Aleksei Vladimirovich Berezutski (; born 20 June 1982) is a Russian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and a former player who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

He began his professional career in 1999 at the age of 17 at

Torpedo Moscow Football Club Torpedo Moscow (russian: link=no, ФК "Торпедо" Москва, ''FK Torpedo Moskva''), known as Torpedo Moscow, is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow that was founded in 1924 and returned to the Russian Pre ...

, graduating from the club's famed academy. He is now playing for

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

. He tends to play as a central defender but he can play as fullback, wingback,

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or even as a winger. He is a defender who can join attacks from the wing. He scored CSKA Moscow's first goal as they came from behind to win the

2005 UEFA Cup Final The 2005 UEFA Cup Final was the final match of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, the 34th season of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second-tier club football tournament. The match was contested by Sporting CP and CSKA Moscow; CSKA won the match 3–1. Sporting CP ope ...

. Following his side's Champions League match against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 3 November 2009, Berezutsky (along with colleague

Sergei Ignashevich Sergei Nikolayevich Ignashevich ( rus, link=no, Сергей Николаевич Игнашевич, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ɪɡnɐˈʂɛvʲɪtɕ; born 14 July 1979) is a Russian professional football coach and a former play ...

) tested positive for the banned substance

sudafed Pseudoephedrine (PSE) is a sympathomimetic drug of the substituted phenethylamine, phenethylamine and substituted amphetamine, amphetamine chemical classes. It may be used as a decongestant, nasal/sinus decongestant, as a stimulant, or as a wake ...

. The two players were provisionally suspended until the case was heard by the European governing body's disciplinary committee on 17 December, according to a UEFA statement. It was later revealed that they had taken a cold medicine which had not been reported, and both players were suspended for 1 game, which was applied retroactively. In 2014, he scored a 90th-minute equaliser against

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

in the Champions League. He officially announced his retirement from playing on 21 July 2018.

International career

Berezutski was a

Russia national football team The Russia national football team (russian: Сборная России по футболу, Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents the Russia, Russian Federation in men's international association football. It is controlled by the Russian Footb ...

regular, making 32 appearances since 2003. Aleksei was selected Russia's captain for the 0–3 friendly defeat against Romania, though it was speculated that Hiddink only gave him the captain's armband so he could differentiate between Aleksei and Vasili. He was confirmed for the finalized

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

squad on 25 May 2012. On 7 March 2018, he officially retired from international football.

Coaching career

On 3 January 2019, Aleksei and his twin brother Vasili joined Dutch club Vitesse as assistant coaches to Leonid Slutsky, who trained them with CSKA and national team. In February 2021, he joined Vasili as an assistant to

Viktor Goncharenko Viktar Mihailavich Hancharenka ( be, Віктар Міхайлавіч Ганчарэнка, tr. Viktar Michajłavič Hančarenka; russian: Виктор Михайлович Гончаренко, ''Viktor Mikhailovich Goncharenko''; born 10 Ju ...

back at CSKA Moscow. In April 2021, Goncharenko moved to

FC Krasnodar FC Krasnodar is a Russian professional football club based in Krasnodar that plays in the Russian Premier League. The club was founded in 2008. In 2009, the club was promoted to the Russian First Division, the second highest division of the Ru ...

, with Vasili following him as an assistant. Aleksei remained at CSKA to assist the new manager (and former CSKA teammate)

Ivica Olić Ivica Olić (; born 14 September 1979) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is an assistant coach of the Croatia national team. During his career, he played for German Bundesliga clubs such as Hamburger SV, VfL Wolf ...

. On 15 June 2021, Berezutski was announced as CSKA Moscow caretaker manager after Ivica Olić left his role as manager by mutual consent. A little over a month later, 19 July 2021, Berezutski was confirmed as CSKA's new permanent head coach. On 25 March 2022, Berezutski was named Russian Premier League's coach of the month after CSKA won four games in the preceding month, extending their winning streak to 6 league matches overall. On 15 June 2022, he left CSKA by mutual consent.

Personal life

Aleksei started to play

in sport school Smena in Moscow, before moving to

Torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

's academy. He is married and has a daughter named Alyona. His

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

brother, Vasili, is also a professional footballer, coming through the Torpedo academy alongside his brother, who he played with at CSKA too.

Career statistics

Club

Managerial statistics

''As of 21 May 2022''

Honours

CSKA *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 2004–05 *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2015–16 * Russian Cup: 2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

;Russia *

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

bronze medalist Individual *In the list of 33 best football players of the championship of Russia: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

References

External links

Player profile
on CSKA official website (English) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berezutski, Aleksei 1982 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Russian footballers Russia under-21 international footballers Russia international footballers FC Moscow players FC Chernomorets Novorossiysk players PFC CSKA Moscow players UEFA Cup winning players Russian Premier League players UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2012 players UEFA Euro 2016 players Twin sportspeople Russian twins Association football central defenders Association football fullbacks Russian football managers PFC CSKA Moscow managers Russian Premier League managers Russian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands