Leonid Slutsky (football manager)

Leonid Slutsky
Slutsky with CSKA Moscow in 2016
Personal information
Full name Leonid Viktorovich Slutsky
Date of birth (1971-05-04) 4 May 1971 (age 53)
Place of birth Volgograd, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
 Shanghai Shenhua (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1989 Zvezda Gorodishche 13 (0)
Managerial career
2000 Olimpia Volgograd
2003–2004 Uralan Elista
2005–2007 Moscow
2008–2009 Krylia Sovetov
2009–2016 CSKA Moscow
2015–2016 Russia
2017 Hull City
2018–2019 Vitesse
2019–2022 Rubin Kazan
2023– Shanghai Shenhua
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Viktorovich and the family name is Slutsky.

Leonid Viktorovich Slutsky (Russian: Леони́д Ви́кторович Слу́цкий [ˈsɫut͡skʲɪj]; born 4 May 1971) is a Russian professional football coach and a former player who is the manager of Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua. He has managed Olimpia Volgograd, Uralan Elista, Moscow, Krylia Sovetov, CSKA Moscow, Russia, Hull City, Vitesse and Rubin Kazan.

Playing career

Slutsky, who is Jewish,[1] saw his professional playing career ended aged 19, after he injured his knee falling from a tree while saving a cat.[2]

Coaching career

Early career

Slutsky became head coach of FC Moscow on 14 July 2005[3] until the end of the 2007 season.[4] His final match as head coach of Moscow was a 3–1 win against Luch-Energiya Vladivostok on 11 November 2007.[5] Slutsky became head coach of Krylia Sovetov on 1 January 2008.[6]

CSKA Moscow

On 26 October 2009[7] he replaced Juande Ramos to become the head coach of CSKA Moscow.[8] In December 2009, under Slutsky, CSKA reached the knock-out stage of the Champions League for the first time in the club's history,[9] before being knocked out by José Mourinho's Inter Milan, the eventual champions, in the quarter-finals.[citation needed]

Two years later, the achievement was repeated, when CSKA defeated Inter Milan at the San Siro in the last game of the group stage.[10]

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.[11]

On 7 August 2015, it was announced that Slutsky would take over the Russian national football team in place of the outgoing Fabio Capello.[12] The contract was until the end of UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.[12] Slutsky won all of his qualifying games and got Russia into UEFA Euro 2016.[13]

On 14 November 2015, Russia beat Portugal 1–0 in a friendly game and Slutsky repeated Pavel Sadyrin's achievement of winning his five first games as the head coach of Russia.[14]

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.[citation needed]

On 20 June 2016, Slutsky decided to resign from being the coach of the Russian team after a 3–0 loss to Wales, which meant Russia finished bottom of their Euro 2016 group.[15] He resigned on 25 June.[16]

On 6 December 2016, Slutsky announced his resignation as CSKA manager. His last game was a Champions League group stage match against Tottenham Hotspur the following day.[17]

Later career

On 9 June 2017, Slutsky was appointed manager of EFL Championship club Hull City.[18] On 3 December 2017, he left the club by mutual consent after a run of bad results.[19]

On 12 March 2018, it was announced that he would replace Henk Fraser as the new manager of Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem, for the start of the 2018–19 season. Under his tenure, Vitesse entered the draw for the third qualifying round of the Europa League, being drawn against seeded FC Basel. 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 Eredivisie that season. After five lost games in a row, he decided to quit with his job as manager from Vitesse Arnhem at the end of November 2019.[20]

On 19 December 2019, he signed a 5-year contract with Russian Premier League club FC Rubin Kazan.[21] In his second season with Rubin, he led the club to 4th place in the 2020–21 Russian Premier League, securing UEFA competition qualification for the first time since the 2015–16 season.[22] The next season was far worse, as on the last match day, Rubin lost 2–1 to FC Ufa and finished 15th which confirmed their relegation to the second tier.[23] Slutsky resigned from Rubin on 15 November 2022, with the club in fourth place in the second-tier Russian First League and 4 points behind the first place.[24]

On 27 December 2023, he was appointed manager of Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua. He officially took charge of the club on 1 January 2024.[25]

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. The incident led to his sacking from the TV pundit role at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[26]

