Roman Zozulya

Roman Vyacheslavovych Zozulya (Ukrainian: Роман В'ячеславович Зозуля, born 17 November 1989) is a Ukrainian footballer who plays as a striker for Spanish club Albacete Balompié and the Ukrainian national team.

For the gymnast, see Roman Zozulya (gymnast).

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Vyacheslavovych and the family name is Zozulya.

Roman Zozulya

Zozulya with Dnipro in 2016
Personal information
Full name	Roman Vyacheslavovych Zozulya
Date of birth	(1989-11-17) 17 November 1989
Place of birth	Kyiv, Soviet Union
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position(s)	Striker
Club information
Current team	Albacete
Number	10
Youth career
2002–2006	Dynamo Kyiv
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2006–2011	Dynamo Kyiv	35	(3)
2011–2016	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	85	(22)
2016–2017	Betis	6	(0)
2017	→ Rayo Vallecano (loan)	0	(0)
2017–	Albacete	103	(24)
National team^‡
2005–2006	Ukraine U17	14	(2)
2007–2008	Ukraine U19	15	(4)
2008–2011	Ukraine U21	22	(1)
2010–	Ukraine	33	(4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15 December 2019 ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17 June 2019

Club career

Dynamo Kyiv

Born in Kyiv, Zozulya was a product of the Dynamo youth system progressing through Dynamo-3 and Dynamo-2. In 2008 after the 2007–08 season he was promoted to the main team.

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

On 27 February 2014, in a Europa League match against Tottenham Zozulya was sent off after he directed a head-butt towards Jan Vertonghen.[1] Zozulya was sent off and had to be restrained from attacking Vertonghen, who was accused of faking the degree of contact.[2] Tottenham went on to win the game 3–1, knocking Dnipro out of the Europa League.[3]

Betis

On 27 July 2016, Zozulya signed a three-year contract with La Liga side Real Betis.[4]

Rayo Vallecano

On 31 January 2017, Zozulya joined Rayo Vallecano on loan until the end of the season. His arrival was met with protests from the club's fans, unhappy over his purported far-right links after a picture of him wearing a shirt with the Tryzub and lyrics of poet Taras Shevchenko was misinterpreted as featuring the logo of the Right Sector. Zozulya vehemently denied any such links in an open letter to Rayo's fans, declaring that he has only assisted the legitimate Ukrainian army during the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.[5][6] On 1 February 2017, Zozulya had his contract cancelled due to the reactions of Rayo fans and returned to Betis.[7] This meant that he could not play anymore in the 2016–17 season because the Royal Spanish Football Federation rules say players cannot register for more than two teams in one campaign.[7]

Albacete

On 8 September 2017, free agent Zozulya signed a one-year contract with Albacete Balompié.[8] On 25 March 2019 Zozulya endured more harassment during an Albacete away game against CD Lugo, when the fans of the latter club sang chants aimed at Zozulya, explicitly wishing him death for supposedly supporting the Nazi political movement.[9] As a result of the incident, the fans of Albacete requested that La Liga seriously punish Lugo. Zozulya received the best player award for the month of October 2019, based on the fans' votes.[10] On 15 December 2019, the league game between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete was abandoned by the referee, after abuse and threats from the home fans over Zozulya's alleged far-right-wing political views.[11] The second half of the game was scheduled to be played the following June, following the resumption of football after the coronavirus pandemic.[12]

International career

Roman debuted for Ukraine on 2 June 2010 against Norway at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo. He scored a goal after Yevhen Konoplyanka fired a long shot at Jon Knudsen, who fumbled with the ball and let Roman kick the ball into the net. He was substituted in the 81st minute.[13][14] He was member of the Ukrainian 23-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016.[15]

Outside of football

Civil involvement

Graffiti praising Zozulya at Dnipro's training ground

Zozulya is the founder of the Narodna Armiya (People's Army) organisation which is a part of the civil volunteer movement helping Ukrainian forces in the war in Donbass. In particular Zozulya's organisation is providing food, clothing and technical equipment to Ukrainian Army and helps families of the military.[16][17] In 2016, he received a special commendation from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for his support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Together with Ruslan Rotan Zozulya is also the co-founder and sponsor of the Rotan and Zozulya Academy of Football in Dnipro.

