Aleksei Vladimirovich Berezutski (; born 20 June 1982) is a Russian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and a former player who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is an assistant coach with

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

Club career

He began his professional career in 1999 at the age of 17 at

Torpedo Moscow Football Club Torpedo Moscow (, ''FK Torpedo Moskva''), known as Torpedo Moscow, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. The club will return to the Russian Premier League in the 2025–26 season. Their c ...

, graduating from the club's famed academy. He spent the rest of his playing career at

. He mostly played as a central defender but he could play as fullback, wingback,

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

or even as a winger. He scored CSKA Moscow's first goal as they came from behind to win the 2005 UEFA Cup Final. Following his side's Champions League match against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 3 November 2009, Berezutsky (along with colleague

Sergei Ignashevich Sergei Nikolayevich Ignashevich ( rus, links=no, Сергей Николаевич Игнашевич, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ɪɡnɐˈʂɛvʲɪtɕ; born 14 July 1979) is a Russian professional football coach and a former p ...

) tested positive for the banned substance

sudafed Pseudoephedrine, sold under the brand name Sudafed among others, is a sympathomimetic medication which is used as a decongestant to treat nasal congestion. It has also been used off-label for certain other indications, like treatment of low ...

. The two players were provisionally suspended until the case was heard by the European governing body's disciplinary committee on 17 December, according to a UEFA statement. It was later revealed that they had taken a cold medicine which had not been reported, and both players were suspended for 1 game, which was applied retroactively. He officially announced his retirement from playing on 21 July 2018.

International career

Berezutski was a

Russia national football team The Russia national football team () represents Russia in men's international football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Union (, ), the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home ground is the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and ...

regular, making 32 appearances since 2003. Aleksei was selected Russia's captain for the 0–3 friendly defeat against Romania, though it was speculated that Hiddink only gave him the captain's armband so he could differentiate between Aleksei and Vasili. He was confirmed for the finalized

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

squad on 25 May 2012. On 7 March 2018, he officially retired from international football.

Coaching career

On 3 January 2019, Aleksei and his twin brother Vasili joined Dutch club Vitesse as assistant coaches to Leonid Slutsky, who trained them with CSKA and national team. In February 2021, he joined Vasili as an assistant to

Viktor Goncharenko Viktar Mihailavich Hancharenka (; , ''Viktor Mikhailovich Goncharenko''; born 10 June 1977), is a Belarusian football manager. Early life and career Formative years and education Viktar Mihailavich Hancharenka was born in 1977 to a middle- ...

back at CSKA Moscow. In April 2021, Goncharenko moved to

FC Krasnodar FC Krasnodar is a Russian professional football club based in Krasnodar that plays in the Russian Premier League. They are the league's reigning champions. The club was founded in 2008. In 2009, the club was promoted to the Russian First Divis ...

, with Vasili following him as an assistant. Aleksei remained at CSKA to assist the new manager (and former CSKA teammate)

Ivica Olić Ivica Olić (; born 14 September 1979) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is an assistant coach of the Croatia national team. During his career, Olić played for German Bundesliga clubs such as Hamburger SV, VfL W ...

. On 15 June 2021, Berezutski was announced as CSKA Moscow caretaker manager after Ivica Olić left his role as manager by mutual consent. A little over a month later, 19 July 2021, Berezutski was confirmed as CSKA's new permanent head coach. On 25 March 2022, Berezutski was named Russian Premier League's coach of the month after CSKA won four games in the preceding month, extending their winning streak to 6 league matches overall. On 15 June 2022, he left CSKA by mutual consent. On 6 June 2024, Berezutski returned to CSKA as an assistant manager to Marko Nikolić.

Personal life

Aleksei started to play

in sport school Smena in Moscow, before moving to

Torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

's academy. He is married and has a daughter named Alyona. His

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother,

Vasili Vasili, Vasily, Vasilii or Vasiliy (Russian: Василий) is a Russian masculine given name of Greek origin and corresponds to ''Basil''. It may refer to: *Vasily I of Moscow Grand Prince from 1389–1425 *Vasily II of Moscow Grand Prince fro ...

, is also a professional footballer, coming through the Torpedo academy alongside his brother, who he played with at CSKA too.

Career statistics

Club

Managerial statistics

''As of 21 May 2022''

Honours

CSKA *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 2004–05 *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14, 2015–16 * Russian Cup: 2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

;Russia *

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

bronze medalist Individual *In the list of 33 best football players of the championship of Russia: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

References

External links

Player profile
on CSKA official website (English) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berezutski, Aleksei 1982 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Russian men's footballers Russia men's under-21 international footballers Russia men's international footballers FC Moscow players FC Chernomorets Novorossiysk players PFC CSKA Moscow players UEFA Europa League–winning players Russian Premier League players Russian First League players UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2012 players UEFA Euro 2016 players Russian twins Men's association football central defenders Men's association football fullbacks Russian football managers PFC CSKA Moscow managers Russian Premier League managers Russian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands 21st-century Russian sportsmen