Coaching statistics

As of match played as of 5 November 2024
Team From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
Moscow 14 July 2005[3] 11 November 2007[4][5] 89 39 26 24 120 102 +18 043.82
Krylia Sovetov 1 January 2008[6] 26 October 2009[7] 59 22 19 18 77 61 +16 037.29
CSKA Moscow 26 October 2009[8] 7 December 2016 287 160 57 70 474 284 +190 055.75
Russia 7 August 2015[12] 20 June 2016[15] 13 6 2 5 23 17 +6 046.15
Hull City 9 June 2017[18] 3 December 2017[19] 21 4 7 10 34 39 −5 019.05
Vitesse 12 March 2018 29 November 2019 62 27 15 20 114 90 +24 043.55
Rubin Kazan 19 December 2019 13 November 2022 98 39 24 35 126 127 −1 039.80
Shanghai Shenhua 30 December 2023 Present 52 39 9 4 120 37 +83 075.00
Total 681 336 159 186 1,087 757 +330 049.34

Honours

CSKA Moscow

Shanghai Shenhua

References

  1. ^ Agencies (10 June 2017). "Jewish ex-Russia coach Slutsky hired by relegated Hull". Times of Israel. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  2. ^ Charles, Chris (11 November 2009). "Quotes of the week". BBC Sport. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  3. ^ a b "FK Moskva » Manager history". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Blokhin takes command at Moskva". UEFA. 14 December 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  5. ^ a b "FK Moskva » Fixtures & Results 2007/2008". Worldfootball.net. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  6. ^ a b "Krylia Sovetov » Manager history". Worldfootball.net. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  7. ^ a b "CSKA appoint Slutski as Ramos departs". UEFA. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  8. ^ a b "Juande Ramos sacked by CSKA Moscow after six weeks in job". The Telegraph. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  9. ^ "CSKA earn their rest in Istanbul". UEFA.com. 9 December 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
  10. ^ "CSKA Moscow through after late winner downs Inter". uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  11. ^ "7 лучших тренеров российского сезона" (in Russian). Sports.ru. 15 May 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  12. ^ a b c "Russia appoint CSKA Moscow's Leonid Slutsky as coach on short-term deal". The Guardian. Associated Press. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  13. ^ "Сергей Иванов: "Слуцкий должен до лета совмещать посты. Потом РФС нужно будет вести переговоры о выкупе его контракта"" (in Russian). Sports.ru. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Слуцкий одержал пятую подряд победу во главе сборной России и повторил достижение Садырина" (in Russian). Sports.ru. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  15. ^ a b "Russia coach Leonid Slutsky hints at resignation after thrashing by Wales". ESPN FC. ESPN. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  16. ^ Crellin, Mark (25 June 2016). "Russia coach Leonid Slutsky resigns after Euro 2016 exit". Sky Sports. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  17. ^ Леонид Слуцкий покидает ПФК ЦСКА (in Russian). PFC CSKA Moscow. 6 December 2016.
  18. ^ a b "Tigers Confirm Leonid Slutsky As Head Coach". Hull City A.F.C. 9 June 2017. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  19. ^ "Sloetski stapt op als trainer van Vitesse". nos.nl (in Dutch). 29 November 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  20. ^ "ЛЕОНИД СЛУЦКИЙ – ГЛАВНЫЙ ТРЕНЕР "РУБИНА"" (in Russian). FC Rubin Kazan. 19 December 2019.
  21. ^ "«Рубин» попал в Лигу конференций – новый турнир, который придумали в УЕФА" (in Russian). Business Gazeta. 16 May 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  22. ^ "«Уфа» обыграла «Рубин» и вытеснила казанцев с 14-го места". Retrieved 21 May 2022.
  23. ^ "ЛЕОНИД СЛУЦКИЙ ПРИНЯЛ РЕШЕНИЕ ПОКИНУТЬ "РУБИН"" (in Russian). FC Rubin Kazan. 15 November 2022.
  24. ^ "«Шанхай Шэньхуа» презентовал Леонида Слуцкого в качестве нового главного тренера команды" (in Russian). Championship. 30 December 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  25. ^ "Ex-Hull City boss Leonid Slutsky 'sacked' from Russia World Cup TV pundit role". 21 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018.

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