During his sports career, Nikolai Zherdev played in several Russian and foreign hockey clubs. However, he failed to gain a foothold in any of them. The athlete has repeatedly become a participant in scandals both with the management of the clubs and with his wife. Nikolai's difficult character and his not quite athletic lifestyle led him to divorce from his wife.
From the biography of Nikolai Olegovich Zherdev
The future hockey player was born in Kiev on November 5, 1984. At the first stage of his sports biography, Zherdev played for the youth national team of Ukraine, was a pupil of the coach Y. Krylov.
In 1999, Nikolai moved to the Russian Federation and began to play for the youth hockey club "Elemash". Zherdev had a chance to play for the junior national team of the country. He became the winner of the 2002 World Cup among juniors.
A career in sports
In 2002, Zherdev signed an agreement with the CSKA club, headed by the famous Viktor Tikhonov. Playing for this club, Nikolay did a good training job and scored 28 points in 64 matches.
In August 2003, the hockey player signed a three-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets team (USA). The amount under this contract was more than $ 7 million. At the same time, the agreement provided that the player would continue to play for CSKA until the end of 2003, and would move to the United States in 2004. However, the hockey player appeared on the basis of the new team in the fall of 2003. CSKA opposed this state of affairs, saying that Zherdev was in military service and had no right to leave the location of the military unit. The player was threatened with criminal prosecution. However, the international sports court ruled in favor of Nikolai.
In 2006, Nikolai entered into a difficult dispute with the management of the Columbus Blue Jackets club. The player demanded that his reward be increased. However, he was refused: the club's management referred to the fact that Zherdev's last season was not the most successful. The compromise solution resulted in a salary of $ 7.5 million over a three-year period.
In 2008, the hockey player was sold to the New York Rangers. Two years later, Nikolai signed a contract with the Philadelphia Flyers team. At the same time, the hockey player's salary was $ 2 million.
In 2011, Nikolai returned to Russia and signed a contract with the domestic club Atlant. In the summer of 2013, the player signed a contract with the HC Lev Praha club for a period of one year. However, a month later, the player turned to the club's management and asked to terminate the contract. In the sports environment, there were rumors that this decision was associated with a violation by the hockey player of the sports regime: the fans believed that Zherdev simply went on a spree. There is evidence that a few weeks before the decision, Nikolai made a riot in a public place.
Zherdev spent some time outside the club, and at the end of September 2013 signed a contract with the capital "Spartak". But already in November, this cooperation was terminated at the initiative of the club.
In 2014, Nikolai played for Dynamo Moscow, then for HC Sochi. Since the end of 2015 Zherdev began to play for Torpedo (Nizhny Novgorod).
Personal life of Nikolai Zherdev
Nikolai Zherdev divorced from a scandal with his wife Evgenia Chernov. The spouses have often sorted out the relationship in public. The hockey player reacted aggressively to the attacks of his wife, who claimed that he was spending time with girls in luxury hotels. After the divorce, Zherdev does not seek to advertise his personal life.
