Soccer Player Pays $180K Fee Out Of His Own Pocket To Get Revenge On Former Manager

Artem Dzyuba FC Arsenal Tula Russia

Getty Image / Epsilon


A Russian soccer player paid a massive sum of money out of his own pocket just to get revenge on his former team manager whom he’d had a falling out with. And while this is one of the pettiest moves I’ve seen in pro sports for quite some time I fucking love everything about it.

The player in question, Artem Dzyuba, was previously playing for Russian soccer team Zenit St. Petersburg but he and manager/coach Roberto Mancini didn’t get along and Mancini pushed Artem Dzyuba off the team by sending him on loan to FC Arsenal Tula. Manager Roberto Mancini was so petty that he included a 10 million Ruble fee ($183,102 or ~€150,000) in the contract that stipulated Artem Dzyuba could not play against his previous team.

Obviously, the new team would ever pay that fee just so one of their players could compete in a single game against another team but that didn’t stop Artem Dzyuba from getting the ultimate revenge by paying all $180K+ out of his own pocket to compete against Zenit St. Petersburg. Once in the game, Artem Dzyuba clowned all over his former manager by assisting on the first goal and scoring an 88th-minute equalizer before celebrating/dancing in front of his rival (manager) on the sideline:

Here’s that 88th-minute goal:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh4EZBMDbF3/

You have to respect him getting his money’s worth out of the game. He’s paying $180K out of his own pocket just to play against someone he despises so you know he’s going to stay as involved in the action as he possibly can. Assisting on one goal and scoring the equalizer in a 3-3 tie is probably getting his money’s worth but I also don’t really know how much $$$$$ this dude makes per year after salary + endorsements.

After tying 3-3 in this game, Zenit is now in danger of missing a berth in the UEFA Champion’s League next season so the revenge is pretty palpable. And I think it’s safe to assume that Artem Dzyuba celebrated his ass off after that game.

(h/t Hot Clicks + Fox Sports Italy)

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Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. Based out of Florida, he covers an array of topics including NFL, Pop Culture, Fishing News, and the Outdoors.