"I will be glad to finish my career at Zenit

Zenit St. Petersburg regained the championship title lost last season. Since Sergey Semak took over the team in 2018, the blue-white-Blues have won the RPL seven times, including a series of six championships in a row. Midfielder Alexander Erokhin, who has been playing for the club since 2017, played an important role in these successes. This season, it was his winning goal at the end of the penultimate match against Sochi (2-1) that helped Zenit to come out on top. In an interview with Izvestia, the 36-year-old football player spoke about the new championship, contract negotiations, his key goals, his desire to stay in the team until the end and the end of the career of the club's old-timer Mikhail Kerzhakov.

— Is there a special feeling from this championship, when Zenit needed to return the gold, and not keep it, as in previous times?

— I spent the whole day before the match with Rostov anticipating such an important event. It's a great privilege for a football player, when we got to the first place, reached it in the penultimate round, and in the final match everything depends on us. It's a feeling that's probably hard to experience anywhere other than on a football field. That's why it feels special.

We had a difficult season. Even the difficult two seasons. In the past, we didn't get to gold a little bit. It wasn't easy this season either, however, when we gained a point advantage over Krasnodar, we didn't want to let him go. And in the end, we achieved what we had been striving for for a whole year.

— What makes it possible to take the seventh gold in eight seasons?

— I think it's about the athletic nature of the guys who are gathered at Zenit. They don't want to lose either in matches or in training. And they take defeats pretty personally. All our players are ambitious, so there is no loss of motivation. This is out of the question. It happens that some games work out, and some don't. But the motivation was overwhelming throughout the season.

— For almost your entire career at Zenit, you've had last—minute substitutions and then goals or assists. This was also the case in the penultimate match against Sochi. How do you do it?

— In fact, I have said and will continue to say that I always want to help Zenit with all my heart. Even when I'm on the bench, I always think about what I need to do to help the team in defense or score a goal when I go on the field. In my opinion, everything has a complex effect here — training and psychology. I hope that in the future I will also be able to help Zenit with goals.

— Was the goal against Sochi special, considering that without it, most likely, there would have been no current championship?

- of course. Now everything has turned out that way. I used to have goals, like the season before last against CSKA in the Russian Cup (then Erokhin equalized the score at the end of the first meeting. — Izvestia), which left us fighting for the trophy. There was also a winning goal against Orenburg in the championship last season at the end. But now, with Sochi, the goal led to a denouement in the race for gold to a greater extent. It was especially emotional for me and the team. Perhaps at that moment, the guys caught the wave that is inherent in Zenit as a whole — to play with enthusiasm and excitement, regardless of the result, no matter how the match develops, the thought is always only about winning.

— Has Zenit already offered you a new contract for next season?

— We had preliminary conversations. I think we'll return to this topic after the match with Rostov. And everything should be fine.

— If something doesn't work out now or, say, in a year, will you look for another club? Or do you want to finish your career as a player at Zenit?

— I will be glad to finish my career at Zenit. It's probably… I don't think so, but this is the most important stage in my football life. I can say that there were many good moments in my career — in Rostov, when we got to the Champions League, and in those teams where I started my career. But the most successful and emotional period, of course, is associated with St. Petersburg and Zenit.

I am immensely grateful to the city and the club, which has supported me a lot. And I try to repay this attitude on the football field with what I can. On the field, in the locker room, in the training process, I try to give my all. I have never felt sorry for myself, and next season I will continue to give my best and help the team win.

— You mentioned participating in the Champions League. Do you believe that you will still play in it, that our clubs will return to European competitions before you finish your career?

— This is a rhetorical question. No one knows when this might happen or under what conditions. Of course, I would like to believe that I will still have the opportunity to play there, to feel the atmosphere of this tournament, but ... we will see.

— Two years ago Zenit made a number of transfers of Russian players, in particular Alexander Sobolev and Maxim Glushenkov, who finally won their first championship. Did they feel like they had a special motivation to fight for gold?

— We have a group of players who have not been champions before. I hope that by getting a taste of this victory, this path that you follow and ending it by lifting the cup over your head, they will only recharge themselves with such emotions. And this will add even more fuel to the fire, so that in the future they will work with the same zeal and diligence and benefit the team.

— Mikhail Kerzhakov ends his football career, after which you become the main old-timer of Zenit among the players. Do you feel a special responsibility?

— I have already said many respectful words and thanks about Misha. Both to him personally and in the press. But I repeat: This is a man who played an important role at Zenit, within the team. It's always a little sad when such a person finishes playing. But you always realize that this may be the beginning of something bigger, so I want to wish him good luck in his future career.

As for responsibility, I've never been afraid of it. Both this season and in the past, I have always tried to help the team and the guys with deeds and words. Now I want to get the emotions from the victory and slowly prepare for the future.