“Not Spartak, right?” The top scorer of the Zenit double launched the Dynamo Academy in St. Petersburg

Big interview with Pavel Ignatovich.

In 2009, Zenit won the Youth Championship for the only time. Sergey Petrov and Alexei Ionov sparkled in the championship line-up, but Pavel Ignatovich was the main star – the winger scored 18 goals in 28 games and became the top scorer of the season.

Pavel did not fixate in the main team and went traveling: he caught Alexander Kokorin at Dynamo and tried Cyprus before him, CSKA legendaryly flew in with Mordovia 4:6, and in Nizhny he showed eggs to Dmitry Cheryshev (don’t be scared, it’s about a gesture Simeone and Ronaldo).

Last year, Ignatovich opened the Moscow Dynamo Academy in St. Petersburg, gathered 50 children in six months and is preparing to conquer his native city.

Below is a big interview with Ignatovich, the top scorer in the history of the Zenit double.

Ignatovich drowns for the limit and does not understand the passportization of Malcolm and Claudinho

– One of your brightest phrases in the SBG SHOW : “The current Zenit is bastard.” Explain.

– I want young players to be given a chance in the first team more often. We were left without European cups, we need to pay special attention to the development of our players. I’m sure there are a lot of cool kids in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to show themselves. Plus, there are too many Brazilians in Zenith.

– How many should there be?

– I’m for the limit. We need to toughen it up and revive football on our own. In this situation, 3-4 legionnaires are enough. The main thing is that they do not come stupidly for money and passports, but show their class.

– Without a limit, Russian players will compete with foreigners and grow.

– In non-top teams of the RPL, legionnaires don’t tense up anyway, knowing that they will definitely play. Some clubs are forced to install them in order to explain to the management why they were bought.

– Malcolm and Claudinho received Russian citizenship. What do you think?

– I do not understand why. If they want to strengthen the national team, it is better at the expense of their own players.

– Only you, Sergey Petrov and Alexei Ionov, have had a bright career from the champion line-up of the Zenit double. Where have the rest gone?

– When we won the understudy tournament, the thought came: I am one of the best in the country, I should be taken to Zenit or other RPL clubs. Not everyone made it through. Many stayed in the doubles for another year and in the end did not go anywhere else.

– What did they give for the championship?

– A medal and bonuses – about 50 thousand rubles, about 1,500 dollars.

– For Zenit, you – the best scorer of the Youth Championship – 15 minutes for 2 substitutions in the Europa League qualification. Why so few?

– And this is due to the fact that the club was headed by the double coach Anatoly Davydov. After him came Luciano Spalletti. I didn’t understand why he did this to me. I showed myself well at the first training camp in Dubai, they were going to take me to the second one. When they returned, they said at the airport: “You are not flying.”

Zenit fought for the championship, but was not such a leader as it is now. In those conditions it was difficult to trust the young. We were actively involved in training, but there was almost no chance to play for the first team.

Who from the base surprised you?

– In human terms – Zyryanov and Shirokov. They always communicated well with the young, supported. There was no peeper.

Are you sure you’re talking about Shirokov?

– He shoved, of course, but not as often as Garik [Igor Denisov] and Kerzh. Garik often shoved in the case, and Kerzh – indiscriminately.

– And who drove everyone?

– Tekke constantly rinsed everyone, just disfigured. Many did not like it, all sorts of game happened. In training, it came to fights, because 1 in 1 it was impossible for Tekke to pick up the ball. Once he was hit hard by Radimov. Not even because he drove everyone, but because he did not show the same thing in games.

Palych is an adherent of advanced statistics, Cherchesov is a general, Gordeev is soft, Talalaev is a kind of motivator

“Training was at 9:00. At 8:45 the veteran gave you bream and you ran to him for a beer.” The history of their Khimki-2010?

– From the Bryansk Dynamo. The veteran drank beer and calmly went to training. The story is not about me, but then the young people were driven decently. Now they can’t say a word.

– Because of the greed of the agents, you pawned a cross in order to go to see Amkar.

– It is rather not greed, but a lack of faith in a football player.

I was without a team for six months. Rustem Khuzin invited Amkar to Austria for training camp. I didn’t have money for a ticket, neither did the club. I pawned a gold chain, left a cross and took a one-way ticket. I didn’t think how I would return if they didn’t take it.

– Peak career team – Dynamo Moscow. Why was he only there for six months?

– Once there, I lowered my requirements – football immediately punished me.

– Moscow blew the roof and moved away from football?

– It’s like that. I was alone in a foreign city, allowed too much, was not fully concentrated on training. This does not mean that I rested from morning to evening, but on weekends after the games I went to haunts. Sometimes he allowed himself this during the week.

– You left Dynamo after the arrival of Stanislav Cherchesov. How do you remember him?

– A wayward general. He quickly created a team around him to achieve the result. At the first training camp we arrived folding, and at the second one we already looked like football players. Then he said to my eyes: “You will play a little, but it all depends on you.”

– Was there no chance to compete with Kuranyi, Voronin and Kokorin?

“Especially with Kuranyi. He lived according to the testament of Karpin: he knew how to play and have a good rest.

– You spent 3 years in Mordovia and caught Yuri Semin.

– Palych loved InStat very much. He brought a huge folder to meetings and went through everyone in a not very gentle manner. If you didn’t run the norm of kilometers per game or, most importantly, didn’t make the required number of jerks, you flew a lot for it.