In the hallway of Antonio Gedera’s apartment on the floor lies a set of studded winter tires for Audi - the same silver one that is parked twenty seven floors below extremely close to the entrance door. In such a way that the path from door to door is as short as possible. Autumn in Moscow is becoming more and more cold, and very soon the time will come for studded winter tires. While the mulatto Rosanna, the nanny of the children of Gedera, puts them to bed in the nursery and herself gets laid on the bed for the baby Gedera II, the blonde Marcela, the wife of Gedera, lights the closet and, in thought, goes over the children's shoes - the tiny sneakers of Maria and Gederamlad the younger - pair by pair choosing shoes for tomorrow morning walk. Nearby is a roomy travel suitcase. It will be useful to them at about the same time that Audi will need to change into spikes: in mid-November it will become very cold and Zheder Sr. will be left alone, and Marcela, Maria, Zheder Jr. and Rosanna will fly to Brazil. In the homeland of the baby, Zheder will have another, already the third, facial operation. He was born with a cleft lip, and to eliminate this defect, a child under 12 years of age, when the final cosmetic surgery is to take place, will be under the supervision of plastic surgeons from São Paulo. An hour ago, two Gedera played football. The youngest confidently beat with the left, and the older one portrayed the goalkeeper and shone with pride - fatherly and professional. The younger Zheder also has to go to Brazil because the real players out there grow up from those who kick the ball from morning to night on the street. The eldest seems to want a football future for his son, but at the same time he understands that for a start it would be good to get an education. Because he really didn’t finish his studies at school.
Antonio pulls back the curtain on the window, which, due to its size, is more correctly considered a glass wall, and indifferently turns away from the landscape: the expanse of water violet from sunset at the confluence of the Moscow and Khimki rivers with the canal named after him. Moscow; an empty airfield and Tushin's blocks on a toy scale.
Family is the main thing in the life of the football player Gedera. He says that he can spend all day with children without leaving the apartment. In the niche above the dining table of Gederov there are several photographs in the framework: Geder, Sr. with Marcela, Geder, Jr. with Maria, and in the background are the colorful pants of Ronald McDonald's doll. The upcoming parting with loved ones out of habit evokes sadness on Antonio, but this time everything is a little different. An important circumstance has appeared that will partly brighten up the new separation. For the first time in his life, Zheder became so interested in the Champions League that in his living room the handbook contains a statistical guide published by the UEFA for the tournament of the 2006/07 season.
“When I played for Saturn, I did not have access to a wide television audience,” says Geder. “My relatives in Brazil did not see me either.” Now everything is different: in Brazil they show the Champions League, and after the games everyone calls me - friends, mom and brother. And let our first match against Bayern failed. But we must understand where criticism is justified, and where criticism is for the sake of criticism. This is football. This is Bayern. In the words of my loved ones after that game there was only support and advice not to lower our heads.
German visa for the last month needed Geder twice. In the summer, at the insistence of Spartak, Antonio had already flown to Munich for a medical examination, after which another pause came in the negotiations of the Moscow Region and Moscow clubs. Zheder even started to get nervous.
“People already began to call me - acquaintances from Russia and Brazil — and congratulate me on joining Spartak,” Antonio continues. - Somehow, the news about this event reached home. But nothing was clear to me myself, and I did not even know what to answer to people. I think that in such a situation, any person will experience excitement, because there was almost no time left, the transfer period was ending. I have known about Spartak’s desire to invite me for several months. Muscovites showed interest, and serious. But constantly there were some problems between the clubs, they could not agree in any way, and all this reflected on me. Knowing that European cups were waiting for me, that millions of people would see me on TV, I was a little worried. Although I am a serious and responsible person and, if something had turned out differently, I would have played for the club with which I have a contract.
The Moscow region’s history of Gedera, without which it is impossible to imagine the “Saturn” of recent years, began in Ramenskoye with a myth. For some reason, it is believed that he got into the central defenders - defense support columns - by accident, allegedly only because the main center Milan Leshniak was injured. “And where else could I play?” Geder marveled. “I was always central. Sometimes I acted on the left. Yes, and Milan then broke in the first game, so you can only guess now what role the coach saw me from the beginning.”
Zheder knows that there is a problem of racism in Russia, and this makes him even more proud that he was elected captain in the Russian team. He says that after three full seasons of permanent play as a basis in Ramenskoye he was awarded this honorary right to take his team to the field, not because he is a prominent guy on his own: "Not for beautiful eyes, as you say." Although he hints that for this too. But the main thing is that he earned the captain's armband together with the love of the fans and the respect of absolutely all the coaches with whom he worked. Vitaly Shevchenko spoke heart to heart with him in broken Spanish. Boris Ignatiev, leaving in the fall of 2004, admitted that Gedera, along with the current Dynamo Jean and Czech Kinsky, would gladly take with him a new team. Oleg Romantsev, who left Saturn in the winter of that year, was not going to invite Gedera anywhere. Although, if I had worked with the team a little longer, I would surely have found out that Antonio was also a passionate fisherman, and then, perhaps, the Brazilian would engage the somehow to serve the evening dawn.
