Arsenal Football Player Oleksandr Zinchenko Makes Professional CS2 Debut

Many football players have invested in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) and most of them even love to play the competitive title whenever they get time. However, making a professional debut in the game is certainly not a part of their bucket list.

For the 26-year-old Ukrainian footballer, Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays as a left-back or midfielder for Arsenal, an opportunity to play a professional CS2 match recently presented itself and he accepted it with open arms.

Not only did Zinchenko make his professional CS2 debut with the team that he owns, Passion UA, but also ended up winning the best-of-three series, starting his career on a positive note.

Ukraine National Team Football Player Oleksandr Zinchenko Plays Professional CS2 Match

United21 Season 9 is an online CS2 tournament currently taking place with 16 competitors from across Europe. It is a regional tournament consisting of academy and upcoming teams, taking on each other for a total prize pool of $5,000 USD.

One of the participants is a Ukrainian team called Passion UA which is owned by Oleksandr Zinchenko, who invested in this project earlier this year around August 2023.

On 6^th December, Passion UA took on ILLYRIANS in a high-stakes elimination match, where a win would result in survival while a loss would eliminate it from the tournament.

Unfortunately, one of the Passion UA players, Eduard "zeRRoFIX" Petrovskyi, was unable to participate in this match due to internet problems and was replaced by none other than the team's founder Oleksandr Zinchenko.

This was a huge surprise as the football player from Ukraine literally made his professional CS2 debut.

There were two sides to all of this, the good part being that he was representing his team, the bad part was that it was possibly the worst time to step into the serve with a potential elimination on the cards.

Despite the handicap, Passion UA played some brilliant CS2, winning the first game on Ancient with a 13-6 scoreline, before taking a heavy 3-13 defeat on Inferno, and then claiming the decider on Anubis with a score of 13-9.

Oleksandr Zinchenko ended up playing three professional CS2 games on his debut, defeating ILLYRIANS in a best-of-three series, and helping his team survive the do-or-die match.

He played under the monicker 'zina17' using an assortment of weaponry and held his own quite well against skilled opponents.

• Ancient - KDA | 9/14/3

• Inferno - KDA | 6/13/-

• Anubis - KDA | 6/18/-

Last year, Oleksandr Zinchenko had participated in a best-of-three charity match to raise funds for those affected in Ukraine by the Russian invasion, playing alongside legendary Counter-Strike players like Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev.

The professional footballer invested in Passion UA earlier this year due to his deep-seated love for gaming and his desire to contribute to the growth of esports in his home country, Ukraine.