Dmitry Nikolaevich Besov was born in Leningrad in 1924 and began playing football at  Kraniya Zarah (Red Dawn) club before the second World War. He then fought in the conflict and was awarded medals “For Military Merit”, “For Courage”, “For the Capture of Berlin”, “For the Victory over Germany” and the Order of the Patriotic War (second class).

Dmitry Besov went on to create the Smena (change) football school in St. Petersburg and ran it from 1968 to 2005 producing players such as Oleg Salenko, Dmitry Radchenko, Vladislav Radimov, Vyacheslav Malafeev, Andrey Arshavin and many, many others. Smena is now known as the Gazprom Academy.

The Gazprom Academy created the Dmitry Besov international youth tournament in his honour in 2014 and hosts the event every year. 

Zenit Football Club, our supporters, all the club's employees, academy players and graduates of the Smena/Gazprom academy congratulate Dmitry Nikolaevich on his birthday, we wish you the best of health and a happy birthday!