Anatoliy Tymoshchuk

At 45 years old, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk has this physical status:

Anatoliy Oleksandrovych Tymoshchuk (born 30 March 1979) is a Ukrainian football coach and a former midfielder, currently an assistant coach with Russian Premier League club Zenit Saint Petersburg.

He is also a former captain of the Ukraine national team before retiring from international football in 2016.

During his playing career, he was "a deep-lying midfielder who is comfortable on the ball and capable of ferocious long-range shooting".Tymoshchuk began his professional career with his local Volyn Lutsk.

He moved to play for Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk, which he captained and won the Ukrainian Premier League, Ukrainian Cup and Ukrainian Super Cup titles with.

In 2008, Tymoshchuk won the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup as captain of Zenit Saint Petersburg.

He also won a Russian Premier League and Russian Super Cup title.

After joining German club Bayern Munich, Tymoshchuk won the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and the DFB-Supercup titles.

With Bayern, he also won the UEFA Champions League in 2013 and finished as runners-up in 2010 and 2012. Tymoshchuk is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit Saint Petersburg, captaining both sides to championship titles. Tymoshchuk is the former captain of the Ukraine national team, and with 144 caps since his debut in 2000 he is the nation's all-time most capped player.

He took part in Ukraine's first-ever FIFA World Cup in 2006 and their first European Championship in 2012.

He won the Ukrainian Footballer of the Year on three occasions.

Personal life

Tymoshchuk is married to Nadiya Tymoshchuk (née Navrotska). The couple met in his hometown Lutsk while living in the same neighbourhood. Their twins were born three months prematurely in April 2010. In July, it was determined the children were growing well and would be released from hospital. In summer 2016, Nadiya, who currently lives in Munich together with children, announced she was filing for divorce.

In June 2008, Tymoshchuk was awarded the title of "Honorary citizen of Lutsk".

Tymoshchuk's favorite player is Lothar Matthäus and he admitted the historical team in which he most wanted to play with was the Germany national team in 1990, alongside Matthäus. He is also a fan of the Ukrainian band Okean Elzy and Russian painter Mikhail Vrubel. He is an avid collector of wines, t-shirts and icons.

Tymoshchuk's lucky number is four. He can speak Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, some basic Croatian and German.

Tymoshchuk and his father have since 2000 organized tournaments, the International Anatoliy Tymoshchuk Junior Cup, for children from Ukraine and neighbour states in Lutsk. The winners get cups and money awards. The mission of the tournament was to encourage children to continue their football training by giving them a chance to participate in a real competition.

Tymoshchuk has twice played on Zinedine Zidane's team at charity matches, an experience he truly enjoyed.

On 11 March 2022, the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) stripped Tymoshchuk of his (Ukrainian) coaching licence and titles because of his role at Zenit St Petersburg and for not speaking against Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The UAF stated that his "conscious choice" to continue at Zenit "damages the image of Ukrainian football". Reports also surfaced suggesting he might be a Russian spy. A Polish sport commentator described his case as that of "a collaborator, erased from Ukrainian sport history". No evidence has been presented to support the claims against Tymoshchuk other than his lack of comment on the war.

When criticising Tymoshchuk, Russian sports journalist Vasily Utkin said that "[Tymoshchuk] cares only and exclusively about money," and claimed that whilst a player for Zenit, he asked the club for large numbers of tickets with the purpose of reselling them. However, that story was quickly disproved by others. Former Zenit player Vladislav Radimov called it "complete nonsense" and provided a story how Tymoshchuk at one point gave him two tickets to a game, but refused to take money from him for those tickets. Russian sports journalist Alexey Andronov also spoke out in defence of Tymoshchuk, and said how at one point Tymoshchuk gave him and another journalist tickets to a game, but didn't take any money from them for those tickets. He also pointed out how players requesting tickets from their club for friends is a normal practice in Russia, but unheard of in other European leagues.

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Club career

Tymoshchuk began his playing for Volyn Lutsk, his hometown team, after advancing through the ranks at the team. Following two years of success, the player began to attract attention from larger clubs.

Tymoshchuk's deal was bought from Volyn by Shakhtar Donetsk in 1997, when the teenagers were 18. He was a key member of the team, which also included three Ukrainian Premier League titles, three Ukrainian Cups, and a Ukrainian Super Cup. His time with Shakhtar has honed him as Europe's best midfielder.

Tymoshchuk, who captained Shakhtar for a number of years, was linked to a number of European clubs, including Juventus, Feyenoord, Celtic, and Roma in 2006.

Tymoshchuk was transferred to Zenit Saint Petersburg for a €15 million fee on February 27, 2007. He was soon named as the team's new captain. Dick Adaat, the Zenit boss, was incredibly impressed with him, saying, "About Tymoshchuk, I can say only positive things, not only the player but also the person." Tymoshchuk – from head to toes. I had no concerns about discipline before. Although Tymoshchuk and I are at the club, Zenit's captain, Michael will be the captain of Zenit.

