Pavlovskaya reform

In the last round of the Russian football championship, Pavel Pogrebnyak could feel like a wooden stick if he wanted: in St. Petersburg they played Zenit and Tom, as if passing the baton to each other. All formal signatures on the forward contract from Tomsk with the country's most ambitious team were delivered only the next day, but there was no secret from this deal a long time ago. And the St. Petersburg fans, who unfurled a huge poster in the stands, did not accelerate the choice of Pavel Pogrebnyak in favor of Zenit, but approved it. On the right side of the banner, symbolizing the difficult past of the striker, there was a famous citizen who ran out topless somehow heavy on the field of the Tomsk stadium. And on the left, Venus de Milo was built. Welcome, Pasha, to the city of true beauty!

A day later, Pogrebnyak was already in his native Moscow. At the interview - the first in the official framework of the Zenit player - he comes with a lady. Blonde beauty Masha is wrapped in a black coat. After several years of civil relations, in the fall they entered into a legal marriage, and now Masha sits next to her husband, neatly folding her hands on her stomach and embodying Flaubert's thesis that a pregnant woman is a vessel filled with grace. “Still, I had a good year, the most successful so far,” Pogrebnyak dives into his memories with his slightly hoarse voice. “Of course, I have more envious people, but I also have friends: in Tomsk I made good friendly contact with many. On the field I became more confident in myself - I, for example, dispose of the ball much bolder. Anyway, I changed my relationship with the ball. Now I am more affectionate towards him, stroking like a girl. Apparently, the fact that I got more goals is his response, thankful. ”
Pogrebnyak had such good relations with the ball this season 16–13 in the championship, 1 in the Cup and 2 in matches for the national team. The result is not that stupefying, but today is quite sufficient to become famous throughout the country.

Pogrebnyak is one of the best examples of how, thanks to his breadth of football, a simple Moscow guy from a working-class family managed to break out into people, in St. Petersburg, closer to Venus of Milos. “My father is just a driver at the factory, my mother is a nurse,” says Pogrebnyak. - I still have twin brothers - they are 14 years old, they are now in thought, with which to connect their future lives - with music or football. And so we all five of us lived in a communal apartment on Mira Avenue - one room of 13 square meters, no more, no less. "In the sixth grade, I moved out of there because I started living in a Spartak boarding school: my father was a fan of Spartak since childhood and assigned me to this school."

Getting a football education in Sokolniki, Pogrebnyak, like a small sponge, was easily saturated with Spartak ideals and could not even imagine what his relationship with his native club would turn into in 10 years. The first disappointment in Spartak came to Pogrebnyak in 2003 - then he, a 19-year-old, did not want to let him into the main squad and was sent to gain strength in the western region - to Kaliningrad. “As I remember now, my father saw me off at the airport, and I cried - for me it was the first real separation from my parents,” says Pogrebnyak. - I really did not want to go to Baltika, I hoped to find another option, closer to Moscow, to my parents. All friends advised me to leave, and I was categorically against it. While the issue of rent was being decided, he didn’t go on his own and did not even want to talk with the Spartak leadership. As a result, he left, and life showed that he did everything right: the 15 goals that I scored in the first league came in handy later. ”

Returning to Spartak, one of the top scorers in the first division ended up in the new team, where Nevio Scala was already coaching. The famous Italian, who had to build the game on two types of football players entrusted to him - third-rate legionnaires and pale-green Russian youth, was inflamed with a fatherly love for the white-headed striker. By mid-spring, Pogrebnyak was not just a player of the main squad, but the only sane footballer of Spartak, who was then called Zoa Park for a failed personnel policy. “I was and remain delighted with this player! - Nevio Scala screams passionately into my phone. - He is physically strong, but at the same time possesses quite good equipment. But the main thing is that Paul is a very good person. Unfortunately, we could not communicate much with him because of problems with languages, and indeed he is rather silent, but in his eyes I saw how much he wants to work. He understood everything that I wanted to tell him. I saw that football brings him real joy. ”

“I liked working with him,” Pogrebnyak gives a bow back to Italy. - The joy for any football player is to play football. Just play and not do grueling running exercises. Scala understood this very well and almost never took the ball from us in training. True, he forbade us to eat much. At the same time, the menu had only pasta and no soups. But this seems to be the only minus that has remained in my memory from the time of the Rock.

- Judging by the dimensions, is it hard for you to sit on diets? - Well, I love to eat - it's true. Now, on vacation, let me relax, because you can slightly gain weight. And so - like a healthy diet and all that. True, I also love McDonald's very much. I do not hesitate to admit that I like the food there, and even now I would take you and Masha and go to eat there. If you are not there every day, it turns out very tasty.

Half a season with the Rock - that’s all the good that Pogrebnyak has left as a keepsake from Spartak. In the summer of 2004, he was leased to Khimki, who had not yet thought in terms of entering the Premier League, and in the winter of 2005, to Dolmatovsky Shinnik. A couple of winter weeks between these transitions, when Alexander Starkov looked at the young striker at the training camp, was the last chance to gain a foothold in Spartak. “Why didn’t I manage to stay at Starkov? Well, this is a high-class coach, he knows best, ”Pogrebnyak smiles maliciously. - Seriously, this is a two-faced person who is unpleasant to work with, and God forbid once again to get into his team. He did not dare to leave the forward team of one plan - me and Pavlyuchenko. In addition, Pervak, the then general director, let him down instructions on what, whom and how - well, what can you do if a person does not have his own opinion. By the way, Pervak ​​assured me that I would play, and Starkov said something completely different about me ... In general, the rebellion that arose after the interview with Alenichev did not surprise me. Dima told the absolute truth. ”
After parting with Starkov, Pogrebnyak completely erased the children's gasps about the national team from his memory and never again missed the opportunity to kick his former Spartak club in a regular interview. And when in mid-summer 2005 he began to score for Shinnik and even received a call to the national team, he said that under no circumstances would he return to red and white. The transfer of Pogrebnyak, which still belonged to Spartak back then, was nearly bought out by CSKA, but Yevgeny Giner was confused by the starting price of $ 4 million. “I really wanted to go to CSKA,” says Pogrebnyak. - No, Spartak wasn’t in vain, I just wanted to finally be in a club that is fighting for the championship. Yes, I studied football at Spartak, and CSKA is our worst enemy. But I'm not Titov, who could not decide on such a transition. My transfer would not have caused much outrage among the fans. ”

