“Ivan, sorry! Great megalopolis, big traffic james and blah blah blah, ”bursting into the building of the Bakov base, I try to explain it to the new inhabitant why I arrived at the meeting half an hour later than planned. “Don’t push, man, he still doesn’t understand,” my venerable gentleman interrupts my English apology, standing next to Pelizzoli in a businesslike way. “These Italians, apparently, don’t teach a foreign language at school at all, so Ivo can only speak their native language.” The gentleman's name is Gennady Logofet. The player of Spartak and the USSR national team, known in the past, for some inexplicable reason, began to learn Italian, while still a player, and by the end of his career brought it to perfection. As soon as Lokomotiv signed a contract with an Italian rookie, club president Yuri Semin offered Logofet a job, which inexpressibly pleased a bored retired veteran.
The Italian giant (197 cm plus boots) all this time stands at the transparent walls of the hall and with a thoughtful look inspects the training field covered with snow. “Frost is the only thing that I was afraid of when setting off for Russia, as if he were waking up. - I knew that in Lokomotiv I would have a great environment and great prospects. But still, a wife and two little daughters are an occasion to think when you go to such a cold country. ” However, in Lokomotiv there are at least two warming potions for Pelizzoli that will not allow him and his family to freeze in the Russian capital.
The first, as usual, is salary. According to PROport, the four-year contract of the Italian every year will make him richer by $ 1 million. The second is the opportunity to change the situation when a career has entered a peak. Last year and a half, Pelizzoli spent in Regina, pretty much taking a sip of her outsider bodyagi. In the 05/06 season, he missed 41 goals in 20 matches and became the absolutely worst goalkeeper of Serie A among those who spent at least 19 matches at the goal. Regina barely escaped, finishing the championship in 15th place. “What can I do, the team was like this, with the main task - not to fly out,” Pelizolli recalls, rolling his eyes to the sky. - Although I am philosophical about major defeats. In most cases, they are very mobilizing and prompt to serious analysis. My opinion: it’s better to lose 0: 4 once than twice 0: 2. ” This season, Pelizzoli slightly patched up his goal, but the statistics still remained depressing: 28 goals conceded in 21 matches. The proposal to change the country, salary and ambitions of the club turned out to be very helpful.
Roman conquest
Pelizzoli's football talent began to dissolve in northern Italy, in Bergamo, in the late 80s. Having studied the first year of school as a defender, he decided to stand in the goal: “I did not really want to run around the field so much.” From childhood, the guy raved about “Atalanta” and in the days of Serie A matches he sat in the stadium in the early morning to watch the game from behind the goal. However, he managed to spend only one season in his native club. And then for starters, at the age of 19, he was sent to the C2 series - to gain wisdom in Triestine: “This is the standard system for Italy: one who graduates from youth schools goes to C1 or C2. I chose this club for two reasons: a funky stadium and good chances to win in the division. True, I did not succeed in taking this chance - we did not win the championship. ”
Pelizzoli met the new millennium in the ranks of Atalanta. In the 2000/01 season, the very one when the club from Bergamo walked very vigorously in the leading peloton and only a little gave way to the sixth, European cup place, Pelizzoli shouted about himself all over the country. The most sensitive to these screams was Roma. The Romans, who won the first Scudetto for the first time in that year, paid Atalante € 14 million (the club from Bergamo had never sold anyone for the money before) and lured the promising goalkeeper to themselves. The first two years went into a run-in, but in the third Pelizzoli fully worked out the money paid for him.
In the 03/04 season, he spent 31 games in which he missed only 14 times. Moreover, for 774 minutes no one bothered his gates at all - this is the longest dry series in the history of Roma and the fourth in the history of series A. “The super season, to be sure, with the same calm face as at the beginning of the conversation , recalls Pelizzoli. - True, with those players who lined up in front of me, it was impossible to play differently. The only problem then was Milan. He played even better than us and inflicted two defeats on us. If in full-time matches we played two draws, it would have been ours.
In “Roma” I had many friends - De Rossi, Dakur, Samuel, Cassano ... They say that Cassano is a guy with oddities. So it is, in principle, it is, but it is still unjustifiably strict towards it. When you are alone with him - it’s just bravissimo! He can talk with you, help with advice or deed. And when there are a lot of people around him, he behaves as if a little bewildered. But his talent is still phenomenal. I was very surprised that he did not succeed in Real Madrid.
- Fabio Cappelo, bathing with Cassano at Real Madrid now, is the head coach of your career?
- Yes, he had the greatest influence on me. He taught me everything, both on the field and beyond. Even how to communicate with fans and journalists, I learned from him. The main lesson he gave me was not to be lazy, Ivo, and fight to the end. Fighting to the end is his trademark. He constantly told us that with the score 0: 1, we should play and compare the score. It helped: we very often saved matches in the last minutes.
