MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Montenegrin trainer Miodrag Bozovic may take over from Dick Advocaat when the Dutch coach leaves Zenit St. Petersburg at the end of the season, a Russian sports paper said on Tuesday.

Bozovic, 40, led the unfashionable Urals side Amkar to 4th place in the Russian Premier League last season. He was appointed manager of equally unfancied FC Moskva at the beginning of the 2009 season on a two-year deal and has unexpectedly taken the club to the top of the table.

The Sport Dyen Za Dnyem paper said that Bozovic, a former Red Star Belgrade player, had held preliminary talks with Zenit. There has so far been no official comment.

Advocaat is due to quit the 2008 UEFA Cup winners to take over the Belgium national side at the end of the Russian season in November.

On Monday, former Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri denied that he had been approached by Zenit, saying he had no plans to work in Russia.

Zenit are currently in 7th place in the Russian Premier League after 12 games. The club has lost a number of key players since lighting up the European arena in 2008, with Andrei Arshavin leaving for Arsenal, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk signing for Bayern Munich, and Argentine star Alejandro Dominguez returning to Rubin FC.

Russian international Pavel Pogrebnyak is also rumored to be on his way out, possibly to an English Premier League club.