Andrei Arshavin Short Biography
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Andrei Arshavin
Andrei Arshavin (Андрей Сергеевич Аршавин in Russian) is the 27 year old Russian midfielder/ winger/attacker who has been described by the Russian national coach Guus Hiddink as “the most intelligent player I have ever worked with”.
Andrei Arshavin Russia
He was born on May 29 1981 in the city formerly known as Leningrad, but now known as St. Petersburg. He was voted Russian footballer of the year in 2006.
He plays for Zenit St Petersburg at the moment but a number of English clubs have shown an interest in signing him. He has been linked with Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle, Manchester City, Everton and above all , recently Tottenham Hotspur, as well as Barcelona (the team he most admires) and Fiorentina.
Arshavin started his footballing career with the Smena football school. In 1999 and early 2000 he played in the Second Division for Zenit’s farm club, Zenit-2.
In 2000 he was included in the Zenit squad. He played in a number of different positions, a midfielder, an attacking midfielder and finally settled into a role as second striker on the left-hand side or behind a target man. He was voted Russian Premier player of the season to a large extent due to his ability to play as either winger, playmaker or striker.
He is renowned for his control, vision and strong running. He is also an extremely intelligent player who plays clever through balls to the strikers.
On 14th May 2008, Arshavin was the man of the match in Zenit St Petersburg’s performance to win the 2008 UEFA Cup against Glasgow Rangers.
Arshavin played his first game for Russia on May 17, 2002 against neighbours Belarus. On March 24, 2007 he was named captain in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia.
In the Euro 2008 finals he was Russia’s outstanding player and helped Russia to the semi-finals where they lost against the eventual champions Spain.
