The origins of Zenit date back to the beginning of the 20th century to several predecessor teams in Saint Petersburg that were playing locally.

[citation needed] In 1925, another predecessor team of Zenit was formed, of workers from the Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod (Leningrad Metal Plant); they were called the "Stalinets" in the 1930s.

(Stalinets translates literally to English as "Stalinist"; however, in Russian, the name is a play on words as stal means "steel".)

FC Zenit was ordered to take in members of the "Stalinets" metallurgical workers' team after the end of the 1939 season.

[citation needed] Zenit won their first honours in 1944, claiming the war-time USSR Cup after defeating CSKA Moscow in the well-attended final.

Composer Dmitry Shostakovich and film star Kirill Lavrov were well known as ardent supporters of Zenit, a passion that is reflected in their attendance of many games.

[citation needed] Although Zenit reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup in 2006, a mediocre start to the league season led to the summer replacement of coach Vlastimil Petržela.

Zenit won 2–0, with goals from Igor Denisov in the 72nd minute and Konstantin Zyryanov in stoppage time, to lift the club's first-ever UEFA Cup.

[9] On 29 August 2008, at the Stade Louis II in Monaco, Zenit then defeated Manchester United 2–1 in the 2008 UEFA Super Cup, becoming the first Russian side to win the trophy.

Zenit ultimately finished in third place in the group, behind Juventus and Real Madrid, and was thus unable to progress to the knockout phase of the competition.

[citation needed] Luciano Spalletti signed a contract with Zenit in December 2009, with Italian coaches Daniele Baldini, Marco Domenichini and Alberto Bartali also joining the Russian club.

On 27 October, however, Zenit suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of rival club Spartak Moscow, just seven games short of finishing the championship undefeated.

On 14 November, Zenit defeated Rostov and two games prior to the end of the season won the championship title, the first in Spalletti's managerial career.

[citation needed] Zenit progressed through the knockout stage of the 2010–11 Europa League in first place, then beating Swiss side Young Boys in the Round of 16.

On 6 December 2011, the team finished the group stage in second place and for the first time in club's history qualified for the spring knockout phase of Champions League.

In the Round of 16, Zenit were drawn with Portuguese side Benfica, winning the first leg 3–2 at home through two goals from Roman Shirokov and one from Sergei Semak.

[12] A week later, the club announced they had negotiated a two-year deal with André Villas-Boas, who himself had been released a few months prior after a disappointing stint as manager of English side Tottenham Hotspur.

[citation needed] On 24 May 2016 Villas-Boas left the club at the end of the season, with Mircea Lucescu appointed the new manager of Zenit.

On 8 December 2016, the team finished the group stage in first place and qualified for the spring knockout phase of Europa League.

[18] In August 2018, during the 1st leg of the 3rd qualification round of the UEFA Europa League, Zenit suffered a 0–4 loss to Dynamo Minsk.

[19] Zenit went on to beat Molde FK 4–3 on aggregate in the next round, entering the group stage of 2018-19 UEFA Europa League.

[21] Zenit secured another title on 5 July 2020 after a victory over FC Krasnodar, with 4 games left to play in the tournament.

[citation needed] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, former Ukrainian international Yaroslav Rakitskiy made a pro-Ukrainian post on Instagram and severed his contract with the team.

[30] On 2 June 2024, Zenit won the Russian Cup with a late-comeback 2–1 victory over Baltika Kaliningrad, Nuraly Alip scored the winning goal in the 5th added minute.

[32] Zenit's home ground is now the 67,800-capacity Krestovsky Stadium, known as Gazprom Arena for sponsorship reasons, in Saint Petersburg.

[citation needed] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

The board included CEO Alexander Medvedev as chairman, his deputies and heads of departments Andrey Arshavin, Alexander Vasilyev, Zhanna Dembo, Oleg Zadubrovsky, Vladimir Litvinov, Alexey Pak, Maxim Pogorelov, head coach Sergey Semak.