Congratulations on the great season you’re having Stanislav, 14 goals in the league, PFL top scorer and a call up to the first team, you must be very happy right now?
Yes! I am very happy and very glad that I’m enjoying this period in my career. I always wanted to play games, score lots of goals and now I’m doing that. The team is winning and I am scoring.
You actually began your football career at Zenit and are a St. Petersburg boy, can you tell us about your footballing journey that’s now seen you return to your boyhood team?
It’s a long story. In short, my contract with Zenit expired, so I moved to FC Tom Tomsk and signed a contract with them. I spent my first season at Tomsk as 3rd choice striker because the team was serious about getting promotion and were scoring lots of goals. Next season, it was decided that I’d go out on loan to FC Novosibirsk because the coach wasn’t going to play me but he wanted me to develop. The team had ambitions to get into the FNL, but the team was only just being built after FC Sibir was dissolved. The team was underperforming at the start of the season and we went into the winter break 3rd. Then the season was curtailed due to the spread of COVID-19 and my loan deal ended. The journey back home was not easy. I want to thank Vladislav Radimov for believing in me.
When you arrived back at Zenit what was your realistic aim for the 2020/21 season and beyond?
When I signed a contract with Zenit 2, my first aim was to spend as much time playing on the pitch as possible and to gain the minutes I didn’t get in the previous two years. As well as score as much as possible! I set the bar at 10 goals, I’ve already managed to do it so I am happy. In the future, I think that if I score and the team wins then the first team will pay more attention to me and my teammates and give us the chance to prove ourselves here.
You worked under Vladislav Radimov during your first period with Zenit as a youngster. How important is Vladislav and the rest of the coaching staff in the development of a young player?
Vladislav Nikolaevich was my first coach in professional football. I made my FNL debut under him. He is a very good coach and a man of strong character. It is important for young footballers to be prepared both mentally and physically for games at a senior level. Radimov went through all of this himself and passes on his experience to all of us. We feel it and it helps us improve. His training sessions are always wonderful and many of us have discussed that, in fact the entire coaching staff here are great. Our physical training coach is very good and we prepare to an incredibly high standard. The defensive coach is serious in working on our defensive play too. Everyone is benefiting and it really helps the team.
The team seem to have a great understanding, connection and friendship with each other on and off the pitch, would I be right in thinking that?
Yeah, we have a very friendly team. There’s a lot of Gazprom Academy graduates in the team and everyone knows each other very well. We spend a lot of time together on and off the pitch. We get together to play video games and watch football. We are one big family, which is why we are getting such good results on the pitch. We all support each other, respect each other and there is nobody in the team who's an outsider. Absolutely anyone can go and speak to another teammate and suggest something, play a trick on him or anything, we are a very friendly family and it’s great to be in such a team.
You’re currently top scorer in the league and having your best scoring season so far in your career, how many more goals do you think you can get before the end of the season?
Zenit-2 only have one match left until the winter break, so of course I would like to end this part of the season on 16 goals, so then it would be 16 goals in 16 games, but I think 14 is enough for a striker who hasn’t played for a long time. So hopefully two more goals before winter at least!
It's seven straight wins in a row now for Zenit-2 (and you scored again), do you and the team all believe that promotion to the FNL is a real possibility this season?
The seven victories have come very naturally to us, because in those game we’ve shown what we can do and the levels we have set ourselves in training, all this shows we are one of the best in the league. We should be in first place, but we started the season slowly, so now we are picking up on the dropped points. Of course, it would be nice to get promoted to the FNL, but the aim of Zenit-2 is always the development of young players. It would be great if the guys can get promotion, but there's another half-a-year to play and that's a long time, it’s not clear what starting lineup we will play after the winter break. I think that promotion to the FNL is quite realistic, especially if the points gap keeps decreasing. We have a great chance to get closer to the league leaders.
You were called up to the first team for Zenit vs Krasnodar last weekend and made the bench, how did you feel being part of the first team and being part of that amazing matchday at the Gazprom Arena?
They called me up quite unexpectedly! I didn’t think I would be called up so soon. During half time against Zvezda, the administrator came up to me and said that I was in the squad for the match against Krasnodar. Many people are following Zenit-2 and know that we are winning and that I am scoring goals. The match itself was wonderful and the fans were amazing, I think it's every player's dream to feel an atmosphere like that. I am very glad that the dream came true for me. But now I need to get my debut and score for the first team, that’s next for me.
What did Sergey Semak and the coaching say to you before the game?
Immediately before the game, the staff said I need to be ready because I could be brought on at any time and that I needed to be in good shape to be given a chance.
What about the Zenit first-team players, did you speak much with them and how did they welcome you?
All the players welcomed me. Daler Kuzyaev knew that I am the top scorer in the PFL. I didn’t expect Magomed Ozdoev to know my name too. Misha Kerzhakov and I had crossed paths before in the FNL and I knew Vasyutin as we played in the youth league together. Overall it was quite unexpected that first-team players would know who I was and would give me such a warm welcome. It was very nice.
For the fans who have not yet seen you play, how would you describe yourself as a player? Who was your idol growing up and that you might have based your game on?
I’m a traditional centre forward, a poacher, I don't take many touches. As a child, I followed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and tried to copy his play and goals. We even have a similar physical build. I was always amazed how well he could coordinate himself the way he does, he can twist and also score goals in the air. Now I follow Robert Lewandowski more, he is a great example of a striker who finds chances, creates a lot of openings and scores goals. He is the best example of a top-class striker to analyze and to learn from his play style.
Thank you for your time Stanislav and best of luck for the rest of the season. Do you have a final word for the Zenit fans out there?
I want to say a big thank you to the fans for their support this season. It was very important for us in such a difficult time and I urge you to keep backing us. We need you to support the young players because you give us a lot of motivation. In the future, the players from Zenit-2 and the youth teams will be entertaining you as the first team! We are all Zenit supporters and of course, Zenit - Champions!
You can follow Stanislav on Twitter here and Instagram here, as well as keep up with all the latest Zenit 2 news here.
