St. Petersburg, July 21, Sergey Yaremenko. Krasnodar goalkeeper Matvey Safonov is the only goalkeeper in Russia who can strengthen Zenit St. Petersburg, Andrey Arshavin, deputy general director for sports development of the Blue-White-Blues, said in an interview. In the spring, information appeared in the media that Zenit will try to acquire Safonov in the summer transfer window. The contract of the 23-year-old goalkeeper with Krasnodar is calculated until the summer of 2023. «The main defender of (Daniil) Odoevsky is Slava Malafeev himself. He brought Danya to Zenit, signed a contract with him and supports him. My position is simple — in Russia there are no goalkeepers who will strengthen us, except for Safonov. What's the point of spending money? We have strong Odoevsky and (David) Byazrov. At this stage, Odoevsky is better, but we, on the sidelines of the academy, believe that Byazrov is no worse and is very strong mentally. I would I spent money only on Safonov,» said Arshavin. «I personally don’t feel any protectionism towards Odoevsky. I think that he is a great talent, but we have other good goalkeepers. Misha Kerzhakov is also a goalkeeper for me, who is no worse than those who we buy. He is from St. Petersburg, has been here for a long time. Therefore, my position is this: I was against following the lead of (Andrey) Lunev and paying him the money he wanted, «said Arshavin. Full interview with Andrei Arshavin read on the site rsport.ria.ru.
