Vasiliy 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 defender. He began his professional career in 1999 at the age of 17 with

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 ...

, having graduated from their famed academy. He 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, earning his 100th cap on 6 September 2016 in a friendly against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. He played as a fullback or centre-back and sometimes was also deployed as wingback or midfielder. Vasili started to play football in sport school Smena in Moscow before going to Torpedo. 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, Aleksei, also came through the Torpedo academy with him and played as a defender for CSKA Moscow. He officially announced his retirement from playing on 21 July 2018.

International career

Vasili scored his first goal for

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

during a Euro 2008 Qualification match against Macedonia. He was called up to Russia's

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

squad and came on as a late substitute in their second game against Greece in Salzburg and started the semi-final against Spain in Vienna. He was named in Russia's provisional squad for

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 ...

, but had to drop out before the tournament began due to a thigh injury. On 2 June 2014, he was included in the Russia's

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

squad, and appointed as the team captain. He was chosen in Russia's squad for

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

and scored an injury time equaliser in Russia's opening game against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. On 7 March 2018, he officially retired from international football.

Coaching career

On 3 January 2019, Vasili and his twin brother Aleksei joined Dutch club Vitesse as assistant coaches to Leonid Slutsky, who trained them with CSKA and national team. In August 2020 he returned to CSKA Moscow as 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 ...

, where he was joined by Aleksei once again in February 2021. In April 2021, Goncharenko was fired by CSKA and hired by

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 R ...

, and Vasili followed him as an assistant, with Aleksei staying back at CSKA. On 5 January 2022, Krasnodar fired Goncharenko and Berezutski. On 10 January 2022, he returned to CSKA as an assistant to his brother Aleksei, who was promoted to head coach by that time. On 15 June 2022, he left CSKA by mutual consent, together with his brother.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

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

Honours

CSKA *

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 ...

(6): 2003,

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, 2013–14, 2015–16 * Russian Cup (7): 2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13 *

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,

, 2007,

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 ...

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 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 (9): 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2012–13, 2013–14.

References

External links

Vasili Berezutski
at CSKA Moscow official website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berezutski, Vasili 1982 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Association football defenders Russian footballers Russia under-21 international footballers Russia international footballers FC Moscow players PFC CSKA Moscow players UEFA Cup winning players Russian Premier League players UEFA Euro 2008 players 2014 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2016 players Twin sportspeople Russian twins FIFA Century Club Russian football managers Russian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands