Shakhtar as it is

15-01-15 20:29:30

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Artem Frankov and Ruslan Marmazov communicated about an unprecedented tour of Shakhtar directly, i.e. through the interocean cable. We hope that at least someone will not like this! We both will be very happy.

- What about the training camp latecomers? Have all showed up? What kind of mood prevails in the team?
- Latecomers are only two of our outstanding player, as Mister said - Pele and Maradona. Well, I mean, Douglas Costa and Bernard. Nothing can be done, they are troubled children. Talented but tough. They, supposedly, know perfectly well that they are outstanding, and hence some sloppiness. Kind of they will get away with it anyway. And if they don’t – still no big deal.

By the way, I am not going to attribute this point to the purely Brazilian character traits. It’s not for me to tell you that among the various, including Nordic peoples, there are lots and lots of gifted football goofs. This situation is simly kind of out of the usual ... Since we arrived for the training camp at your home, to the middle of nowhere, across the equator, and you have found nothing better to do than be late? I’m speechless.

However, on the other hand, the reason is, of course, very respectful. A friend's wedding! For instance, if you had had a wedding party, I would not have gone for a training camp in Brazil at all. It’s so nice that you did it a little bit earlier.

The other guys arrived on schedule, just like the imperial trains, all spiritually elevated, cheerful, a bit mysterious ... The latter is due to the fact that the location is still very bizarre for the team stay. Even iconic in football terms. But an exceptionally positive one.

I have repeatedly expressed doubts that the Brazilian people might die from a heart attack or stroke. From an overdose of pleasure could be very likely. On the spot I got convinced that there are certain grounds for my suspicions. There is sufficient poverty, and crime level is such that they put bars on the windows almost up to the 10th floor, and other woes are very likely to exist ... But! The atmosphere is extremely nice, due to which you just start smiling spontaneously. People have the sun, ocean, beach, football, sex, samba, fruit, and nothing else is particularly needed. The locals praise the Lord for it, and he pampers them in return.

- Are there any injured players in the team? The personnel news – who returned, who left, who was acquired, who was sold?
- There have ben no serious injuries so far. And I am only interested in the staff news in recent years only when it’s wrapped in the official package. I mean that before the signatures are put under the contracts, I perceive all talk, rumours and gossip just like Buddha. Down from the hill, in a calm and detached manner. I understand that there is no better topic for discussing during the winter break, but I leave it for the outer, non-club football journalism.

In any case, I can assure you that Shakhtar is all right. Staffed, that is there is particularly no need to buy more players. And if someone expects that we are about to start falling apart (there are some people out there thinking like that!) and that the players will run away, please reassure them. If this ever happens, we will be the last in domestic football to do so.

- Have you found any World Cup traces?
- They left numerous marks. In the kiosks they have enough unsold merchandise with the World Cup logo ... And maybe they will still paint it on every cup and bowl for many more years? Brazilians will do it as in terms of making small items for tourists they are very enterprising. Just imagine – they made magnets featuring Germany 7-1 Brazil! Just to keep the visitors interested in it. In the hotels visited during the World Cup by any football officials, they have put appropriate signs. At the Zico Football Centre, where Shakhtar trained in Rio, they say that their fields were involved in the FIFA World Cup ... Because the referees exercised there.

The main trace is Maracana. I looked at it not without heart palpitations, I will not lie. I would give away my favourite teddy bear, but for every boy of the 1970s it’s the unreal dream, a fantastic fusion of football talent and passion, Pele, Garrincha and Igor Fesunenko with his Bowl. I strongly suspect that not much has been left today from that Old Testament Maracana, except the name. Plus sacredness of the place, of course. Do not think I am intending to brag, but I would say that in terms of comfort and pitch quality, Maracana is nowhere next to the Donbass Arena. The former is inferior, honestly. But its football sacredness, the sense of involvement in the great history of the game – in this sense, no stadium in the world, most likely, will not be able to match it. I do not impose my opinion, I just insist on it.