- According to Romantsev, it was clear that this person was looking forward, that he was a coach with ideas and, perhaps, he was the best in the country in football thinking, but I didn’t have time to recognize him: he appeared at our place at the end of the season, then we went to the training camp , and in the winter he already left. - On Gedera, obviously, the main bearer of Spartak football style of the latest era still managed to impress. - A short pass? Ah, yes, it was like that, I recall: when I happened to give the attackers a long pass, Romantsev jerked me all the time: pass to your neighbor!
- From conversations with people, according to my own observations, by how serious “Spartak” torsis is, I realized that I was going to a team with history and traditions. Every game and training as part of Spartak is important to me, don’t think that only the Champions League. Because I want to quickly get used to the team and clearly understand what the coach expects of me. I think now I have already become an integral part of Spartak, - Zheder expresses boldly. He feels the right to say so. The Brazilian is a classic example of "point" selection, he was bought not to enhance competition, but to play in the starting lineup. Vladimir Fedotov after the third match of Gedera for “Spartacus” against “Lokomotiv” admitted that he took a great risk, sharply introducing the newcomer to the base, but at the same time was amazed at the dynamics of his adaptation. By and large, its costs boiled down to three consecutive passes back to Wojciech Kowalewski in Munich. Only these signs of ultimate simplification of the game betrayed excitement in Geder. But two weeks after that match, Antonio has a completely different motivation for his behavior in the first half of the match with Bayern:
“It doesn’t matter with whom we play - with Bayern or some Russian club, and pressure from the opponent has nothing to do with it,” says Geder. - Just if I decide that I can use the help of the goalkeeper, I will give him the ball. He, in the end, is not only to hit the balls on the field! The goalkeeper is a player like us.
Quite a Brazilian approach to building the game. Zheder came to the team as a mature football player and, so far, obviously, has difficulty imagining the features of Spartak's football style. True, in the last three and a half years there simply was no place to get to know him in Russia, but now the ideology of combination football “according to Beskov” is the banner of the new coaching staff.
A Spartak fan who has already managed to get sympathy for Zheder (he is already called black Vidic and Antosha because of the Spartaci’s craving for Russification of the beloved foreigners; therefore Robson was called Maximka, and Quincy is called Vasyatka), however, it can hurt Antonio’s cool attitude to the usual elements of the Spartak game decor. He, who understands almost everything in Russian, imagine, still does not imagine the meaning of the terms “wall” and “running in”. That is, he understands the “give-open” principle in the general football sense of it, but in the applied, Spartak sense - not yet.
Or one more thing: the alarming proverb “The main thing is not the game, but the result on the scoreboard” came from his lips when our conversation touched on the state of things in today's Saturn by Vladimir Weiss. Sensitive to the encroachment on ideology, red-white fans will not understand this. Even if it’s a joke and exclusively about Saturn. But the asset of the red and white stands is unlikely to forget how in the legendary fight with CSKA in August 2004, Zheder waved his fists with enthusiasm: his own!
Many spoke up about the Russian passport for Zhedera in his Moscow Region, right up to Governor Gromov. In Saturn, the naturalization of the Brazilian could solve the problem of enumerating the legionnaires, and only secondarily, on the initiative of sports reporters, Gedera and his friend Jean were encouraged to think about the Russian team. Brazilians eagerly supported conversations on this subject. But their living conditions have changed.
Already quite late in the evening, at the end of the second hour of our conversation, Gedera was distracted by the television. On the sports channel news release. First, the story about the training of CSKA, on the field fiddling with the ball Dudu, Carvalho and Wagner, and Jo - he completely scored in a two-way game. Following is a large, full plasma panel plan of the face of Guus Hiddink. The head coach of the Russian national team slowly puts on glasses and reads out a list of invited to the team for matches with Israel and Estonia. On the face of Gedera - a background expression of melancholy. And he does not add sound, out of respect for our interrupted conversation.
About Antonio national teams argues without a lift. But it is precisely now that three teams from CSKA are regularly invited to the team, for example, Brazil. And now, as Geder said, Jorginho, the former manager of Antonio during his years of playing for Vasco da Gama, and still his good friend, is working at the headquarters of this team. Yes, and Jeder's favorite TV, in which he now, thanks to the Champions League, has appeared. That is, it is precisely now that the indirect, but quite intriguing conditions for the rapprochement of Gedera and "Celesao" come together.
- Yes, I am 28 years old! How long will I wait for an invitation from there ?! - Antonio is becoming quite emotional. - I need to think about my family, about the future of children. And the Russian team ... Let's not rush things. Now all my thoughts are only about playing for Spartak, about the Champions League. Everything related to national teams is beyond my control. They will call, they will not call ... This naturalization ... All the steps that I decide to take should be of benefit to my family. I must provide it. And if I receive an invitation from the Russian team and I understand that, having accepted it, I can change my career for the better, improve the financial conditions of my work, I will accept it. I decided for myself this way: for another 5-6 years I will be ready to break away, move, endure all the inconveniences that are associated with this. While I am a young, strong and handsome guy - I will play, up to 34 years old. And then I will stay where it will be good for me and my family.
ROMAN TRUSHECHKIN