KAZAN, March 22, Adela Ziatdinova. Zinetula Bilyaletdinov leaves post head coach of the Kazan «Ak Bars», according to the Telegram channel of the club of the Continental Hockey League (KHL).
This season, «Ak Bars» completed its performance in the first round of the Gagarin Cup after losing to the Ekaterinburg Avtomobilist with a score of 1-4 .
“»I worked a lot as a coach, I really like the job, what I was taught, what I studied myself, I enjoyed this work. The work of a head coach requires a lot of strength, emotions, it is a big responsibility. I think , it will be better for me when I work in hockey, but in a different format. And there was an agreement for one season,” Bilyaletdinov told reporters at a press conference.
The specialist did not agree that he lacked motivation in playoffs.
«I did the work that was necessary. In the long term and in general, this is difficult work, the responsibility and workload are large, you need to have strength and patience. That's enough for me, I think. It’s hard for me to say about the future; we haven’t had any conversations on this topic. The position that I had at the beginning of last season (adviser to the executive director of Ak Bars on the hockey vertical — approx.) suited me, it was interesting. You work with both the coach and the players, but it is also more free. At Dynamo? Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves,» the coach added.
In December 2022, Bilyaletdinov led Ak Bars for the third time and brought the team to the final of the Gagarin Cup, where they lost to CSKA Moscow.
Bilyaletdinov was also the main coach of Ak Bars from 2004 to 2011 and from 2014 to 2019 and led the team to three victories in the Gagarin Cup (2009, 2010, 2018).Also, under his leadership, Dynamo Moscow won the Russian Championship (2000). coach of the Russian national team, he became world champion (2012).