By the way, in Maracana’s hall, they immortalized to the point of reigning only three outstanding football characters: the above-mentioned Pele and Garrincha, plus Zico. I happened to meet him – I can assure you that he is a nice, absolutely non-stellar individual. He is open to dialogue and the fans’ love more than many of our local academy players, who, together with a certificate seem to be handed the crown. The bigger and more authentic the star, the less showing off, just make sure you include it in the minutes.

- As far as I remember it’s been your first time in Brazil. Where are you now (and, accordingly, the team), what is your impression of everything - the people, the landscaping, and so on? How good are the local women - at least at a glance? Well, you should know it, you know how to find everything tasty and original ...
- Yes, it’s my first time in Brazil. Moreover, I have criss-crossed  Europe and the Middle East pretty much, but somehow just for the first time I happened to be in the West and in the southern hemisphere. The moment of our communication found me in Rio de Janeiro. It is the first point of Shakhtar's stay in Brazil. There are no games scheduled here – purely a trainng camp. The impressions are bright. Here, in general, everything is motley, hot, loud and juicy. Those who come here for the first time, start shooting everything like madmen on camera or mobile phone, for example. As for me – that’s futile work. No one most perfect pic in the world will not capture the delight from viewing Rio from Corcovado Mountain. Well, you know it – that’s where the statue of Christ stands!

People are smiling all the time, I had this impression, anyway. Even when they play volleyball on the beach, or do diving, or when they try to cheat (they do try to do so). I woud not be surprised if they smile even when they are crying! You know, I thought that the ancestors of many of those good citizens of Rio had been brought here as fish in the cans, in the slave ships for them to work hard and die at the plantations. But they survived, are mixed bloods, and got charged by the sun, and decided never to strain their muscles and better not to work at all! Many succed in doing so...

As to the women ... You see, I have seen the Brazilian ladies previously, in the format of the wives of our foreign players. And thought to myself whether they come from the same incubator? Gutta-percha ones, with outstanding talents in all directions. At the site it turned out to be a mass phenomenon. That’s right! How do they get from nature such elasticity (both in front and at rear - well, you got it) - I'll never know. Having travelled a lot across Europe, I always asked myself about how they were breeding there, because the ladies there might cause you any feelings other than desire. In Brazil, I absolutely confident about the process of breeding. I do not want to say that in this sense their situation is better than ours, it’s about the same.

- Are there spots in Brazil, which you would particularly like to visit, and in general – what is Brazil for you?
- I have already seen the two main spots that I wanted to visit. That's Maracana and the Christ on the Corcovado. Of course, it would be nice to watch a carnival, but we have come here at a different time. I only saw an empty sambadrom. It should be given proper respect due to its impressive scale. But for me, Brazil is football first of all. And in this sense I still expect some miraculous views. Since we have ahead a few matches against the teams from my childhood dreams. I mean, I didn't dream about the teams themselves, as I just did not know much about them, but I had dreams about their delicious names. And here it comes true, plus in the games against my native Shakhtar. Isn't it a sufficient reason for me to rejoice? I am not going to pretend to be modest since I'm happy that I have lived up to this moment!

And yet ... If we interpret it in stereotypes, for the vast majority of our compatriots Rio is, first of all, the unfulfilled dream of Ostap Bender. In this regard I can say that I have surpassed the great schemer. Because I have repeatedly and successfully, unlike him, crossed the Romanian border, and I have seen Rio. In all other respects he certainly is cooler than me. Especially as performed by Sergei Yurskiy. A friend of mine purposefully went to the mall to buy white pants. Can you imagine it? He did it just to say "I bought it in Rio" when asked where he got it from. Again, it's inspired by Ostap.

- What does this tour mean to you as a fan and the club staff member? What are your expectations of the results and consequences?
- A new experience, my friend, just an amazing new experience. The vision of football, which is different from our northern point of view. Extremely curious observation of the different mental approaches - both Brazilian and our local ones, but in the Brazilian environment. Time will pass, while the tour of Shakhtar to Brazil will still be central in the club's history. We are its contemporaries, and it somehow obliges us to hold our backs straighter. I understand what you are hinting at. You read all kinds of nagging that we, say, flew miles away, in hot weather, to a different time zone, while Bayern do not sleep, sharpening their damask knives ... By the way, they have been sharpening them in Qatar - which is also, I can assure you, a place with spicy nature. But even this is not the case. Shakhtar is not just a club to meet different interests, this is a great, being a purely sports and philosophical project instead, long-lasting and aimed at continuous progress. There won't be any growth without such bold challenges.

