It was a fantastic two and a half years in the life of Ivan Sergeev. In the winter of 2022, it seems that he himself did not believe that this was happening to him. People close to the footballer said that the guy was in shock: back in 2017 he was playing in the Second League. By 2020, he reached the First League, where he became the top scorer. Then six months in the RPL and an invitation to Zenit. The script from which films are made. However, not all stories have a happy ending. The next step was not the move to the top league. But not everything is always perfect.
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At the time of Sergeev’s return to the Wings, it is important to note that Ivan fully justified his invitation. And we are not just talking about the “golden” goal against Spartak in the 2022/2023 season. In 93 matches, he has scored 30 goals. If we take the Russian forwards of Zenit in the 21st century, only five have more: Alexander Kerzhakov, Artyom Dzyuba, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Alexander Panov and Alexander Kokorin.
In general, Sergeev’s arrival came during another crisis in Zenit’s attack. Yes, history is cyclical. But if now Sergei Semak asked the management for a power forward, in 2022 he already had one. We are talking about Dziuba. Serdar Azmun also played. But this was not enough. After all, the Russian was in a crisis and the Iranian was thinking of leaving. That is why a restructuring was necessary. They bought Sergeev from below. And with him they brought Yuri Alberto. Azmun really left at the end. And Sergeev made his debut in the Europa League match against Betis. It is curious that those two matches, the last for the Russian clubs in European competitions, were so far the only ones for the Russian striker there.
Ivan Sergeev in the match against Betis
Photo: fc-zenit.ru
It all started slowly. At first, Semak did not dare to put the newcomer in the starting lineup, leaving him mostly as a substitute. But when Ivan was on the field, he scored consistently: in the first spring alone he scored five times. To begin with, it’s not so bad. True, a tendency emerged already then: the coaching staff did not see Sergeev as the second Dzyuba, that is, the guy who would play most of the matches from the first minutes. They counted more on him as an option to reinforce him during the match.
As a result, in two and a half years, the striker had only three periods in which he was a regular starter: May and October-November 2022, as well as August 2023. Paradoxically, this did not affect the statistics: Sergeev always scored. With any partner, with any amount of playing time. However, even this was not enough to earn him the first-choice spot.
Over time, it became annoying. I think the Rubicon was approved this spring. Remember when Mateo Cassierra stopped scoring altogether, like the rest of Zenit, who almost missed out on the championship title. It seemed that Semak could take risks and fully trust Ivan. But this did not happen. During that period, he started only three times: in the lost match against CSKA, in the winning match against Akhmat and in the championship match against Rostov. True, in the latter he was substituted during the break.
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There were many theories as to why Semak was not ready to fully believe in Sergeev. The simplest thing: Cassierra is a more versatile striker. He also understands the ideas of the Brazilian players below him better. In principle, Ivan could remain the second choice at Zenit. It is unlikely that this would suit him completely, but he would get his playing time one way or another. However, the club invited Luciano Gonda and Alexander Sobolev. In this configuration, Sergeev would become the fourth choice. And it is already harder to put up with this.
The Wings were lucky. It is unlikely that they will be able to find a striker of higher quality and adapted to the league for 2 million euros, who would almost guarantee about 10 goals per season. Ivan himself will finally be the number one again. And he will work with the coach who, in fact, made his move to Zenit possible.
Yes, on the one hand, Sergeev’s career in St. Petersburg turned out to be imperfect. But at the same time, Ivan himself can hardly blame himself for anything.
