Anatoli Zinchenko
Anatoli Alekseyevich Zinchenko () (born 8 August 1949, in Stalinsk) is a retired Soviet football player and Russian coach. He is best known for being the first Soviet football player to play for a Western European professional club. His transfer to SK Rapid Wien was initiated by Austrian communist journalist Kurt Chastka. Because Soviet footballers were officially amateurs, he was formally employed as an equipment technician at the Soviet embassy while playing for Rapid, while his Rapid salary was sent over to the Soviet government. International career Zinchenko made his debut for USSR on 24 September 1969 in a friendly against Yugoslavia. He was capped three times in total. Honours Soviet Cup finalist: 1969, 1971 Austrian Football Bundesliga winner: 1982, 1983 Austrian Cup winner: 1983 References External links Profile 1949 births Living people Russian people of Ukrainian descent Soviet men's footballers Soviet Union men's international footballers Soviet expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria FC Rotor Volgograd players FC SKA Rostov-on-Don players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg players SK Rapid Wien players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Soviet football managers Russian football managers FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg managers Men's association football forwards Sportspeople from Novokuznetsk Footballers