Not to mention the crazy attention to the Donetsk team in Brazil. Can you feel it? In Brazil! In the most football (well, one of the most football) countries in the world. Until recently, they would have reacted to the word Shakhtar with envy: "Where is it?" Now they are just rushing to have a pic taken with the players, to shoot a piece for TV, to prepare a newspaper article. Globo makes a front page of Shakhtar's training on the beach - that speaks volumes. Not only of the power of marketing decisions, you know, as the sense is somewhat broader in this case.

- Did Mircea Lucescu express concern about the non-standard preparation for the second part of the season?
- Mister, as always at the training camp, is focused and thoughtful now. That is clear: only imagine what kind of puzzles he solves inside his wise grey head and what new devious puzzles he comes up with. But I somehow did not notice any anxiety. However, Lucescu never does anything  just for nothing. If suddenly all – both I and you, fans and friends and enemies - notice his being concerned over anything, it would mean only one thing: it should be so.

- Has anything changed in the daily routine in comparison with the usual trips to Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland?                                    - At 8:00 local time we wake up. It's not even worth imagening how much time is it at this moment in Donetsk or Kyiv. At 8:30 we have breakfast and start working, so to speak. Most often, at 9:30 am the team heads for the beach. To run, jump, play volleyball, tennisball, to bask in the sun, to temper the character, to communicate with the local public and swim ... They go to the ocean at the very end, when back in the old-time radio shows Morning Exercises the piano subsided and a cheerful voice of the host called up: "And now we are passing to water treatment activities!" At 13:00 we have lunch. Mango is the miracle of the tropics, that's something unmatched (this is my lyrical digression, while earlier no one could make me eat this sweet stuff) (and I remember Mr. Robinson, who took wasps' nest for a mango ... - AF). Then some rest to the subsided roar of the air conditioner. At 17:15 we leave for the evening training to the fields named after Zico.

Incidentally, we saw a crocodile there. And failed to find any of the 'numerouis wild-wild monkeys' so far. But they exist there. In any case, I saw a sign urging people not to feed them.

Upon returning, we have dinner and go to bed. Again, it is not necessary to figure out how much time it is at home, it is somehow more unsettling than the very fact of living in a different time zone. Is this schedule any different from what happens at Shakhtar in Spain or Switzerland? In principle - no. They just start exercising a little bit earlier. This is because of the heat. At daytime, the mercury stem rises to +40, one cannot run a lot at that temperature.

- Do you have any jokes about the Brazilians, who are about to run away? Do the guys work part time as free guides?
- Well, I haven't heard any jokes like that. Actually, the atmosphere in the team is regular, it does not differ from a training camp anywhere else. Well, exotic surroundings - that's something. Human relations do not change because of a different window view, which is normal. The Brazilians, of course, in the case of some minimal difficulties arising, come to the rescue. They return their debts, so to speak. At home, we always help them when they experience any inconsistencies. Perhaps, Teixeira can be a perfect tour guide, as he is the local. And in everyday affairs - they have been of help to the newcomers.

We have a chief administrator Damir Zinnatullin, he loves garlic so much. I suspect that that's a professional trait. He often has to communicate with some tough guys, so he uses it for problem prevention purposes. Meanwhile, we have not been able to get a clove of it from the personnel. For some reason, it was hard for them to imagine that this healthy product can be eaten just fresh and raw. They brought us both roasted and stewed garlic, and the guy - all wrong. It was happening until Ilsinho intervened and explained the essence of the issue. That's when they heaped us with fresh garlic. As everything is simple and sincere in our team. As they say, just as it is.

FС Shakhtar Press Office based on Futbol magazine