Zenit's first season at the club ended in failure, with Zenit winning the Russian Premier League for the first time in club history and the club's first league title since the club's 1984 Soviet Top League triumph. Tymoshchuk was also selected as the best 33 players of the Premier League at the end of the season, and popular sports magazine Sport-Express named him as a player of the year.

While Zenit won the championship, astronaut Yuri Malenchenko, who is also a fan of the team, wore a Zenit shirt with Tymoshchuk's name on it. Zenit was the first team to have its uniform visible in space.

Tymoshchuk captained Zenit to the UEFA Cup championship in 2007, defeating Scottish Premier League club Rangers 2–0 in the final. With a 2–1 win over Manchester United, the club then went on to win the 2008 UEFA Super Cup.

Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeneß revealed that Tymoshchchuk had agreed to join Bayern in February 2009. Zenit announced that no agreement had been reached between the two clubs at the time. However, Bayern revealed on February 18th that Tymoshchuk would join the club in July 2009 in order to invite Tymoshchuk to play for Zenit until the summer. He was playing his last match with Zenit on June 14, 2009.

Tymoshchuk joined Bayern on July 1st, 2009, with a deal that will come to an end in 2012. The transfer fee was undisclosed, but German media reports put the total amount at €14 million.

In the 2009 Audi Cup, Tymoshchuk appeared in his first match for Bayern against Milan, starting as a second-half replacement. He was also in the final against Manchester United, where he was recalled in the 77th minute; Bayern took the match 7–6 on penalties. In the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, he scored his first goal for Bayern against Juventus. Tymoshchuk earned his first trophy with Bayern, the 2009–10 Bundesliga, a week later, the 2009–10 DFB-Pokal title was crowned. Tymoshchuk made 21 Bundesliga appearances during the 2009–10 season, ten as a replacement, but he did not appear in any of the second half of the season.

"If a player doesn't play or doesn't have promising prospects," Bayern boss Louis van Gaal wrote about Tymoshchuk's prospects in late July 2010. Nevertheless, Tymoshchuk played all of Bayern's games from October 2010 to March 2011.

Tymoshchuk will play more under him in 2011, according to new Bayern boss Jupp Heynckes. Tymoshchuk was allowed to play in games at a time when the team was plagued by injuries, filling in at central defense. In the Champions League final in Munich, where Bayern lost on penalties to Chelsea, he began in central defense alongside Jérôme Boateng. "Tymoshchuk is a fantastic team player," Heynckes said before the final. He's really important to us, and in a situation where three players are disqualified, his knowledge and ability to play in various roles is extremely useful." Tymoshchuk played a larger part in Heynckes' tenure than under Van Gaal, and he was a key figure in the team. "For me the main job – not to let goals in," goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said of Tymoshchuk. As a result, I love couples who work in the same industry. Anatoliy – is a sarcastic footballer, but it is a calculated threat. He knows how to pick the right time to prevent the enemy's attack and when to use such a tactic, like beating the ball hardly. Tymoshchuk is doing an excellent job at Bayern, no doubt."

Tymoshchuk returned to Zenit after winning the 2012-13 Champions League with Bayern, despite receiving offers from other clubs around Europe. Tymoshchuk was signed by Zenit not only because of his athletic ability, but also for his ability to integrate the Russians and the foreigners in the team and avoid the rumors of rivalry among groups in the squad. Tymoshchukuk said that returning to Zenit was the last move in his career, hinting at a future with the club.

Zenit lost 4–2 to Borussia Dortmund in 2014, with Dortmund scoring twice in the first five minutes of the match. Tymoshchuk has said that if his team had a chance to score when the scoreline was 3–2, they never did.

Tymoshchuk signed an 18-month deal with Kazakhstan Premier League side Kairat on July 6, 2015. In his first season in the league, he captained the team. He was a member of the Kazakh Cup in 2015. Upon the conclusion of his employment in November 2016, Tymoshchuk left Kairat. He began studying for his PRO coaching license before officially announcing his resignation.

International career

Tymoshchuk has been a key player of Ukraine's national team since his debut in 2000. He earned acclaim for his efforts during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in which Ukraine advanced to the quarter-finals, after being named man of the match in Ukraine's victory over Tunisia. Tymoshchuk has been dubbed one of the catalysts for Ukraine's first World Cup appearance. He won the Cyprus International Football Tournament in 2009.

Tymoshchuk became the second Ukraine player to earn 100 caps in a friendly match against Brazil on October 11, 2010, two days after winning the milestone in a friendly against Canada.

Tymoshchuk was named the best footballer in Ukraine's history on December 20, 2011; he came in first in a national poll to identify the key players in the Ukrainian game since the country's independence in 1991. Tymoshchuk took over the team's captaincy after Shevchenko's departure in 2012.

As of June 2016, he is Ukraine's most capped player with 144 appearances. Tymoshchuk officially resigned from international football in August 2016.

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