Sergei Semak

Semak with Zenit in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Sergei Bogdanovich Semak
Date of birth	(1976-02-27) 27 February 1976 (age 48)
Place of birth	Sychanske, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Zenit Saint Petersburg (manager)
Youth career
	Luhansk Football Academy
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992	Presnya Moscow	19	(4)
1992	Karelia Petrozavodsk	3	(0)
1993–1994	Asmaral Moscow	21	(3)
1993–1994	Asmaral-d Moscow	26	(5)
1994–2004	CSKA Moscow	282	(68)
2005–2006	Paris Saint-Germain	26	(1)
2006–2007	Moscow	57	(12)
2008–2010	Rubin Kazan	61	(12)
2010–2013	Zenit Saint Petersburg	48	(9)
Total		543	(114)
International career
1995	Russia U-20	4	(1)
1995–1996	Russia U-21	12	(3)
1997–2010[1]	Russia	65	(4)
Managerial career
2013–2016	Zenit Saint Petersburg (assistant)
2014	Zenit Saint Petersburg (caretaker)
2014–2016	Russia (assistant)
2017–2018	Ufa
2018–	Zenit Saint Petersburg
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Sergei Bogdanovich Semak (Russian: Серге́й Богда́нович Сема́к [sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐɡˈdanəvʲɪtɕ sʲɪˈmak]; born 27 February 1976) is a Russian football manager and a former international midfielder who manages Russian Premier League side Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Semak was born in the village of Sychanske, Voroshilovgrad Oblast into a peasant family of modest economical background. He was an excellent student and had an ideal behavior. When he was a child his teachers would argue as to whether he would become a mathematician or a football player.^[2]

He left Ukraine shortly before the USSR collapsed, but his parents stayed there. He would become a Russian naturalized citizen.^[3][4][5]

His older brother Andrei Semak and younger brother Nikolai Semak were also professional footballers.

Semak started training football at the Luhansk football school.^{[citation needed]} In 1992, he signed in Presnya Moscow who played in the Russian Top Division. After 19 matches scoring 4 goals he was sold to Karelia Petrozavodsk, but in 1993 returned to Presnya Moscow, which had changed its name to Asmaral Moscow.^{[citation needed]}

In 1994, Semak was noted and signed by CSKA Moscow. He became the club's captain and leader. With the club he won the Russian Premier League in 2003, the Russian Cup in 2002 and 2005. He left the club after it finished third in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 2004–05 and did not move on to the knockout stage. This was despite his hat-trick against Paris Saint-Germain in the final group game.^[6]

In 2005, Semak then moved to the team he scored the hat-trick against, Paris Saint-Germain, but failed to settle, scoring just one goal. After just one season he returned to Russia.

In 2006, Semak signed for Moscow, where he stayed until 2008 when he moved to Rubin Kazan. In Rubin Semak was moved from the positions of striker and attacking midfielder to the position of a defensive midfielder.^{[citation needed]} At Rubin Kazan he became the captain and leader of the team, and led it to its first two championship titles in 2008 and 2009.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2010, he transferred to Zenit Saint Petersburg.^[7] In his three seasons with Zenit, he won the Russian Premier League twice and Russian Super Cup once. He scored his last goal in February 2013 in a Europa League victory over Liverpool.^[8]

Semak made his international debut for the Russia national team in 1997 and took part in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.^{[citation needed]}

Having lost his place in the national team with the arrival of Guus Hiddink in 2006, Semak missed out on Russia's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, but was recalled to the national team, just prior to the Euro 2008 finals. Semak captained the Russia national team in their first Euro 2008 warm-up friendly against Kazakhstan, and during the rest of the campaign.^{[citation needed]} Semak had a good performance in the crucial match against Greece and provided an assist for the only goal Russia scored with a skilled bicycle kick pass from a wide angle. Another notable performance in Euro 2008 came in the quarter-finals during which he was playing his 50th game for his country, when his precise left-wing cross was volleyed in by Roman Pavlyuchenko against the Netherlands.^{[citation needed]}

After his retirement, Semak was named as assistant coach of Zenit Saint Petersburg. He was appointed interim coach of the club after the sacking of Luciano Spalletti on 10 March 2014.^[9] He held the position until 18 March when André Villas-Boas was appointed as the team manager.^[3][4][5]

On 30 December 2016, he was appointed a manager of the Russian Premier League club FC Ufa.^[10]

On 29 May 2018, he returned to Zenit St. Petersburg, signing a two-year contract with one-year extension option.^[11] In his first year, he won the 2018–19 Russian Premier League. He led Zenit to the title again in the 2019–20 Russian Premier League.^[12] On 25 July 2020, he sealed the double for the club by winning the 2019–20 Russian Cup.^[13] On 2 May 2021, Zenit secured their third title in a row in a 6-1 victory over second-place FC Lokomotiv Moscow.^[14] On 30 April 2022, Zenit secured their fourth title in a row.^[15] On 7 May 2023, Zenit secured their fifth title in a row.^[16] On 25 May 2024, Zenit won their sixth consecutive title.^[17] After the deciding game, Zenit extended their contract with Semak until June 2030.^[18] On 2 June 2024, Zenit secured another double by winning the 2023–24 Russian Cup.^[19]

Scores and results list Russia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Semak goal.

List of international goals scored by Sergei Semak

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	6 June 2001	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	2–1	2–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	16 October 2002	Central Stadium, Volgograd, Russia	Albania	2–1	4–1	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
3				4–1
4	20 August 2003	Lokomotiv Stadium, Moscow, Russia	Israel	1–2	1–2	Friendly

As of match played 7 December 2024

CSKA Moscow

• Russian Premier League: 2003
• Russian Cup: 2001–02
• Russian Super Cup: 2004

Paris Saint-Germain

• Coupe de France: 2005–06

Rubin Kazan

• Russian Premier League: 2008, 2009
• Russian Super Cup: 2010

Zenit

• Russian Premier League: 2010, 2011–12
• Russian Super Cup: 2011

Russia

• UEFA European Championship: 2008 bronze medalist

Individual

• In the list of 33 best football players of the championship of Russia (8): 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2009
• Member of Grigory Fedotov club

Zenit

• Russian Premier League: 2018–19, 2019–20,^[21] 2020–21, 2021–22,^[22] 2022–23,^[16] 2023–24^[17]
• Russian Cup: 2019–20,^[13] 2023–24^[19]
• Russian Super Cup: 2020,^[23] 2021,^[24] 2022, 2023,^[25] 2024^[26]

Individual

• Russian Premier League Coach of the Season: 2020–21,^[27] 2021–22^[28]
• Russian Premier League Coach of the Month: August 2022,^[29] July/August 2024.^[30]

• Profile at the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg website at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 February 2012)
• Sergei Semak at National-Football-Teams.com
• Profile at RussiaTeam (in Russian)
• Sergei Semak – FIFA competition record (archived)