Hats off to Artem Dzyuba, Russia's comeback king whose goals are carrying the World Cup hopes of a nation

Russia striker Artem Dzyuba
Getty Images
Jonathan Wilson7 July 2018

Last summer, when Russia were eliminated from the Confederations Cup in the group stage, Artem Dzyuba posted a photograph on Instagram of himself and his fellow Zenit striker Aleksandr Kokorin making moustache gestures under their noses with their fingers.

It was fairly clear they were mocking Russia coach, Stanislav Cherchesov, who had criticised Dzyuba for withdrawing from the squad with injury. It seemed then improbable that Dzyuba, a player whose entire career has been wreathed in controversy, would play under Cherchesov again.

A year later, he is - alongside goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev - one of the two great heroes of Russia’s surge to the World Cup quarter-finals, in which they meet Croatia today.

He has scored three goals in four games and his celebration - saluting with his right hand while using his left to replicate a hat, because no Russia should salute bare-headed - is being gleefully copied by fans.

Photo: Reuters
REUTERS

Suddenly, he is the focal point of the team. “Artem is capable of rousing the whole team in the dressing room, he gives the players courage,” said former Russia coach Guus Hiddink. “He might not be the most technical or skilled player in the team, but it’s impossible to overlook his presence on the field.”

That Cherchesov turned to Dzyuba says something about his own capacity to leave pride to one side, and perhaps more about the dearth of attacking options for Russia. He has not, for instance, forgiven the midfielder Igor Denisov after they fell out at Dinamo Moscow in 2015. But it also says a lot about Dzyuba, and the strange mixture of outspokenness and determination to prove others wrong that has fuelled his career.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images
AFP/Getty Images

He was born in Moscow in 1998 to a Ukrainian father, who worked as a policeman, and a Russian mother, who worked in a grocery shop. He joined Spartak Moscow as a boy, but never seemed to be rated there; his size perhaps giving a misleading impression of clumsiness. His early promise was effectively undermined by an accusation in 2009 from his team-mate Vladimir Bystrov that he had stolen money from the dressing room. Dzyuba protested his innocence but was sent on loan to Tomsk.

A second loan spell there brought 10 goals in 22 games and a place in the Spartak first team, but just as he established himself, they lost 5-1 at home to city rivals Dinamo. When the media asked for an explanation, he replied: “Ask our trenerishka” - literally “our little coach” - but that does not quite give the sense of contempt conveyed to the then-Spartak manager, Unai Emery, now at Arsenal.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images
AFP/Getty Images

Spartak loaned him out again, and again he scored goals: 17 of them, this time for Rostov. After a second loan spell there, Dzyuba gave up on Spartak, rejecting an improved contract to take even more money at their bitter rivals Zenit. That made him a hate figure for Spartak fans and so, in typical fashion, Dzyuba responded by scoring in four consecutive games against them.

The first two seasons at Zenit went well, with 28 goals in 55 starts, but nothing ever runs smoothly for long with Dzyuba. Last summer, he fell out with Zenit boss Roberto Mancini and started just seven games in the first half of the season. Furious, he asked for a move, and was granted a loan to Siberian club Arsenal Tula, which felt rather like Zenit were making a point.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images
AFP/Getty Images

Dzyuba made a better one: Zenit asked Arsenal for £100,000 to field Dzyuba against them. The forward offered to pay half of it himself and then scored the equaliser in a 3-3 draw that effectively scuppered Zenit’s hopes of Champions League qualification and led to Mancini leaving in May.

Dzyuba, meanwhile, had done what he had promised to do, and, scoring six goals in 10 games, played his way into contention. When Kokorin was injured, Cherchesov called him up. Dzyuba has seized his opportunity. He came off the bench to score against Saudi Arabia, lashed home against Egypt and then crashed in the equaliser against Spain from the penalty spot.

Photo: Reuters
REUTERS

It feels as though the 29-year-old has spent his entire career waiting for cult status. A goal against Croatia and it would surely be conferred.

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