The remarkable journey of Aleks Zinchenko, Manchester City’s unlikeliest superstar

Aleks Zinchenko collapsed to the turf. Manchester City had made history, reaching their first-ever Champions League final, but this was also a personal achievement of equal scale and significance for the player who has had to fight more than any of his team-mates to earn his place.

As his other City team-mates threw themselves into each other’s arms, Zinchenko was crying, pounding the ground beneath him, rejoicing in this next leg of an extraordinary journey. The tears continued to flow back at his city centre apartment when he returned home to his wife Vlada, his family and close friends.

They, after all, are the ones who know his backstory best. “Honestly, it is like a movie,” one of those closest to Zinchenko tells The Independent. In fact, it soon could be. Should Zinchenko in Porto and City win, those close to him have considered pitching and producing a Netflix-style documentary, so unlikely is his rise.

Interested? Then tread carefully, as the next 2,000 words or so may contain spoilers.

The story begins in Radomyshl, a city in northern Ukraine. A naturally-gifted footballer from an early age, Zinchenko’s love of playing was inspired by watching early-2000s Arsenal, with Thierry Henry his favourite player. His mother, Irina, would take him to training sessions at the local sport society where he gradually learned how to compete against boys several years older than him.

One of the school’s coaches would later organise a trial for Zinchenko to join an academy in Illichivsk, a port on the Black Sea now known as Chornomorsk. At just 11-years-old, he made the 300-mile, 11-hour journey via Odessa alone, travelling across the largest country located entirely in Europe by coach. The trials were a success but meant moving away from Radomyshl permanently.

Zinchenko struggled with the change at first and, though he may not admit it to his friends, there were tearful phone calls to Irina. But one of his coaches in Illichivsk took him under his wing. Viktor Karpenko’s gruelling early morning sessions that Zinchenko has since learned to appreciate as fundamental in his development. Karpenko would then play a much larger role in his life too, marrying Irina and becoming his new step-father.

In 2010, Zinchenko joined Shakhtar Donetsk’s youth system. A first professional contract followed three years later, and his rapid ascent to captaining Shakhtar’s Under-19s as a 16-year-old included a first trip to the north west of England and an appearance at Leigh Sports Village, with him wearing the armband and scoring in a 1-1 Youth League draw against Manchester United.

Zinchenko was now living with his parents again in Donetsk and was on track for a promising career, with different agents competing to represent him and several attempting to win a longer, more lucrative contract. Yet everything was about to change. In April 2014, tensions in the Donbas between government forces and Russian-aligned separatists spilled over and hostilities broke out in the region which remains at war today.

That summer, Irina wrote to Shakhtar informing them of the family’s decision to leave Donetsk due to the military action but to no response. Zinchenko then sent a letter to Shakhtar unilaterally terminating his contract, describing living in safety as an “impossibility”. Shakhtar were, at the very same time, moving their headquarters from Donetsk for similar reasons.

Zinchenko's uncle Anatoly subsequently moved the family to Moscow to stay in the relative safety of a small, cramped garage - around 16m² in size - attached to his property. The family were no longer in danger but they were jobless and needed money. Viktor set about trying to find work as a coach again, while Irina took on housekeeping jobs that would help the family cover essential costs.

Zinchenko, meanwhile, began training with Rubin Kazan in the hope of securing a new contract but Shakhtar still held his registration and refused to do business, insisting that the termination of his contract in Donetsk was illegal. Shakhtar warned Rubin of their intention to take the case to Fifa if they pursued the signing of Zinchenko and Rubin relented, leaving him stuck back in Moscow.

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There, he trained three times a day - often under Viktor’s tutelage - and joined up with local amateur teams in the area to maintain fitness and rhythm. Zinchenko still finds it difficult to speak publicly about this time in life, not only because of being caught up in the terror of the war, but also the worry of the legal wranglings and the uncertainty regarding his career. He was a refugee footballer, with no club and possibly no future.

An unexpected source of comfort and inspiration was Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s autobiography. Zinchenko admired Ibrahimovic’s aggressive attitude on the pitch but also his uncompromising approach to all aspects of life and determination to go his own way. Seven months after terminating his Shakhtar contract and moving to Moscow, Zinchenko signed with FC Ufa of the Russian Premier League.

This time, Shakhtar followed through on the threat to take the case to Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber, who ruled in the Ukrainian club’s favour and ordered Zinchenko pay approximately €8,000 in compensation. Shakhtar were still unhappy with the punishment, believing it was too lenient, and the case eventually wound up in front of judges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2017.

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There, Shakhtar’s lawyers argued that the war was “a happy coincidence” for Zinchenko, his family and his agent at the time. They accused Zinchenko of looking for an easy way out of the club after seeing the agent’s attempts to negotiate a new contract on improved terms knocked back. Shakhtar also wanted him to receive a four-month playing ban as added punishment. Their case was dismissed by CAS, with the original €8,000 compensation claim upheld.

All this hung over Zinchenko during his time at Ufa but did not stop him from succeeding there. He became a popular member of the dressing room for his consistently off-key singing and his far superior rapping ability. Match TV, Russia’s public service sports channel, learned of this hidden talent and had Zinchenko star in a music video which went viral on Russia social platforms and has followed him around ever since, to the point where he has grown tired of answering interviewers’ questions about it.

