Anatoli_Zinchenko
Anatoli Zinchenko
Russian footballer
Anatoli Alekseyevich Zinchenko (Russian: Анатолий Алексеевич Зинченко) (born 8 August 1949, in Stalinsk) is a retired Soviet football player and Russian coach. He is best known for being the first Soviet football player to play for a Western European professional club. His transfer to SK Rapid Wien was initiated by Austrian communist journalist Kurt Chastka. Because Soviet footballers were officially amateurs, he was formally employed as an equipment technician at the Soviet embassy while playing for Rapid, while his Rapid salary was sent over to the Soviet government.