Setter Slavi Kostadinov, who holds both Bulgarian and Russian citizenship, will play for Zenit St. Petersburg, Russian media reported. The team's new coach, Vladimir Alekno, was forced to resort to Kostadinov's services because Zenit's setter Igor Tisevich was injured. The 33-year-old volleyball player suffered a severe chest muscle injury during a gym workout and will be out for several months.
Zenit solved the problem by loaning Slavi Kostadinov from Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. Initially, the 22-year-old volleyball player was supposed to spend the upcoming season with Shakhter Soligorsk. After Lokomotiv's youth teams, he played for Dynamo Chelyabinsk (2021/22), and spent the last two seasons in the Superliga – with Nova (2022/23) and Kuzbass (2023/24).
Let's recall that Zenit earlier lost their setter Dmitry Kovalev due to a shoulder injury. He is out indefinitely. Instead, the club signed 38-year-old Alexander Butko.
In the last Russian championship, Zenit finished 6th. Vladimir Alekno became the team's new head coach this summer. He also invited Iranian specialist Mehdi Habaz as a physical conditioning coach.
The team from St. Petersburg will play their first official matches of the new season on August 23-25 in Krasnoyarsk. In the Legends Cup, Zenit will play against Belogorie, Dynamo, and Yenisei.
photo: gazeta.ru
