List of Chelsea Russian Player: Where Are They Now?

Who is the best Chelsea Russian player? Chelsea Football Club is a professional football team in West London. They were established in 1905 and hold home games at Stamford Bridge. Below is our list of the best Chelsea Russian player.

List of Chelsea Russian Players

Top players	from	until	Previous club	Later club	Matches CHE	Goals CHE
Yuri Zhirkov Defender	30.06.2009	05.08.2011	CSKA Moscow	CSKA Moscow	49	1
Aleksey Smertin midfield	30.06.2003	28.02.2006	FC Girondins Bordeaux	Dynamo Moscow	25	1
Dmitri Kharin Goalkeeper	31.12.1992	30.06.1999	CSKA Moscow	Celtic FC	130

Yuri Zhirkov – Defender

Zhirkov, a left-sided player who can also play fullback or winger, started his career at the local club Spartak Tambov before moving to the top division’s CSKA Moscow in 2004.

Zhirkov became the most expensive Chelsea Russian player in history on July 6, 2009, when he signed a four-year contract with Chelsea for a reported transfer fee of £18 million, surpassing the £15 million Arsenal spent for Andrey Arshavin in January 2009. Zhirkov scored the game-winning goal on his debut against Milan in a friendly. 

On September 23, in a League Cup match against Queens Park Rangers, he made his competitive left back debut after recovering from a knee injury.

On December 28, he started his first Premier League game in a 2-1 victory over Fulham. Zhirkov took over as the starting left-back when Ashley Cole suffered a three-month injury against Everton on February 10.

In the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 matchup against Internazionale, Zhirkov was one of Chelsea’s finest players and prevented multiple Inter forward scoring chances, but Chelsea lost 1-0 and 3-1 overall. He earned two penalties for Chelsea against Aston Villa in March 2010, and Frank Lampard scored both of them as Chelsea prevailed 7-1.

Following a collision with the Bolton captain Kevin Davies on April 13, 2010, Zhirkov played well enough to win man of the match against Bolton Wanderers despite needing four stitches in his head and wearing a bandage for the rest of the first half. 

Chelsea won the Premier League and FA Cup in his first season there, making it the team’s most successful campaign ever. His lone Chelsea goal came on October 19, 2010, on a volley against Spartak Moscow in a UEFA Champions League game.

Zhirkov left Chelsea for Anzhi Makhachkala of the Russian Premier League on August 14, 2011, for an unknown sum that was reportedly worth £13.2 million.

Read more: List of Chelsea Goal Keepers: Current and Ex-Ones [2022 Updated]

Aleksey Smertin – midfield

Aleksey Gennadyevich Smertin, a Russian football official and former player, was born on May 1, 1975.

Smertin, a Russian SFSR native from Barnaul, previously played for the French team Girondins Bordeaux, Dinamo Bordeaux, Zarya Leninsk-Kuznetsky, Uralan Elista, Lokomotiv Moscow, and Dinamo Barnaul before joining Chelsea. Yevgeni Smertin, his older brother, was a professional football player as well.

Smertin was acquired by Chelsea for £3.45 million in August 2003 from Bordeaux by Claudio Ranieri, who then loaned him to Portsmouth for the 2003–04 campaign. Smertin left for London after putting in several standout performances at Fratton Park, most notably up Pompey’s 1-0 triumph over Manchester United.

However, José Mourinho had since replaced Claudio Ranieri and added compatriot Tiago Mendes to a midfield that already had Frank Lampard, Claude Makélélé, Geremi, and Scott Parker. 

Smertin only had a small part to play in the team’s 2004–05 championship season, but he appeared in enough games to be awarded a medal (16 in total). The 3-1 Champions League victory against Porto was his first and only Chelsea goal of the year.

Read more: List of Chelsea Defenders on Loan in 2022/2023 Season

Dmitri Kharin – Goalkeeper

Goalkeeping coach for National League South team Hemel Hempstead Town is the Russian football coach and former professional player Dmitri Viktorovich Kharine (born 16 August 1968).

At the beginning of his career, he played for Russian teams Torpedo Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, and CSKA Moscow before transferring to English FA Premier League club Chelsea in December 1992 for £400,000.

Kharine performed admirably for Chelsea during their run to the 1994 FA Cup Final (despite giving up four goals in the actual final) and their subsequent UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup run, which saw them advance to the semi-finals in their first European campaign since the 1970s. 

Injury issues and the acquisition of Dutch goalkeeper Ed de Goey during his later seasons at the club limited him to 20 appearances over the course of his final three seasons. He participated in 146 games for Chelsea in total.

Kharine was deemed unable to play in Chelsea’s FA Cup victory at the conclusion of the 1996–1997 season (Norwegian Frode Grods replaced him), and he was not selected to the team for the Cup Winners’ Cup and League Cup final triumphs the following year. 

Kharine was only able to make five appearances that season, mostly in cup games, as Gianluca Vialli replaced Josef de Goey as Chelsea’s manager. Following these two seasons, he remained with the team as a backup goalie.

In the summer of 1999, Kharine accepted a free move to join Scottish club Celtic.

Above is our list of the best Chelsea Russian player. In 1955, they captured the League championship, their first significant victory. The club, only the third English team to accomplish so, became the first in England to win the FA Cup in 1970, the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971, and the Club World Cup in 2022.

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