Russian revolution away from limelight for ex-Chelsea boss Villas-Boas
MOSCOW — After rough spells in London, Andre Villas-Boas is tasting success in Russia.
The man known as AVB arrived at Chelsea in 2011 amid a blizzard of headlines hailing him as the heir to Jose Mourinho — a young Portuguese coach who, like Mourinho, had won a pile of trophies with FC Porto. The honeymoon didn’t last. At Chelsea, his long-term project to revive the club’s fortunes lasted less than nine months. Then at Tottenham, he managed for a year and a half before a 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool ended his tenure.
When Villas-Boas resurfaced with Zenit St. Petersburg, still only 36, another failure could have seen the former golden boy slip into obscurity. Instead, he has thrived away from the limelight, leading Zenit to its first Russian title since 2012 on Sunday. His top scorer is Brazilian forward Hulk, once Villas-Boas’ star striker at Porto.
In swapping the English Premier League for Russia, Villas-Boas left behind the comforts of the world’s richest competition for the grittier reality of a league which pits big clubs like Zenit and CSKA Moscow against provincial clubs with small crowds, muddy fields and dilapidated Soviet-era stadiums.
Some clubs have no stadium at all — Zenit’s opponent Sunday, FC Ufa, was only founded in 2010 and has played “home” games in cities across Russia this season because its own stadium is unfit for use.
Villas-Boas had a difficult start to life in Russia. Arriving in March 2014, he took over in the middle of a close title race and, despite winning seven of his first nine games in charge, lost out to CSKA by a single point.
This season Zenit has been untouchable. Villas-Boas’ first full campaign started with eight straight wins. None of Zenit’s title rivals came close to matching the performance of a team which has not lost a league game since November. The only black mark was a Champions League campaign which saw Zenit eliminated in the group stage.