EURO 2020. The Welcome2020.ru portal continues to tell about the main stars in the history of the Russian national team. After the defensive player Sergei Ignashevich, we will talk about the midfielder. And this is Valery Karpin.
Even after finishing his football career, he remained a nuclear speaker and a large-scale figure, and even more in scope. Passages about "Twente", Falcao, Rospotrebnadzor and "vdul so vdul" are already in the history books of Russian football. Zaruba with Denisov, D&G buckle and T-shirts with James Dean - too.
It gives off a separate romanticism because Karpin has earned the right to be bright. He is not an extra who wants to assert himself at the expense of UGG, in which he came for an interview. He just lives like that. I realized myself on the field. And he was often the best there, each time traveling not on talent, but on mad plowing and character. From this, his story only benefits and twists into a very Hollywood scenario. The guy who turned out to be not to the court in CSKA, but came to “Spartak” “clumsy”, finished badly before the invitation of “Barcelona” Van Gal - well, isn't it cool?
About "clumsy" - not fiction. This is how Oleg Romantsev recalled Karpin's first time in the team: “When he came to Spartak, at first he was rather clumsy. Better. The next match is even better. Then everyone began to say: well, it is clear that the player is from God!"
Yuri Shalamov, the first coach of Valery at a children's school in Estonian Narva, spoke about the student in the same tone. According to him, he saw players in the squad and stronger - his pupil was not super talented.
Over time, those who are more gifted, stronger, more powerful, finished with football, and the thin and fair-haired one went only forward and worked in groups with the elders. “He constantly had an incentive to move forward and outstrip not only his peers, but also those who are several years older,” Shalamov said about this quality. “As far as I remember, he was a year or two younger than his partners at all training camps and competitions. but at the same time he played in the main team and on a par with others."
In Estonia, the legendary Valery Ovchinnikov also worked with Karpin. Later, the footballer recalled his loads with horror and compared them with "Auschwitz at Bormann" (Bormann is Ovchinnikov's nickname). He gave the following characterization in response: "I first encountered Karpul when he was 17. I remember there is such a puny Narva boy standing on long legs from molars."
The coach explained that although he became the one after whom Karpin was taken to Moscow in CSKA, it is wrong to say what exactly he made of the namesake of the top player. He made himself, notes Ovchinnikov: Valery simply did not need to be disturbed.
At Ovchinnikov's, Karpin played for the Tallinn “Sport” in the second union league. 18-year-old yesterday's schoolboy went out against mature men who mowed down rivals, just to win and get bonuses. At first, the midfielder - then still left - was released because of the limit: at least one young man had to be present in the lineup. Then the limit was canceled, but it would have become a crime to remove Karpin. He joined the team so much that he quickly took a liking to the CSKA scouts from Moscow.
“His parents worked at the plant and they did not insist on playing sports, they didn’t push their son anywhere. He himself somehow had a core, stubbornness and a desire to put himself in and show himself,” the first coach Shalamov explained this phenomenon.
He said: to play at the heart of “Sport”, it was required not only to be a quality footballer, but to survive, endure pain, not give in. It seems that this has been in Karpin since birth, but in the second league it has crystallized most clearly.
Irresistibility, when everything turns against you, especially helped Karpin in the Russian national team. He got into it in 1992, when it was still called the CIS. Then he took part in the first official match under the tricolor and scored the team's first goal - from a penalty kick to Mexico. He played at the 1994 World Cup and EURO 1996, but Karpin was especially successful in the tournaments that brought fans liters of tears: the selection for EURO 2000 and the final tournament of the 2002 World Cup.
In the first case, the footballer returned to the team after a one and a half year break - according to him, at first Ignatiev stopped taking him to the national team on the orders of Koloskov, and then he himself refused. He returned when Byshovets was appointed, but then six defeats in a row followed and the situation that Karpin loves so much - one chance in a thousand. Oleg Romantsev was appointed to catch him, who put the "clumsy" on the right flank - and away we go.
When they talk about those six victories in a row, which ended with a penalty named after Filimonov-Shevchenko in “Luzhniki”, Panov is remembered first of all. He is undoubtedly the top: he scored a double at Stade de France. But without Karpin, that match would not have made sense. And the double would have depreciated immediately with the final whistle. Because Karpin is Armenia's two away goals, which was the first step after zero points in three rounds; this is the victorious France in that very match - and it is still unknown who Spleen was hinting at when performing “did not score against the French”; this is the only ball in Iceland, when the game was only with him; this is an open account with Ukraine 12 minutes before Shevchenko.
Karpin is the leader of the national team that almost performed a miracle. "He has exceptional physical capabilities. But I would especially highlight his dedication, and not only during matches, but also in training," - explained the coach of Real Sociedad Jose Marie Amarroto the fact that Karpin turned on at full power in situations when others were already running on the rims.
Russia also competed on the rims at the 2002 World Cup. In the first two rounds (despite the 2: 0 victory over Tunisia), the game did not go well for the whole team. The only bright spot of that team is Karpin. He was not embarrassed by the time difference, humid climate, 33-year-old age and new young partners - Izmailov, Pimenov, Sychev - instead of the fighters tested by European cups. After that tournament, Valery was the only one to play enough on the offer from the top club - the same “Barca” Van Gaal.
Read the full material about Valery Karpin on the welcome2020.ru portal.