Alexandre Nizelik

My name is Alexandre Nizelik, from Saint-­Petersburg, Russia, I’m 30 years old and currently working as the U-­17 coach at FC Zenit. I started coaching football 8 years ago at the University U-­21 team after finishing my short playing career in Dinamo St-‐Petersburg Reserve team at the age of 22. As a professional I was formed and developed by Russian and Italian football coaching tradition taking my basic coaching courses in Russia and then UEFA B and UEFA A licenses at Italian Coverciano Technical Center and working on the highest level as an assistant of Luciano Spalletti at FC Zenit for five years and for two years as an assistant of one of the most successful Italian coaches Fabio Capello in Russian National Team.

Although my “italian” professional background, Portuguese football and its traditions has always been my inspiration starting from the mid 90’s when I was a big fan of Portuguese National team with the “Golden Generation” of players like Rui Costa, Luis Figo, João Pinto etc. This pushed me in some way to get more involved in studying Portugal as a country, its history and culture. In 2007/2008 I spent almost a year and a half in Portugal taking a University Course at Universidade de Lisboa. That helped me to get fluent in Portuguese language.

Portuguese football coaches and specialists are being very successful all over the world today. There is no top league in Europe that wouldn’t have a Portuguese coach working there (José Mourinho – England, Nuno Espírito Santo – Spain, Paulo Sousa – Italy, Leonardo Jardim – France, André Villas-­‐Boas – Russia, Vítor Pereira -­‐ Turkey). This makes me even more curious about Portuguese coaching traditions and methodology.

My main objective applying for the FMH Course is to develop my coaching knowledge by understanding profoundly the Portuguese coaching tradition. I hope I can help it in getting known and becoming popular and useful in my country. I’m also hugely attracted by the Courses organizational structure and its gradual and logical build­‐up.