Accusations of Nazi sympathies

In December 2019, a match between the Spanish teams Rayo Vallecano and Albacete (Roman Zozulya's former and current clubs) was suspended,[18] when the former club's fans loudly accused the player of being a sympathizer of Nazi ideology, due to his known support of the Azov Battalion[19] as well as other images he had posted on his Twitter account, which contained references to Nazi symbolism or organizations claimed to support Nazism.[20][21]

Career statistics

Club

As of 17 June 2019

Club	Season	League			Cup		Europe		Super Cup		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Dynamo Kyiv	2007–08	Ukrainian Premier League	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	2008–09		11	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	15	1
	2009–10		11	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	13	3
	2010–11		12	0	3	1	8	1	0	0	23	2
	Total		35	3	7	2	9	1	1	0	52	6
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	2011–12	Ukrainian Premier League	15	3	2	1	1	0	0	0	18	4
	2012–13		23	8	2	0	9	3	0	0	34	11
	2013–14		24	7	1	0	10	4	0	0	35	11
	2014–15		13	1	2	0	9	1	0	0	24	2
	2015–16		10	3	4	2	1	0	0	0	15	5
	Total		85	22	11	3	30	8	0	0	126	33
Betis	2016–17	La Liga	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
Albacete	2017–18	Segunda División	30	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	9
	2018–19		37	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	37	11
	Total		67	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	67	20
Career total			193	45	18	5	39	9	1	0	251	59

International

As of 14 June 2019[22]

Ukraine
Year	Apps	Goals
2010	1	1
2011	0	0
2012	4	0
2013	9	2
2014	7	0
2015	1	0
2016	11	1
Total	33	4

International goals

Source:[22]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	2 June 2010	Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo, Norway	Norway	0–1	0–1	Friendly
2.	22 March 2013	National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland	Poland	1–3	1–3	WC 2014 Qual
3.	15 November 2013	Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, Kiev, Ukraine	France	1–0	2–0	WC 2014 Qual
4.	29 May 2016	Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin, Italy	Romania	1–1	3–4	Friendly

Honors

Dynamo Kyiv

• Ukrainian Premier League (1): 2008–09
• Ukrainian Super Cup (2): 2009, 2011

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

• UEFA Europa League (1): runner-up 2014–15

Orders

•  Ukraine: Decoration of the President of Ukraine for Humanitarian Participation in the Anti-Terrorist Operation[23]
•  Ukraine: Honorary badge of the Chief of General Staff for Services to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

References

1. Mike Dyce. "Europa League: Roman Zozulya gets straight red for head butting Tottenham player, chaos ensues (GIF)". fanside.com. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
2. "Jan Vertonghen Defends Himself Over Accusations of Simulation for Roman Zozulya Red Card. In May 2015 Zozulya and Dnipro went on to the final of the Europa League, but his team lost, 3-2". insidefutbol.com. 1 March 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
3. "UEFA Europa League: Tottenham 3 Dnipro 1". FourFourTwo. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
4. "Real Betis signs Roman Zozulya". Real Betis. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
5. "Zozulya: Rayo sign forward following ideology controversy". AS English. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
6. Ukrainians cry foul over accusations of neo-Nazi links against striker Zozulia, UNIAN (1 February 2017)
7. Roman Zozulya: Player's Rayo Vallecano loan spell ends as fans call him Nazi, BBC News (1 February 2017)
8. "Roman Zozulya, nuevo jugador del Alba" [Roman Zozulya, new player of Alba] (in Spanish). Albacete Balompié. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
9. Zozulya helped Albacete to sack Lugo, fans of which shocked by songs which death to the Ukrainian (Зозуля допоміг Альбасете розгромити Луго – фанати шокували піснями з побажанням смерті українцю). Football24.ua. 23 March 2019
10. "Zozulia, Jugador Cinco Estrellas de octubre | Albacete Balompié". Zozulia, Jugador Cinco Estrellas de octubre | Albacete Balompié (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 December 2019.
11. "Rayo-Albacete game suspended after nazi insults to Zozulia". AS.com. 15 December 2019.
12. "Spanish football to resume a day early with second half of abandoned match". BBC Sport. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
13. (in Ukrainian) God loves Trinity
14. Zozulia nets winner on Ukraine debut
15. Ukraine team
16. Юрий Сай (29 April 2015). Роман Зозуля презентовал фонд "Народная армия", который будет помогать нашим воинам (in Russian). fakty.ua. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
17. Роман Зозуля совместно с волонтерами Днепропетровска основали фонд "Народная Армия" (in Russian). dneprpost.com.ua. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
18. "Rayo Vallecano v Albacete abandoned as fans call Roman Zozulya a Nazi". BBC Sport. 15 December 2019.
19. https://twitter.com/zozulyaroman18/status/569983512012562433
20. https://www.vocativ.com/falsestart/414086/did-espn-let-a-nazi-soccer-player-off-the-hook/index.html
21. https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/deportes/2019/12/16/llaman-nazi-roman-zozulia/00031576492318355426557.htm
22. "Zozulya, Roman". National Football Teams. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
23. https://styler.rbc.ua/ukr/zhizn/eto-moya-zasluga-ukrainskiy-futbolist-udostoilsya-1509001180.html

External links

• Roman Zozulya at BDFutbol
• Profile on the FFU website (in Ukrainian)
• Roman Zozulya at Soccerway