Igor Denisov - Club Career

Club Career

Denisov was born in St. Petersburg and started his footballing career with Turbostroitel before going to Smena, the youth team of Zenit. Denisov signed his first professional contract with Zenit,St. Petersburg's only professional team, after graduating school in 2002. At the age of 18, Denisov made his debut for Zenit in a league match against CSKA Moscow in 2002. He made his breakthrough with the club the following year, scoring twice in 19 appearances.

Under Dutch manager Dick Advocaat, Denisov blossomed as a player, developing into an advanced midfield role behind Andrey Arshavin and Aleksandr Kerzhakov, becoming an influential member of the Zenit squad that won their first Russian Premier League title in 2007. On 3 April 2008, Denisov scored Zenit's fourth goal in their 4–1 first leg defeat of Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup match at the BayArena. Denisov's performances helped Zenit reach the final against Scottish side Rangers on 15 May, after defeating Bayern Munich 5–1 on aggregate in the semi-finals. In the final, Denisov played the full ninety minutes and opened the scoring in the 72nd minute after being played in by winger Andrei Arshavin. Zenit went on to win the match 2–0 and lift the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history. In the resulting UEFA Super Cup, Denisov played the full ninety again, assisting Pavel Pogrebnyak's headed goal as Zenit upset English heavyweight Manchester United 2–1 on 29 August 2008.

On 29 June 2010, Denisov extended his contract with Zenit for a further five years. Six months later, on 22 December, Denisov was voted by the fans as the club's "Player of the Year", beating out the likes of playmaker Danny and goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev.

On 27 October 2011, Denisov featured in his 300th competitive fixture for Zenit, in the 3–0 defeat of Volga, including 217 matches in the Premier League, 55 in European competition and 28 matches in domestic cup competitions. Denisov finished as runner up behind Malafeev as the club's MVP for the 2011–12 campaign, playing 57 games (starting all of them) whilst scoring one goal and providing eight assists. During the Russian Football Union awards ceremony on 26 May, Denisov was voted as the "Player of the Year" in the Russian Premier League and Zenit won five more club awards for 2011–12 including "Team of the Year."

On 11 August 2012, Denisov provided two assists in Zenit's 5–0 defeat of Spartak Moscow. On 3 September, Denisov was voted as Zenit's "Player of the Month" for August after playing all five league games and providing those two assists. Three weeks later, Denisov was demoted to the reserve team for improper behavior according to the club. Following more than a month with the youth side, Denisov was reinstated to the senior squad and began training with them again on 1 November. He made his return to the first team a day later, coming on as a 58th minute substitute for Viktor Fayzulin in Zenit's 2–1 defeat of FC Rostov. Denisov's first full match since his return from exile with the youth team came on 6 November in a Champions League group game against RSC Anderlecht, playing the full ninety minutes in a 1–0 loss in Belgium.