. Petersburg, in which he served as head coach for some time after the dismissal of Sergei Dmitriev. As a result, a professional contract was signed with him, and during the year Zheludkov coached Dynamo.
However, pretty quickly, he realized that in the coaching career in professional football he would not succeed in achieving success, so he stopped trying. But he didn’t leave football - at the moment he is a member of the Zenit-84 children’s sports club, where he is a football coach for young men who may become pupils of St. Petersburg Zenit in the future.