Sergey Toropov moves to Zenit

Russian National Team forward Sergey Toropov, 32, signed a contract with our club for 2 years.

Sergey started playing basketball in his native Gorky. At the age of 17, he moved to Saratov, where he spent 6 years in the local Avtodor BC system. As part of the team, he became a two-time champion, and one-time bronze medalist of the SuperLeague. In his career there were also Severstal Cherepovets, Temp-SUMZ from Revda, Samara, MBA.

Sergey played the last 4 seasons in Nizhny Novgorod, while doing a “business trip” to Spartak-Primorie. In November 2021, Toropov was included in the expanded Russian National Team to participate in the preparation for the 2023 World Cup qualification games with the national teams of Italy and Iceland and took part in both meetings, which were held in St. Petersburg after a very long time. In February 2021, Sergey was called up to the national team to prepare for two games of the 2023 World Cup qualification with the Netherlands National Team. Also, this season, Toropov received his first invitation to the United League All-Star Game.

Stats in the VTB United League 2021-22 season: 14.8 ppg (57.3% 2FG, 45.5% 3FG, 80% FT), 4.6 rpg, 1.8 apg in 27 minutes.

Sergey Toropov, Zenit BC Forward:

I am very glad to be in such a big club as Zenit! It’s a big challenge for me as a player. I am very grateful to the management and coach Xavier Pascual for the chance to be part of the the VTB United League champions. I hope that the season will be interesting, and we will be able to achieve the result that the management and fans expect from us!

Xavier Pascual, Zenit BC Head Coach:

We are very happy that Sergey will join us next season. He understands the game perfectly, feels good at both ends of the court. We believe that he adapts easily to our game and club philosophy.

Alexander Tserkovny, Zenit BC CEO:

I have been watching Sergey since his performance in the SuperLeague and his progress season after season to one of the best Russian big man and players of the national team is absolutely great. I believe that he will take another step up together with Zenit.