Zenit BC forms new coaching staff
Zenit BC has finalized the coaching staff that will work with the main team for the current season.
Dejan Radonjić will be assisted by Saša Kosović, Rostislav Vergun, and Maxim Uchaykin.
Saša Kosović hails from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He ended his playing career relatively early and decided to focus on coaching at the age of 23. At the beginning of his career, he worked with the Belgrade teams Cerak and Beoas, soon moving to Bosnian Leotar, for which he had played as a professional. In the 2010/11 season, Kosović served as an assistant head coach for the Serbian club FMP.
From 2011 to 2022, Saša Kosović was an assistant coach at Crvena Zvezda. With this European basketball giant, he became a seven-time champion of Serbia and a six-time winner of the Adriatic League, also winning the Serbian Cup six times and the Adriatic League Supercup once.
It was at Crvena Zvezda that he first worked with Dejan Radonjić, later following him to the Turkish club Bahçeşehir Koleji. Now, this Balkan coaching duo is reuniting in Saint Petersburg.
From 2022 to 2024, Kosović was part of Svetislav Pešić's coaching staff with the Serbian national team. With them, he participated in EuroBasket 2022 and won a silver medal at the FIBA World Cup 2023, followed by a bronze medal at the Olympic Games 2024.
Rostislav Vergun is a Belarusian specialist with over a decade of experience in the VTB United League, having worked both as a head coach and an assistant. A six-time champion of Belarus and a five-time winner of the Belarusian Cup with MINSK, he also won the Russian Cup with Uralmash. The current head coach of the Belarusian national team joined Zenit's staff as an assistant on January 23, 2026, and served as the interim head coach for two games. In his debut match at the helm, the Saint Petersburg team put up a strong fight against CSKA (90:93), and in the next round, they convincingly defeated Avtodor with a score of 105:79.
Maxim Uchaykin has been part of the club's system since 2020 when he took over Zenit U21. With the youth team, the Russian specialist won the gold medals of the VTB United Youth League and received the award for the tournament's best coach. In the summer of 2022, Uchaykin joined the coaching staff of the main team. Since then, he has become a Russian Cup winner, a two-time winner of the VTB United League Supercup, and a four-time winner of the Kondrashin and Belov Cup. In the 2024/25 season, as part of Xavi Pascual's staff, he reached the VTB United League finals. In January 2026, Uchaykin temporarily served as Zenit's acting head coach in a match against MBA-MAI, which ended in a 99:83 victory.
