Zenit U19

Long before any silverware, there was a school. In 2008 the Smena academy became part of Zenit's structure.

From the 2013/14 season through 2021/22, Zenit's youngsters were regulars in the group stage of the UEFA Youth League, and while they never forced their way into the knockout rounds, they beat opposition worth beating along the way — Lyon twice, 3-1 in both 2015 and 2019, and Malmö 3-2 in 2021.

Domestically the side has topped the Russian youth championship twice, in 2009 and again in 2025, either side of a run of near-misses — runner-up finishes in 2022, 2023 and 2024 that point to a team consistently in contention without quite closing it out. Under coach Igor Lebedev, the 2003-born group also won the Youth Football League in 2020/21.

What the age group exists to do, in the end, is supply the first team, and its graduate list runs from Andrei Arshavin, who came through the farm side in 1999-2000, to more recent names such as Daniil Krugovoi, who moved on to CSKA, and Ilya Vakhaniya, now with Rostov and capped for the senior national side.

Zenit U19 play their home matches at the Smena stadium on Ulitsa Vernosti, inside the club's academy grounds in Saint Petersburg — a ground built for a few thousand rather than the crowds the first team draws, with 3,046 seats.