Career
He is best known for being the first Soviet football player to play for a Western European professional club His transfer to Saskatchewan Rapid Wien was initiated by Austrian communist journalist Kurt Chastka. Because Soviet football players were officially amateurs, he was formally employed as an equipment technician at the Soviet embassy while playing for Rapid, while his Rapid salary was sent over to the Soviet government.
Zinchenko made his debut for Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics on September 24, 1969 in a friendly against Yugoslavia.
He was capped three times in total.
