The son of the head coach of St. Petersburg Zenit Sergei Semak from his first marriage, Ilya, spoke about his relationship with his father. His words are quoted by Sport24.
Ilya said that now they call up every three days and often see each other. He noticed that this was not always the case, and as a child, he experienced a difficult divorce. “I could not get used to the fact that my father had become very small in my life. Before that there was a lot of him, and then it seemed as if he was gone, ”Ilya stressed.
He also stated that he was jealous of his father for the new family and until the age of 13 did not want to get to know her. At the same time, his mother and the coach's first wife Svetlana never forbade them to contact. “The perception of my father as a traitor came more from me,” concluded Ilya.
Semak divorced his first wife in 2007. Ilya is their only child. With his second wife Anna, the coach is raising seven children. Three – from Anna's first marriages, three were born in a joint marriage, and the couple adopted another girl in 2016.
The specialist took over the leadership of Zenit in 2018. Under his leadership, the blue-white-blue have already won the Russian championship twice. The coach is also known for his work at Ufa. In the 2017/2018 season, he managed to bring the club to the Europa League for the first time in history.
When he was a footballer, Semak played for CSKA Moscow, Paris Saint-Germain, Rubin and Zenit, and won bronze at the 2008 European Championship as part of the national team.
