Anatoliy Tymoshchuk

He also started in the final against Manchester United, where he was substituted off in the 77th minute; Bayern won the match 7–6 on penalties.

Anatoliy Oleksandrovych Tymoshchuk (Анатолій Олександрович Тимощук, Анато́лий Алекса́ндрович Тимощу́к; born 30 March 1979) is a Ukrainian football coach and former midfielder, currently an assistant coach of the Russian Premier League club Zenit Saint Petersburg (since 2017).

Tymoshchuk is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit Saint Petersburg, and is also a former captain of the Ukraine national team.

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.

His first season at the club ended in success, with Zenit winning the Russian Premier League title for the first time in club history and the club's first league title since its 1984 Soviet Top League triumph.

At the end of the season, Tymoshchuk was included in the annual list of the best 33 players of the Premier League, and was also voted as league player of the year by popular sports magazine Sport-Express.

After Zenit won the championship, astronaut Yuri Malenchenko—known as a fan of the team—waved Zenit shirt with Tymoshchuk's name on it while in space.

In so doing, Zenit became the first team to have its uniform shown in space.

In 1997, at age 18, Tymoshchuk's contract was purchased from Volyn by Shakhtar Donetsk.

At Shakhtar, he was a key member of the team which won three Ukrainian Premier League titles, three Ukrainian Cups and a Ukrainian Super Cup.

His time with Shakhtar is credited with establishing him as a great midfielder in Europe.

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.

In 2022, the Ukrainian Association of Football stripped Tymoshchuk of his (Ukrainian) coaching license and titles because he did not speak out against Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and stayed on as assistant coach at Zenit Saint Petersburg.

On 6 January 2023 he was formally sanctioned by Ukraine among other Russian and pro-Russian celebrities, having his assets frozen and state awards revoked.

Tymoshchuk started his career playing for his hometown club Volyn Lutsk, having risen through the ranks at the team.

Following two successful seasons, the player began to attract attention from bigger clubs.

In 2006, having captained Shakhtar for a number of years, Tymoshchuk became linked with a string of European clubs, including Juventus, Feyenoord, Celtic and Roma.

On 27 February 2007, Tymoshchuk transferred to Zenit Saint Petersburg for a reported €15 million fee.

He was soon named as the new captain of the team.

Zenit manager Dick Advocaat was very impressed with him, saying, "About Tymoshchuk I can say only good things, and not only the player but also the person. Tymoshchuk – is a professional from head to toes. I never had complaints to him about discipline. While Tymoshchuk and I are at the club, he will be the captain of Zenit."

During the 2007–08 European season, Tymoshchuk captained Zenit to the UEFA Cup title, in which they defeated Scottish Premier League club Rangers 2–0 in the final.

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.

The club then went on to claim the 2008 UEFA Super Cup in a 2–1 victory over Manchester United.

In February 2009, Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeneß announced Tymoshchuk had agreed to join Bayern.

Initially, Zenit announced no agreement had yet been reached between the two clubs.

However, on 18 February, Bayern announced Tymoshchuk would join the club in July 2009 in order to allow Tymoshchuk to play for Zenit until the summer.

He played his last match with Zenit on 14 June 2009.

Tymoshchuk officially joined Bayern on 1 July 2009 with a contract set to expire 30 June 2012.

The transfer fee was undisclosed, but German media reports estimated the deal at €14 million.

Tymoshchuk played his first match for Bayern against Milan in the 2009 Audi Cup, coming on as a second-half substitute.

He scored his first goal for Bayern against Juventus in the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League.

In total, Tymoshchuk made 21 Bundesliga appearances in the 2009–10 season, ten as a substitute, but failed to start a match in the whole of the second half of the season.

On 8 May 2010, Tymoshchuk won his first trophy with Bayern, the 2009–10 Bundesliga, followed one week later by the 2009–10 DFB-Pokal title.

In late July 2010, Bayern manager Louis van Gaal described Tymoshchuk's prospects as "not very bright", adding, "If a player doesn't play or doesn't have bright prospects then I would leave if I were them."

With Bayern, he also won the UEFA Champions League in 2013 and finished as runners-up in 2010 and 2012.

A former captain of the Ukraine national team, Tymoshchuk is the nation's all-time most capped player with 144 caps.