It is the youth sector of FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, and is currently headed by Dutchman Henk van Stee.
[2] The sports school was founded in 1957 as a football section of Central DYuSSh GORONO of Leningrad.
Since 2010 academy's main U-18 team plays the role of Zenit dissolved farm club FC Smena-Zenit, competing in the championship of Saint Petersburg as well as various international tournaments.
The list of academy's coaches includes former internationals Aleksandr Spivak and Dmitry Vasilyev.
[4] The best known alumni of Smena are Russia national football team players Vyacheslav Malafeev, Igor Denisov, Andrey Arshavin, Vladimir Bystrov, Viktor Vasin and retired Vladislav Radimov and Oleg Salenko.