The recent departure from the camp of the Russian national team by one of its leaders partially eclipsed even the confident victory of our players over the Estonians. Too many mysteries left this step by the ex-captain of the main team of Russia. Yegor Titov clarified his present and future by answering questions from Izvestia correspondent Mikhail Shpenkov.
- When you made the decision to refuse to participate in the preparation for the match in Tallinn, didn’t you think that you were putting your career in the national team at stake?
- No, I did not risk at all. Because he has already made a conscious decision for himself regarding his future in the national team. It remains only to meet again with Guus Hiddink, since our conversation last week was relatively superficial.
- Then there was even talk that he was just a telephone. It's true?
- Of course not. Some absurd rumors, but many journalists saw me that day at the Marriott Hotel, where the national team players were located. Yes, it would never have occurred to me to inform the head coach of the national team about my absence just by telephone.
- Hiddink said the day after your meeting that he was going to follow your game further. And you, then, at a new meeting with him, are you still preparing to announce your final retirement from the team?
- I do not want to disclose the details of our conversation. At least for now. But I can say that my decision is final, and it has nothing to do with football. Just at some point I realized that my family is more important to me than work.
- But personal circumstances, after all, may change over time ( In July, the birth of the second child is expected in the Titov family. - Izvestia). But football still certainly remains for you the main thing in life.
- The fact of the matter is that all events in our life are interconnected. And without the present, there is no future. I have discussed this topic with close people a lot. And when he announced that he was not going to a training camp before the match with Estonia, his wife and daughter received the news with a bang. They were so glad that I could spend more time at home ... And I realized that I did everything right.
- Under Hiddink, you remained the only player in the national team who was already 30 years old. Before that, one after another, Dmitry Loskov, Alexey Smertin, Dmitry Sennikov, Vadim Evseev stopped calling her. Is this an objective process, or is the coaching staff simply getting rid of veterans?
“Well, Hiddink is not an enemy to himself.” And I’m sure that he will never artificially rejuvenate the team. How can this be imagined: the coach sits and automatically removes from the list of candidates for the national team players who are 30 years old ?! Absurd. So in the case of each of us, there is probably an individual reason why he was out of the team.
- What do you think is waiting for her in the near future?
- In my opinion, everything can work out for Hiddink - an interesting team is being selected. But she, in my opinion, lacks a few experienced players who would be at least under 30. Even if they did not go out in the starting lineup, their experience could still be useful. And so, for most base players - a maximum of 25.
“Are generations changing too fast?”
- Here, not everything depends on the coaches. We actually lost two or three years. The team now has almost no players born in the late 70s - only Igor Semshov, Sergey Ignashevich, but now Kostya Zyryanov. They and their peers studied the basics of football in the early 90s, when many children's coaches in our country were not up to the sport.
- The championship of Russia will resume next Saturday - you will have to leave your home again quite often.
“My family and I regard this as inevitable.” It's about my main job, because I have a long-term contract with the club. And I myself am not tired of football at all. I have been associated with Spartak for more than 20 years, and club colors are very expensive for me.
- However, the recent failure of the club in the UEFA Cup matches with “Celta” greatly affected your fans. Is it really such a difficult problem for the silver medalist of the Russian championship to defeat the current outsider of the Spanish examples?
- Well, if a year ago, “Celta” made it to the UEFA Cup, was in the top eight in the Spanish championship, then, probably, still this is not such a weak team. Although the fans, naturally, had the right to expect another game from us. And let them not doubt - we have drawn conclusions for ourselves.
- After that memorable action of the fans who remained silent in the stands for the first 30 minutes of the match with Dynamo?
- No, even after the defeat in Spain. And at Dynamo, our fans simply reminded how influential they are. It can have a positive or negative energy depending on the situation. But in any case, I am proud of Spartak fans.
Titov in the Russian team
Egor Titov (born May 29, 1976) played 41 matches in the national team (21 wins, 9 draws, 11 losses). In them he scored 7 goals.
The first match. OVER *. 10/10/1998. Russia - France - 2: 3.
Last match. TM 02/07/2007. Holland - Russia - 4: 1.
* OCE - qualifying tournament of the European Championship, TM - friendly match.