The words of Artyom Dziub during a live broadcast of Tina Kandelaki on Instagram about the dream of playing for Real Madrid unexpectedly caused a serious resonance in the football community. The innocuous phrase of striker “Zenith” was surprised to be met not only by Spanish fans on social networks, but also by journalists who began to ridicule the Russian striker.
One of the fans expressed the opinion that Dziuba does not correspond not only to the level of the 13-time winner of the Champions League, but also to the modest Leganes by Spanish standards. After 27 rounds, the team from the suburbs of Madrid was located on the penultimate, 19th place in the standings Examples and risked flying out. Another fan even said that in Spain Artyom is only remembered for the match of the 1/8 finals of the 2018 World Cup, in which the athlete scored a goal from the 11-meter mark.
At the same time, the opinion of their compatriots was partially supported by the editor of the newspaper Marca, Juan Castro. The journalist was skeptical about the prospects of Dziuba in Real Madrid, noting that for this he needed to be among the ten best forwards on the planet.
“This will never happen, it is impossible. As well as in any other top club in Spain. In other Spanish teams it is possible, but we never know what will happen, ”the Championship quotes Castro.
Of course, at the moment it is difficult to talk about Dziuba being one of the ten best attackers on the planet. At least due to the fact that he does not defend the colors of the team claiming to win the Champions League, and does not help his team fight for gold in one of the leading leagues in Europe. But at the Russian level, Artyom demonstrates more than high performance comparable to the indicators of the main scorers of the Old World.
If we take into account exclusively the performances in the national championship (although it would be possible to add the matches of the cups and the national team), then this season Dziuba has 13 goals and 10 assists (according to Transfermarkt). Thanks to this, he not only leads the RPL scorers race, ahead of Eldor Shomurodov and Alexander Sobolev, who opened in the current championship, as well as his teammate Serdar Azmun, but also occupies the first line in the ranking of passers. In this indicator, he surpasses Zelimkhan Bakayev, who has perfectly mastered the position of playmaker in Spartak, as well as Alexey Ionov, who regularly finds sheds from the flank of his Rostov partners.
It is enough to note that this season among the representatives of the top 10 club championships in Europe, only four players chalked up the double-digit number of goals and assists. Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes scored ten times himself and assisted his partners the same number of times, but most of his points came from the time he played for Sporting. Dusan Tadic from Ajax broke out with 11 goals and 15 passes, but the Dutch championship is hardly seriously superior to the Russian championship, especially in terms of defense. Moreover, of the recognized masters of world football, only Lionel Messi (19 + 12) from Barcelona and Jadon Sancho (14 + 16) from Dortmund Borussia confirm their status.
As for the rivalry with the leading center forwards of the planet, among the colleagues on the line, Dziuba takes the tenth place in the “goal + pass” system, second only to such stars as Killian Mbappe (18 + 7), Timo Werner (21 + 7), Robert Lewandowski 25 + 3), as well as Ciro Immobile, who gained a second youth. The Italian is truly unstoppable this season, which is confirmed by 27 exact shots and seven passes in 26 meetings.
Behind the Zenit striker were Sergio Aguero, Romelu Lucaco, Roberto Firmino and Luis Suarez, as well as all the forwards of Real Madrid. As expected, Karim Benzema became the best of them, with 14 goals and six assists located on the 12th line. And his successors in the person of Luke Jovic and Mariano Diaz in total were noted by three accurate shots and one pass. And this despite the fact that the transfer of the Serb from Eintracht cost “creamy” € 60 million, and the return of the Brazilian from “Lyon” - € 21.5 million.
If we take into account not only the central strikers, then the list of inferior Dziuba in the productivity of athletes becomes even more impressive. It includes the leader of Liverpool Mohammed Salah, the most expensive football player in history Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain, valued at more than € 120 million Antoine Griezmann from Barcelona and João Felix from Atlético, as well as Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur. Moreover, while injuries can be an excuse for a Brazilian and an Englishman, it is extremely difficult for an Egyptian to find them. Forward of the Reds played five matches more vis-a-vis and formed one of the most striking trio of continent's goalors.
In addition, in terms of the number of assists, Dziuba is one of the five best representatives of the attacking line. More often than not, the same Messi (12), Angel Di Maria (14), Thomas Muller and Sancho (both 16 each) acted as assistants. For the ram type forward, these numbers are more than impressive. At the same time, the transfer value of the Russian is estimated at only € 16 million (according to Transfermarkt), which makes it ranked 94th in the ranking of the most expensive central attackers.
Of course, speaking about the effectiveness of the Zenit striker, it is necessary to mention that he does not play in one of the five strongest European championships. If Dziuba had performed so successfully in the Premier League, Example, Serie A, Bundesliga or League 1, he would have been quoted significantly higher. But even taking into account this fact, to call Artyom a player “not at the Leganes level” is extremely unfair and reckless.
The fact that he cannot be called a footballer of one season speaks about the level of the Russian. You can recall the example of Fyodor Chalov, who had a great last competitive year, but he seriously slowed down and can no longer boast of such successes in the field of bombing. Over the past five years, Dziuba only once fell below the 15 effective actions per season.
It is not surprising that this coincided with the period of Roberto Mancini's reign at Zenit, during which Artyom first sat tightly on the bench, and then was forced to leave for rent in the Tula Arsenal. Then he only once printed the opponent’s gate in a blue-white-blue T-shirt, but in the form of tuliks he scored nine (6 + 3) points in ten meetings, thanks to which he earned a call to the Russian national team for the 2018 home World Cup.