Pogrebnyak’s final parting with Spartak happened only last winter - unable to tolerate further criticism from the club’s player, Sergei Shavlo accepted the Tomi proposal, expressing public perplexity: “Why does Pogrebnyak not like us so much?” the question “for what” is the most common among red-white fans who are used to watching their pupils, no matter what strange places they later find themselves in. I suggest Pogrebnyak answer about the two most exotic versions. The first is terrible hazing and whiping in that Spartak. “No, it wasn’t,” Paul refutes. - To be convinced of my excellent relations with Titov and Pavlyuchenko, you just need to look into the national team: there I only communicate with them. Nobody gave me a slap in the back of Spartak. I could give it to someone, if that. But there was no need to resort to force: everyone in the team behaved well. ”
The second version is of animal origin: as if Pogrebnyak does not tolerate red-white colors poorly. “This is also nonsense - I love red and white colors, I even have a lot of such things in my wardrobe - a jacket, shirt, boots. Here who does not like red is Petrakov. I once came to the Tommy training in red boots, and he almost kicked me out for it. He said: “Red means Spartak.” And you need to forget Spartak. ” I replied: "With pleasure."

- Actually, I don’t like Spartak, but only his former leadership, who constantly led me by the nose, - Pogrebnyak finally answers the sacramental question “for what”. - When I played for Baltika, Chernyshov promised to return me to the team, but did not return me. Then in 2004 they bought the Cavenags, and they gave me to Khimki. What do I think of Cavenagi? I will not say - you yourself see everything. Before sending me to Shinnik, they offered me completely wild options - even China. In general, and so without end - I wanted to play, they didn’t let me play, often they lied, and therefore the relationship could not develop between us. ”

Having successfully spent the 2006 season, even having liked Guus Hiddink, Pogrebnyak nevertheless left glory about himself, which is now fashionable to call strange. In the second year of their stay in the Premier League, the Tomsk club fell into that category of teams, the purity of the results of which are not always believed even by their own fans. And over some goals of Pogrebnyak, scored at the finish of the season, rose a huge shadow of Oleg Protasov's all-Union record. Echidna folk rumor immediately redid the name of Pavel in Contractor, and she even got into the editorial board of Sport Express.

“It's not that this nickname really irritated me, just when I read that article by Rabiner, I wanted to give him a dime.” A week later, already in Macedonia, he came up to me and asked for an interview. I did not know how he looked, and calmly refused - I just did not want to communicate before the game. Then he asked the guys: “And who is this?” “Rabiner!” Well, I went down to the field, but he was not already there. It’s a pity - we’d talk to him harder.

“No one can understand your anger.” After all, a colleague gave you a positive characteristic: they say that Pavel scored two cool goals for Lokomotiv and proved that he wasn’t Negotiated.
- And before that? Are two goals of Samara also negotiable?
- As is commonly believed, yes.
- In my opinion, all this is empty talk, we played honestly. Although here recently Romka Pavlyuchenko gave an interview in which he said that there are match-fixing matches in Russia. I would probably agree with him.

But the new national team of Guus Hiddink became a real outlet for Pogrebnyak. The sympathy of the head coach, accustomed to playing with the ram forward ahead, courage, which allowed Pogrebnyak to score a victory goal against Latvia and Estonia, and no talk of agreements.
“I don't like being called a ram,” Pogrebnyak straightens his shoulders. - Here is my favorite forward, you know who? Henri! They don’t call him a ram, although his legs are so healthy! Yes, I don’t have such plastic as Henry, but I also know how to run away and beat. As for the current national team, in it in the first place I really like her coach, I would even say he admires me. You might think that I say so in gratitude to him - no, at that time I objectively deserved a call to the national team. I just like the way he communicates, works and makes us work. Well, and his red pants are awesome. The guys and I then discussed them for a long time, and almost half the staff wanted to buy ourselves the same.

Today, all Pogrebnyak’s international ambitions are connected with next fall, when the Russian team will go to play the qualifying match in England. As Arshavin has been rooting for Barcelona since childhood, so Pogrebnyak has long dreamed of Manchester United and Old Trafford. “I really want to go to England, for starters, not even to Manchester United, but at least to Blackburn. I think it could have worked out there, ”Pogrebnyak sighs and smiles modestly. “If this guy continues to work, he can succeed in any country in the world,” Nevio Scala does not want to end the conversation about the former ward. “Give him fiery greetings and say that I am waiting for him here in one of the Italian clubs.”

- At Zenit, you will receive more than a million euros a year and will probably fight for the championship. At Blackburn, no one will offer you that kind of money and the tasks will be much more uninteresting. What, and will you go to such a decline?
- Firstly, I will receive less at Zenit. And secondly, I agree to cut the salary at least one and a half times - for me, money is not the main thing.
- And the English language? He will have to learn.
- Until the sixth grade, I studied at an English school and I’m thinking something. But quite definitely: for the sake of English football I will learn it very quickly.
Wife Masha, who has not said a word for all this time, smiles and giggles in response to Paul’s last tirade. Her fast child will have a very punchy, purposeful dad.