As coach Dick Advocaat celebrated with his Zenit St Petersburg team after they won the club’s first European trophy, his cellphone buzzed. It was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
“He said he was very proud of what we had done and invited us to come to the Kremlin,” Advocaat said by telephone from St Petersburg, reflecting on the May 14 victory.
Zenit, hometown club of Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was only the second Russian team to win the UEFA Cup.
Tonight, Zenit line up against Manchester United in the Super Cup, the annual match between the winners of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. Win or lose, Zenit’s appearance underscores the emergence of Russia as a force in European soccer.
Gazprom, the supplier of a quarter of Europe’s natural gas, has funded Zenit since 2005, raising its annual payroll to more than US$120 million from US$25 million. This week, Zenit broke the Russian transfer record by paying US$44 million for Portugal’s Danny.
Money has flowed into other teams too. Spartak Moscow are run by billionaire Leonid Fedun, vice president of Lukoil, Russia’s largest non-state oil producer. City rival Lokomotiv are funded by TransKreditBank, an arm of the country’s rail monopoly.
“This is not something that’s going to disappear,” said Stefan Szymanski, professor of sports business at London’s Cass business school. “Russians care about football and given the great wealth there, I would expect this to become permanent.”
Still, no Russian club has won the Champions League. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 there has only been one other major European trophy won by a Russian team, the UEFA Cup by CSKA Moscow in 2005.
Nevertheless, the national team and clubs like Zenit have political support. Medvedev and Putin regularly attend soccer games.
“Russia is much more confident now and it wants to be taken seriously as a global actor and sport is part of its projection as a major actor,” said Alex Pravda of Chatham House, a geopolitical research organization in London.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
RSS