10 Zenit facts

Last updated: 12th May 2008

Oleg salenko

Salenko: Famous Zenit old boy who spent spell at Rangers

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Zenit St Petersburg have come a very long way in very little time. Ahead of their Uefa Cup final appearance we look at ten things you may not know about the Russians.

1: The club was established in 1925 under the name of Leningrad Metal Works. They did not take on the name of FC Zenit until 1940 and won their first major title - the USSR Cup - in 1944. They have also gone under the names: Stalinets (1936-40); FC Zenit Leningrad (1940-1991); FC Zenit St Petersburg (1991-present).

2: Zenit will compete in the UEFA Champions League for the first time next season after they won the Russian Premier League.

3: Zenit's league triumph was just the second in their history and the first by a team from outside Moscow since 1995. Zenit's only other league triumph came in 1984.

4: Zenit is owned by Russia's largest company Gazprom - the biggest extractor of natural gas in the world. The company took a controlling stake in the club in December 2005.

5: Zenit coach Dick Advocaat was widely expected to take up a deal with Australia in November, but changed his mind after the Russian team offered him a new contract to lead them for the remainder of their UEFA Cup campaign.

6: One of Zenit's most famous players, Oleg Salenko, spent six months at Rangers in 1995 after transferring from Valencia for £2.5million. Salenko is best known as the only player to have scored five goals in a World Cup match - against Cameroon in 1994.

7: St Petersburg was the scene of the October revolution in Russia where the Bolsheviks captured the city's Winter Palace as they overthrew the Russian Provisional Government. The revolution gave rise to the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), which heralded the creation of the Soviet Union.

8: In 1967 Zenit finished bottom of the USSR League but were saved from relegation after it was decided it would be unwise to relegate a Leningrad team during the 50th anniversary of the October revolution. The league accommodated this decision by adding a 20th team to the competition for the next season.

9: Zenit were relegated in the first year of the Russian Premier League in 1992.

10: FC Zenit play their home matches at the Petrovsky stadium, capacity 21,725, which is located on a small island in the Malaya Neva river. The stadium also hosted the Goodwill Games in 1994. They had played their home games at the Kirov Stadium until it was demolished last year to make way for a new stadium.