The tale of Ivan the Daredevil did not last long. After the silver season, Capello left for Juventus, and Roma set a record for the number of coaching resignations for the season. Epic Prandelli (self-rejection due to a serious illness of his wife) - Feller (failed start) - Del Neri (unsuccessful performance and miss the Champions League) - Bruno Conti fit into the framework of one championship. “When I saw this, I realized that I needed to leave,” Pelizzoli comments. “Therefore, I was very pleased with the proposal from Regina.”
“Relatives abroad”
A year and a half later, in the Moscow region strewn with snow, Pelitstsoli willingly poses for the photographer in a clean, glassy locomotive pool. Running away to the next frame, he leaves me gloves - two huge pieces of leather, comparable in size to a frying pan. “Excellent physical data is the main thing that this goalkeeper has,” says Ruslan Nigmatullin, who once played for Lokomotiv and a couple of Italian clubs. - Most goalkeepers wear 10th size gloves. Pelizzoli has the 11th or even the 12th, but certainly more than usual. A big hand is very cool, it helps to fix the ball more correctly. ”
For huge hands, palms and other parts of the body, Pelizolli was called la Piovra - Octopus. “Not only,” says Gennady Logofet busily. “They call him Spider.” “The tradition of nicknames is one of my main impressions of Roma,” says Pelizolli. - It is accepted there that the announcer voices the composition in a rather intricate way. He says: number 1, Ivan, Octopus ... and the whole stadium yells: "Pelitstsoli." When it came to Totti, a nightmare began. Firstly, the announcer was very sympathetic to him and tormented the audience to the last. Secondly, whoever doesn’t call Francesco, so the audience could not scream his name until all the nicknames were listed *. What to do - Roma players are very popular. ”
- You found your life partner in Rome against the background of this same popularity?
“No, she's from Bergamo.” Sylvia is the younger sister of my best friend, with whom we played in Atalanta. We met, met, and four years ago we decided to get married.
The question “Do you have relatives abroad?” Has recently been very relevant in Lokomotiv. Especially if this relative is the wife of the footballer. After the wife of Harry O'Connor howled with anguish in an excessively large and cold Moscow, the Scottish striker was barely persuaded to remain in the team.
- The wife of O'Connor did not allow him to play normally the whole of last year and almost made him leave Lokomotiv. Who makes decisions in your family?
“Me, and only me.” Sylvia’s job is to educate our daughters and prepare food. Fortunately, she does it well. I especially love lasagna.
I tell Pelizzoli about Igor Shalimov. Having finished the player’s career and headed the Elistin Uralan, the former Inter midfielder discharged from Italy to Kalmykia not only two players, but also a cook. It was the duty of the latter to feed the players with pasta almost every day. Pelitstsoli approvingly raises his thumb: “Pasta is really very useful for football players - there are so many carbohydrates! When we have training during the day and not in the morning, we even eat flour products for breakfast. In Italy, pasta is called gasoline for football players. ”
Bedtime story
What gas Pelizzoli refuel on the eve of his first match for Lokomotiv, he probably will not remember. But in the fans' memory, the moment was perfectly preserved when, in a game against the Belgrade OFK, the Italian debutant misses a ball flying directly into it. “What happened there?” I ask Pelizzoli as the conversation draws to a close.
- I don’t understand. There the ball flew into my hands, but a meter from me as if dived in the opposite direction. Apparently, he was blown away ...
- Well, I didn’t manage to move to the new club, but you’re already making excuses.
- I know that this seems like an excuse, but in fact it is a fact. If the ball is slightly deflated, then this gives an advantage to someone who hits from afar. I’ll tell you how cunning in Italy was Sinisa Mikhailovich. Usually in a game there are 11 goals - three referees take out on the field themselves, the remaining eight are kept by the boys. So Mikhailovich, before the home games of “Lazio”, specially shook a finger on the nipple and lowered those balls that did not fall into the hands of the referees. Then at the very beginning of the game he beat the stands with such force that a well-inflated ball, if it returned to the field, then soon. The game included the lowered balls, and then for the Serb a real expanse began ...
Yuri DUD , PROsport
| ? 5 (72) March 12 - March 25, 2007 |
 Fly up, falcons, eagles!
Guide to the championship of Russia-2007 from PROsport. Seafood
Why goalkeeper Ivan Pelitstsoli changed “Roma” to “Locomotive”. Message paths
PROport drew a fan map of Russia and wrote a detailed guide for a real fan. KEU
Dmitry Navosha went to visit the Spanish “Seville” and its striker Alexander Kerzhakov. Zhigulevsky original
The head coach of the Togliatti “Lada” Anatoly Emelin and other promising coaches. Cover
Photo: ITAR-TASS; REUTERS; Epsilon; SPORT-EXPRESS |