Alexander Kerzhakov recounts alleged unpaid wages after leaving Karmiotissa
Karmiotissa’s former head coach, Alexander Kerzhakov, speaks about a troubling episode tied to his tenure in Cyprus. The Russian football expert took charge of the team in early February 2023 and oversaw seven games during his spell. The results showed two victories, four defeats and one draw, leaving the club to review its performance under his leadership.
According to Kerzhakov, a confrontation over payment occurred the day after a match. He explains that the club asked him to sign documents while promising to withdraw funds later that evening and complete the payment. The coach signed the papers, trusting the assurances offered by the club’s sporting director, who told him to sign and that the money would be transferred after a bank run in the evening.
Time passed. Five hours turned into two more hours as Kerzhakov sought clarity about the delay. He recalls reaching out multiple times with questions about the status of the payment. The club allegedly offered a brief reply that hinted the matter had resolved, but the response shifted when asked about the money. The director reportedly stated that the coach had signed a paper waiving any claims against the club, effectively ending the financial dispute from the club’s perspective. Those words tied Kerzhakov’s experience at Karmiotissa to a broader narrative about his time there, and he cited the incident as a defining moment of his stay in Cyprus, as reported by spor.ru.
Before moving to Cyprus, Kerzhakov had spent his most recent season in Russia with Paris Nizhny Novgorod. The coach guided the club through a campaign that concluded with an 11th place finish in the Russian Premier League, a performance that framed his brief stay in the country before his arrival in Cyprus.
The timeline of events culminated in Kerzhakov announcing his departure from Karmiotissa, signaling the end of his latest chapter in professional football. The charges and the details shared by the coach underscore a chapter in his career defined as much by his onfield efforts as by the complexities of managing financial and administrative expectations in a foreign league. The cycle of leadership at Karmiotissa during that period remains a point of discussion among supporters and analysts alike, with Kerzhakov’s account adding a personal perspective to the club’s recent history, as documented by sports outlets at the time.