Though a friend to all at Ufa, Zinchenko grew closest to the foreign-born players at Ufa as he was eager to learn new languages and tap into their experiences of different cultures. One of those he was closest to was Emmanuel Frimpong, the former Arsenal midfielder, who had enjoyed something of an amateur rap career himself and would help to teach his new team-mate English.

“He never paid me for my work,” Frimpong told Sport24earlier this year. “Write that Zinchenko owes me. We agreed with him that he would pay me when he left. I usually charge $2,000 an hour but he is my friend, so there is only $1000 for him. I spent so much time on him! Tell him it's very important.”

Still just a teenager, Zinchenko broke into Ufa’s starting line-up midway through his second and final season. City’s scouting department had been tracking his progress while he was still in Shakhtar’s system at 15, then were surprised when he resurfaced in Russia’s top flight after so long off the radar. Phil Robinson, City’s head of emerging talent, visited to watch Zinchenko play first-hand and set about the process of bringing him to Manchester.

Zinchenko had known about City’s interest since his days at Shakhtar but had never expected it to materialise into a move. For it to happen the same summer that Pep Guardiola became manager was almost too perfect. He, like any football obsessive, had greatly admired Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona teams at the turn of the decade and followed his time at Bayern too.

This was no major deal - a £1.7m fee, with a further £430,000 in add-ons and wages of an academy player - and even after being named in Ukraine’s squad and playing at that year’s European Championship, any prospect of him challenging for a first team place was considered remote. The expectation at the time was that he was a talented young player who may be able to forge a career at one of the City Football Group’s other clubs.

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His first season involved a loan spell at PSV Eindhoven that was as challenging as it was rewarding. Zinchenko was close to another loan the following summer with Napoli, only for talks to collapse. Another period in limbo - but this time with a club to play for, at least - appeared likely, but serious injuries to Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph left a vacancy at left-back and opened doors to the first team squad.

Zinchenko made his debut, then 14 appearances in total during the 2017-18 season, becoming recognisable enough to stop being mistaken for Kevin De Bruyne. But his place in Guardiola’s squad was still not secure. At the start of the following season, a £16m move to Wolverhampton Wanderers was all but agreed. Zinchenko’s assent was all that was needed. Famously, he refused.

Sources say his attitude to leaving City then was the same as it is now and has always come down to one simple question: why would he leave when, in a squad containing 25 of the best players in the world, under the guidance of the best coach in a generation, every start that he makes is a huge personal achievement? Like with any player struggling to break their way into a team, there has been disappointment and doubts have crept in, but he has never considered leaving City.

That is why he has never made a fuss about where he plays, either. Zinchenko’s versatility and his Guardiola’s taste for tactical experimentation has seen him deployed in several different positions but it is left-back, rather than his natural attacking midfield role, that he has made his own.

When he finally began to hold down a regular place during the second half of the 2018-19 season as a left-back, he was asked by a close confidant whether he was happy playing there given he has a more influential role for Ukraine. Zinchenko’s reply was unequivocal. “Man, for this club, I’ll even stay and play as goalie.”

Zinchenko signed a new contract at the end of that season, finally bringing his salary up to a level which reflects his status. Even now though, he has to constantly prove his worth and be on his very best behaviour. Some loose talk about potentially winning the quadruple in a Champions League press conference in February brought a swift rebuke from Guardiola, who laid down the law to ‘Mr Zinchenko’ when he met the press a few minutes later.

Then there was the incident last summer, when comments by his wife Vlada from her YouTube channel began to circulate on social media. A sports journalist in Ukraine and a City fan too, she had questioned Guardiola’s decisions in the Champions League elimination to Lyon. Her connection to Zinchenko made the remarks newsworthy and the timing of their circulation online was not exactly ideal. It was the couple’s wedding day.

Those at the ceremony say Zinchenko was understandably distressed. Though initially tempted to simply ignore it and let the social media storm blow over, it continued to rage to the point where it became overwhelming and threatened to spoil what was supposed to be the happiest day of the couple’s lives together. Zinchenko decided to call Guardiola and immediately apologised.

It goes without saying that his apology was accepted and no offence was taken. Guardiola can even joke about it now. Vlada revealed earlier this year that when Zinchenko poked fun at his manager’s aging years on his 50th birthday, Guardiola replied: “Alex, the most important thing for me is to be liked by your wife and all will be okay.”

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If that incident demonstrates anything, it is that Zinchenko’s respect for Guardiola is total. He wants to learn as much from being in his presence as possible and keeps a notebook in which writes down snippets from arguably the finest mind in world football. Once his playing career has ended, he wants to be a manager and has already completed a remote learning Master’s degree in sports coaching and education.

One day, he could be among a group of ex-Guardiola players turned coaching disciples. Given he is still just 24-years-old though, that day is some way off. For now, he is simply listening, learning and improving and his manager adores him for it.

“Aleks fought a lot to be here,” Guardiola said earlier this month. “It was possible to be loaned or transferred but he said no, I want to fight to be here. That means a lot. Second, he’s a guy who plays in another position but never complained. The third, he doesn't make mistakes... He deserves to play.”

And if he plays on the European football’s greatest stage tonight, nobody in Porto will have done more to earn their place.