On July 3, Enisey announced the signing of a contract with defender Zakhar Vedishchev. Thus, the 23-year-old basketball player left Lokomotiv-Kuban Krasnodar for the third time, where he studies. “Championship” is considering the transfer of the young Russian to the Krasnoyarsk team.
As mentioned above, Zakhar Vedishchev began his basketball career in the system of Krasnodar Lokomotiv, whose president is his father, Andrei Vedishchev. Already from the 2017/2018 season, Vedischev Jr. began to participate in the main team of Loko and in the same season became the winner of the Russian Cup, playing in the final match. The following season, Zakhar was one of the leaders of Loko in the VTB youth league and was even recognized as MVP of the month. Sometimes he was also sent to Lokomotiv-Kuban-TsOP, which played in Super League-2.
After a good period, Vedischev planned to go to the United States to enter college and compete in the NCAA. The defender admitted that he was supposed to join the St John’s program from New York. However, he had difficulties with the documents and was unable to travel abroad. Because of this, Zakhar missed pre-season training. He had the option to rent him out to the Lithuanian club Nevezis, to which Vedischev Jr. agreed. However, after a few matches he returned to Loko and finished the season in Russia, playing for both the main and youth teams.
Zakhar Vedischev (left) and Octavius Ellis (right)
Photo by: BC Lokomotiv-Kuban
In the summer of 2020, Zakhar ended up in the United States and became a player at Utah State University. However, in the United States he only played in five games, averaging 2.2 points.
In the summer of 2021, Vedischev Jr. returned to Lokomotiv. As before, he maintained a balance between the main team, which played in the United League and the Eurocup, and the team’s farm team, which played in the Super League.
In the 2022/2023 season, Zakhar became an indispensable part of the main team rotation and played in 46 matches, starting six times. He averaged 7.2 points, made 1.7 rebounds and gave 1.8 assists, and reached the United League final with Krasnodar, becoming a silver medalist. Last season, things suddenly took a turn for the worse for Vedishchev: he lost his place in the main team and only appeared on the field 30 times in the United League, coming off the bench in every match. He also played six games for Loko in the Super League.
At the end of the 2023/2024 season, Zakhar Vedishchev’s contract with Lokomotiv expired. He decided to turn this page of his career and moved to Yenisey Krasnoyarsk, which was in the top 6 last season and fought in the United League playoffs.
Zakhar Vedishchev
defender enisey
“First of all, I would like to thank coach Jovica Arsic and club president Vladimir Vladimirovich Petrokovski for their trust in me. It has always been difficult for me to play in Arena-North, but now I will be happy to be on the other side of the barrier and look forward to meeting all the fans. Last year, Yenisei set the bar very high and I am sure that we will be able to maintain it in the next season. I will do everything on my own to join the team and be useful.”
In the current off-season, there is a particularly noticeable trend towards signing promising Russian basketball players for more important positions, who do not have much chance to prove themselves in top clubs. Before that, Samson Ruzhentsev moved from CSKA to Parma (on loan), now Vedishchev from Loko to Enisey.
Zakhar is once again challenging himself, as in the NCAA and the Lithuanian championship, and this is worthy of respect. Vedischev can play both as number one and number two. His role and position will become clear once Enisey completes its roster. At the moment, the team has only seven players under current contracts, and all of them are Russians. But it can already be argued that Zakhar moved to Krasnoyarsk to play a more important role, possibly as a starting basketball player. Enisey is unlikely to play only with Russians, so we will have to wait for news about foreign players to roughly understand how the team will be built.
The club has a very high-quality Serbian coach, Jovica Arsic, who has proven his worth and working with him will definitely be an advantage for Vedishchev. It is great that young Russian basketball players have real chances to prove themselves in the United League. It will be very interesting to watch Zakhar Vedishchev in Yenisei. He has everything to become one of the leaders of the team.
