Chelsea FC Sign Yuri Zhirkov

Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm the signing of Yuri Zhirkov from CSKA Moscow on a three-year contract.

The 25-year-old spoke exclusively to chelseafc.com on his arrival.

'Any footballer would be happy to sign a contract with Chelsea, and at any time,' he said.


'I have been received very well here, and have been shown the base at the Cobham training ground, everything is super.'

The Russia international has already met some of the players, and is familiar with Chelsea's Russian links.

'Of course it is good when some of the players speak Russian, even today Petr Cech translated some bits and pieces, and I understand some words in English. Now I hope to learn English too, he explained.

'I always used to watch English football on the TV and know about Dmitri Kharine and Alexei Smertin at Chelsea.'

Zhirkov makes the move from CSKA Moscow whom he joined in 2004 from Spartak Tambov.

Born on August 201983 in Tambov, 430 miles south-east of Moscow, the left-sided player joined his local side as a 10-year-old, making his debut in 2001 and scoring 26 goals in 74 games for the Russian third division outfit.

His talents were noticed and he was given trials by CSKA, Lokomotiv and Spartak Moscow, but it was CSKA where he cemented his place as a wide man with a deft left foot, lightning pace and exceptional dribbling ability. He scored 15 goals in 139 appearances for the club.

He can play left-back but is comfortable in any position on that wing and it was as a more attacking left-sider that he won the Uefa Cup in 2005 after scoring during a 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon in the final, held in Lisbon. The strike was his side's second in the game as they came back from a goal down.

During CSKA's 2006/07 campaign, Zhirkov's goal against Hamburg in the Champions League was awarded best goal of the competition by Uefa's magazine.

He first played for Russia on 9 February 2005 against Italy and has made 31 appearances for his country, the majority of which have come under Guus Hiddink's guidance.

He was named in the Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament after an impressive contribution throughout the competition as a wing-back when Russia were the surprise package in making the semi-finals. They lost to eventual winners Spain.

In October of the same year, Zhirkov was named as one of the 30 nominees for the European Ballon d'Or award. He was also voted 2008 Russian Premier League Player of the Season.

He is no stranger to silverware, winning the Russian Premier League twice with CSKA, once in 2005 and again in 2006.

He has three Russian Cups to his name, in 2005, 2006 and 2008, as well as four Russian Super Cups, the most recent of which was won last season.

In 2004 he faced Chelsea twice in the Champions League group stage and was part of a side that lost 2-0 at the Bridge. In the second game in the Russian capital, Zhirkov won a clear penalty when fouled by Glen Johnson. The spot-kick was missed and Chelsea went on to win 1-0.

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• three-year
• contract.

[alimansia]

so bad...