Anatoli Alekseyevich Zinchenko (russian: Анатолий Алексеевич Зинченко) (born 8 August 1949, in Stalinsk) is a retired

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

football player and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n coach. He is best known for being the first Soviet football player to play for a Western European professional club. His transfer to

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

was initiated by Austrian communist journalist Kurt Chastka. Because Soviet footballers were officially amateurs, he was formally employed as an equipment technician at the Soviet embassy while playing for Rapid, while his Rapid salary was sent over to the Soviet government.

International career

Zinchenko made his debut for

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

on 24 September 1969 in a friendly against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

three times in total.

Honours

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (russian: Кубок СССР),, be, Кубак СССР, uz, СССР Кубоги, kk, КСРО Кубогы, ka, სსრკ თასი, az, ССРИ кубоку, lt, TSRS taurė, ro, Cupa URSS ( Moldov ...

finalist: 1969, 1971 * Austrian Football Bundesliga winner: 1982, 1983 * Austrian Cup winner: 1983

References

External links

Profile
1949 births Living people Russian people of Ukrainian descent Soviet footballers Soviet Union international footballers Soviet expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Austria FC Rotor Volgograd players FC SKA Rostov-on-Don players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg players SK Rapid Wien players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Soviet football managers Russian football managers FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg managers Association football forwards People from Novokuznetsk Sportspeople from Kemerovo Oblast {{Russia-footy-forward-1940s-stub