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The St. Petersburg club, supported by the Russian gas concern "Gazprom," paid a whopping 15 million euros for Donetsk's defender Anatoliy Tymoshchuk. Such a ransom fee is the largest amount ever paid for a player in Russian football history and overall between two former Soviet Union state clubs.
The 27-year-old defender will also become the highest-paid player in "Zenit" – his salary will be approximately 2.5 million euros.
A. Tymoshchuk started his career at the Luck "Volyn" club, and since 1997 represented "Shakhtar." With this club, he won the Ukrainian championship three times and the Ukrainian Cup three times. The footballer represented the national team 64 times and along with Serhiy Rebrov and Andriy Shevchenko, he is one of the players who represented the Ukrainian national team the most times.
"The fact that 'Zenit' is coached by Dick Advocaat played a big role in making the decision. This transition will benefit both my new club and me personally. I want to thank 'Shakhtar' for all the years spent here, and club president Rinat Akhmetov, who did not hinder my plans to change clubs, as I have already exhausted myself here," said A. Tymoshchuk, who still had a 4-year contract with the Donetsk club.
The St. Petersburg team already shook up Russian football last year with huge transfers – they paid 5 million for Russian national team forward Pavel Pogrebnyak, 7 million for Argentine Alejandro Dominguez, and a whopping 10 million euros for Turk Fatih Tekke.
In the 2006 season, coached by D. Advocaat, "Zenit" finished 4th in the Russian championship and is now making ambitious plans to become a European super club.
Meanwhile, Donetsk's loss, A. Tymoshchuk, signed a new contract with defender Darijo Srna. The Croatian's contract with the Ukrainian club will now be valid until 2011.
