On the advice of Valery Karpin: how many of our football players can go abroad?

Irina Mishina

The last games of our national football team suggest sad thoughts. After losing to the Egyptian national team and drawing with the Qatar national team, our players disappointed the fans. After that, Valery Karpin's public advice to our football players followed: leave. Well, what else could he say?

«Everything is obvious there. The national team does not play in official matches, clubs do not play in European competitions. There is nowhere and no one to compete with, to find out your real skill level. The strongest foreigners from the national championship are leaving, competition is decreasing, the level is falling. Therefore, according to Karpin, it is possible to raise this level by mass departure of players to foreign championships. From some point of view, he is right, but it doesn't work so simply and linearly. In the 90s, we had a lot of football players, including Karpin himself, who played in the leading European leagues, but the national team did not achieve anything. And I achieved it just at Euro 2008 and the 2018 World Cup, when there were only a few legionnaires, but I was simply given high-quality work by both coaches and players. Another thing is that then Russian football was part of the world, and now, although it remains a member of FIFA, in fact it is cut off from it. And the same team, playing only friendly matches, has no real motivation», — sports columnist Igor Rabiner told NI.

Today, there are only 45 Russian football players playing for foreign clubs, but there were no bright stories either. Even one of our coaches, Stanislav Cherchesov, coached the Hungarian Ferencvaresh, but after the team's systematic losses, his contract was terminated. Everyone remembers Artem Dzyuba's inglorious transfer to Adana Demirspor, with whom he soon terminated his contract. According to the club, Dzyuba «could not show his best qualities there.» Zenit player Daler Kuzyaev and Dynamo player Arsen Zakharyan have joined foreign clubs this season. The first moved to the French «Le Havre», the second — to the Spanish «Real Sociedad».

There are persistent rumors about the transfer of several more of our RPL «stars» to foreign clubs. The goalkeeper of Krasnodar, 24-year-old Matvey Safonov, is being wooed to European clubs. They ask for up to 20 million euros for it.

Another likely candidate is 23—year-old defender Igor Diveev from CSKA. Rumors about the interest in Diveev from Europe have been going around for a long time, they talked about «Napoli», then about «Venice». But this interest subsided somehow by itself.

And finally, the main project of the RPL is 18—year-old Sergey Pinyaev from Lokomotiv. In his years, he not only managed to make his debut for the national team, but even scored a goal. A couple of years ago, he already had one foot in Manchester United, they didn't sign a contract with him just because of his young age. «MU» clearly expected to get this player, even brought him to the youth training camp several times, but most likely they expected to do it for free, now it will be impossible to do it: Pinyaev already has a contract with Lokomotiv, and first of all it is necessary to negotiate with the club.

But these are rather isolated stories, in general, there is no great interest in our players abroad now. And if it is, it is fraught with difficulties of transition.

«There are two problems with the transition of our players to the RPL: the first is that they, by and large, are not needed by anyone in well—known clubs, the second is too complicated calculations for them when selling. There's a whole hassle with getting money, so it was, for example, with Alex Kral from „Spartacus“ and Nikola Vlasic from CSKA. In most cases, our players move to other clubs with a lower status, and salaries at home are often higher. But there is a plus in acquiring our players: they can be bought cheaper. On the other hand, for the same money you can buy players from the former Yugoslavia, Africa, EU countries, but with less difficulty. Our bright and impressive transitions to famous clubs were few. Unless Arshavin's transition after the 2008 World Cup to „Arsenal“. Our athletes play hockey brightly and for a long time, football players have few such vivid stories — except that Arshavin in „Arsenal“ for 1 season, » said Anton Orekh, the host of the sports telegram channel, to NI.

In addition, it is worth adding: in Europe, the transfer window has closed. No one is going anywhere now. And the attitude towards our athletes abroad leaves much to be desired. So, the star of Czech hockey, goalkeeper Dominik Hasek, after the start of his career, began to publicly speak out against the participation of Russians in international tournaments. He also criticized the NHL for cooperating with athletes from the Russian Federation, calling on the leaders of the hockey league to resign. In response to this, the forward and captain of the Washington Capitals, Alexander Ovechkin, reacted as follows: «I am familiar with Hasek. I know Dominic as a good goalkeeper. I even scored against him once. NHL clubs choose hockey players by skills and abilities, not by nationality, » Izvestia quotes Ovechkin as saying.

The carte blanche that the coach of the Russian national football team gave to his wards is quite in line with the Kremlin's latest statements related to sports. For example, the president commented on the possibility of the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games in France this summer: «Of course, we must first of all be guided by the interests of athletes in this situation. Each of them, who has been preparing for the most important starts for years, some decades, must make certain decisions for themselves.»

Between the lines of all these loud statements, there is an understanding that our sport, deprived of international competitions, has smoothly reached a dead end. But no one wants to take responsibility for this at the state level.