‘My wish is for there to be no wars’ — Russian football player Alexander Kerzhakov on invasion of Ukraine and leaving Russia

Football coach, former forward for FC Zenit, and one of the most prominent Russian football players Alexander Kerzhakov has spoken out against the war in Ukraine and said that he had left Russia last autumn. In his interview with journalist Nobel Arustamyan, he has explained leaving Russia due to the difficult situation in the country and being afraid.

“Every day you watch and read the news. You realise the scope of everything that’s happening. It became very heavy for me and my wife, so we left,” Kerzhakov said.

Still, he refused to call his departure an emigration.

“It’s very difficult to speak in a way that doesn’t influence anything. <…> That is the issue, one of the biggest issues right now in Russia, unfortunately. I’m afraid. I never believed that something like this could’ve happened.

“So I don’t understand how this is possible, that in such a modern and progressive society the thing that’s happening could even be happening,” he responded to the question about what he is not happy with when it comes to Russia.

The former football player said that he and his family had moved to Dubai last autumn. “Due to the current situation, we wanted to move somewhere warm and just be there, instead of Russia. Not to flee [Russia], not to disown the Homeland, but just to leave for a certain period of time,” he added.

Alexander Kerzhakov is a former forward for FC Zenit, Spain’s Sevilla, Dynamo, and Russia’s national football team. After leaving the national team, he became a football coach. Until summer 2022, Kerzhakov coached FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod, from February to April 2023 he coached Cyprus’ FC Karmiotissa.