Leonid Viktorovich Slutsky ( ; born 4 May 1971) is a Russian professional

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 is the manager of

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

club

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

. He has managed Olimpia Volgograd, Uralan Elista,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Krylia Sovetov,

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 ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

, Vitesse and

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

Playing career

Slutsky saw his professional playing career ended aged 19, after he injured his knee falling from a tree while saving a cat.

Coaching career

Early career

Slutsky became head coach of

FC Moscow FC Moscow (Russian: Футбольный клуб Москва) was a Russian football (soccer), football club based in Moscow. History The creation of the team was first announced by the Moscow government on 1 March 2004. FC Moscow was formed on ...

on 14 July 2005 until the end of the 2007 season. His final match as head coach of Moscow was a 3–1 win against Luch-Energiya Vladivostok on 11 November 2007. Slutsky became head coach of Krylia Sovetov on 1 January 2008.

CSKA Moscow

On 26 October 2009 he replaced

Juande Ramos Juan de la Cruz "Juande" Ramos Cano (born 25 September 1954) is a former Spanish footballer and manager. After playing and managing at an amateur level, Ramos led Rayo Vallecano to promotion to La Liga, followed by reaching the quarter-finals ...

to become the head coach of

. In December 2009, under Slutsky, CSKA reached the knock-out stage of the Champions League for the first time in the club's history, before being knocked out by

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

, the eventual champions, in the quarter-finals. Two years later, the achievement was repeated, when CSKA defeated Inter Milan at the

San Siro San Siro is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy. It has a seating capacity of 75,817, making it the largest stadium in Italy and one of the largest stadiums in Europe. It is the home stadium of the city's principal ...

in the last game of the group stage. Towards the 2012–13 season, Slutsky strengthened the team defense and re-organized the attack, which helped the team set a record of 15 games without being scored against, and to win all the games where the team scored first, resulting in a title. On 7 August 2015, it was announced that Slutsky would take over the Russian national football team in place of the outgoing

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, AS Roma, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus FC, Juventus. H ...

. The contract was until the end of

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

. Slutsky won all of his qualifying games and got Russia into

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

. On 14 November 2015, Russia beat Portugal 1–0 in a friendly game and Slutsky repeated

Pavel Sadyrin Pavel Fyodorovich Sadyrin (; 18 September 1942 – 1 December 2001) was a Soviet and Russian footballer and manager. Career Sadyrin played as a midfielder for Zvezda Perm and Zenit Leningrad. As a manager, he led Zenit to their only Soviet ...

's achievement of winning his five first games as the head coach of Russia. On 21 May 2016, CSKA beat Rubin Kazan 1–0 to secure the title ahead of surprise challengers Rostov. This gave Slutsky his third title in four years with the Moscow club. On 20 June 2016, Slutsky decided to resign from being the coach of the Russian team after a 3–0 loss to

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, which meant Russia finished bottom of their

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

group. He resigned on 25 June. On 6 December 2016, Slutsky announced his resignation as CSKA manager. His last game was a Champions League group stage match against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

the following day.

Later career

On 9 June 2017, Slutsky was appointed manager of

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

club

. On 3 December 2017, he left the club by mutual consent after a run of bad results. On 12 March 2018, it was announced that he would replace

Henk Fraser Hendrikus "Henk" Fraser (born 7 July 1966) is a Dutch football coach and former player. He played as a defender for various Dutch teams. Born in Suriname, he earned seven caps for the Netherlands national team in which he scored one goal. He ...

as the new manager of

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

side

Vitesse Arnhem SBV Vitesse Arnhem (''Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse Arnhem, Eng: Professional Football Foundation Vitesse Arnhem''), widely known as Vitesse () or internationally known as Vitesse Arnhem, is a Dutch professional association football, footba ...

, for the start of the 2018–19 season. Under his tenure, Vitesse entered the draw for the third qualifying round of the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, being drawn against seeded

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

. The two legs were played at home on 9 August and away on 16 August 2018. Vitesse lost 2–0 on aggregate, resulting in their elimination from the Europa League. At the domestic level, Vitesse finished fifth in the

that season. After five lost games in a row, he decided to quit with his job as manager from

at the end of November 2019. On 19 December 2019, he signed a 5-year contract with

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 ...

club

FC Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded 1958 in Russia, in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003 Russia ...

. In his second season with Rubin, he led the club to 4th place in the

2020–21 Russian Premier League The 2020–21 Russian Premier League（known as the Tinkoff Russian Premier League, also written as Tinkoff Russian Premier Liga for sponsorship reasons）was the 29th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of ...

, securing UEFA competition qualification for the first time since the 2015–16 season. The next season was far worse, as on the last match day, Rubin lost 2–1 to

FC Ufa FC Ufa (, ) is a Football in Russia, Russian football club based in Ufa that plays in the Russian First League. History During the summer of 2010, Rustem Khamitov, the second President of the Bashkortostan, Republic of Bashkortostan, began consi ...

and finished 15th which confirmed their relegation to the second tier. Slutsky resigned from Rubin on 15 November 2022, with the club in fourth place in the second-tier

Russian First League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Football in Russia#League system, Russian football league system. The Russian Professio ...

and 4 points behind the first place. On 27 December 2023, he was appointed manager of

club

. He officially took charge of the club on 1 January 2024.

TV commenting career

Slutsky has commented on football games many times on Russian TV. His commentating career was disrupted after he repeated the word "Navalny" following his co-commentator's using the term ''навальный футбол (navalny futbol)''; the term ''навальный (navalny)'' is a term best translated as "overwhelming" or "storming", but is also the surname of opposition politician

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

. The incident led to his sacking from the TV pundit role at the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

Coaching statistics

Honours

CSKA Moscow *

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:

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 ...

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 ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Shanghai Shenhua *

Chinese FA Super Cup The Chinese FA Super Cup (), formerly named Chinese Football Super Cup (), is a Chinese football super cup competition that takes place every year before the start of the new season. It is contested between the champions of the previous Chinese Su ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slutsky, Leonid 1971 births Living people Soviet men's footballers Jewish footballers Jewish Russian sportspeople 20th-century Russian sportsmen Russian football managers FC Elista managers FC Moscow managers PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara managers Russian Premier League managers PFC CSKA Moscow managers Russia national football team managers UEFA Euro 2016 managers Russian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in England Hull City A.F.C. managers Russian expatriate sportspeople in England Men's association football goalkeepers SBV Vitesse managers Shanghai Shenhua F.C. managers Chinese Super League managers. Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands Expatriate football managers in China Russian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands FC Rubin Kazan managers