“Volga” began training camp with five goalkeepers. The situation resembles the opening of a new retail facility, when everyone follows an ad to get a job. There are a lot of people willing. Almost everyone wants to defend the gates of the Nizhny Novgorod Premier League club. Unlike recruiting by ad, Nizhny Novgorod residents themselves called all their magnificent five. The five should be reduced gradually to three. One person has already dropped out.
At the first training camp, the Volzhans played 4 control matches. A decent figure for an initial team meeting. The blue and white did not suffer a single defeat. But this is so, for reference. I don’t think it is worth describing the matches, they are all similar as one, like all the preseason ones. Teams that are just entering the Premier League, as usual, have played many matches from the very beginning of the year. The reason for this is to look at new players, decide with whom to continue to cooperate, with whom not. As a rule, there are a lot of new players. So it is with the "Volga". Even the club decided to stock up on goalkeepers for more than one season.
For 4 matches, all goalkeepers played at least one half, some even two. Spent at half time: Kochenkov and Levenets. Two forty-five minutes each: Astakhov, Abaev, and Kerzhakov. Perhaps this is where the main three for the season emerge. Only Anton Kochenkov can catch on to it. Ivan Levenets departed from the location of the club.
What should have happened has happened. The situation read like an open book. Ivan Levenets initially dropped out of the rest of the four. Dropped out, firstly, because of the missed season. He could not help letting people know about himself. In addition, at the end of last year, the club's coaches decided that one of the goalkeeper's places should remain with the person who led the team to major league... Anton Kochenkov and Vitaly Astakhov belong to this category. Vitaly Astakhov was elected captain in the first division before the previous season. This election speaks volumes. Astakhov enjoys authority in the team, as we can see. And he certainly deserves to play in the top flight. He achieved this goal with the team, unlike Levenz. Kochenkov, in addition to not lost practice, has another very important advantage over Ivan Levenets - age. By goalkeeper's standards, he is not great. Anton was born in 1987. The gatekeeper has just passed 20 years old. Everything is ahead. You can work with him for the future. Ivan Levenets is already 30 years old, he needs to either play or be the second goalkeeper. There are other people in Nizhny Novgorod for both positions.
Despite all of the above, Ivan Levenets could become the main goalkeeper. For some reason, after all, he was invited to the training camp. I admit the thought that in January, at the end of December, the management and coaches already knew the fate of the goalkeeper and could not even call him, but here the human factor had already affected. Humanly, it was necessary to invite. “Volga” already in September last year began to seriously think about the Premier League. And then they began to think about strengthening. Ivan Levenets was remembered for the goalkeeper position. He was free. And free from football. But it was not a bad thing, it was not so long ago. Besides, he played for a provincial club. Let Nizhny and much "cooler" Perm as a city, but this is not Moscow. Ivan could play. So the goalkeeper became the third in the club. After Kochenkov and Astakhov. Here it is three. She would have remained that way if it had not happened with Abaev and Kerzhakov. We just got in touch with Ivan earlier than with these two guys from the Premier League, so he was at the training camp. If there had been an agreement with Ilya Abaev and Mikhail Kerzhakov earlier, then they would not have turned to Ivan. But then they decided to play it safe, and the “goalkeeper from the province” was the insurance.
The former goalkeeper of Lokomotiv and Amkar did not have a chance as such. To be left in the team, it was necessary to show an alien game. Especially considering that it happened at the training camp. All other things being equal, he was the loser. To win, a miracle had to take place. But the miracle did not happen and Ivan leaves the city on the Volga. The lost year is making itself felt.
Now the blue and white have 4 goalkeepers. One club will leave, it seems to me. All remained equal to each other. However, the experience of games at the highest level speaks for Abaev and Kerzhakov. And the contracts, as we are given to understand, were concluded with them. Omari Tetradze also notes Kerzhakov, and he knows Abaev "from the first grade." Anton Kochenkov and Vitaly Astakhov remain. So far, both remain. Who will be left in the end? Football is not "The Last Hero", but sometimes it is ruthless.
“I had money in Lokomotiv. So what?" Where is Ivan Levenets now
In an exclusive interview with Match TV that very goal from Andrey Arshavin, two hours' journey to Cherkizov and other memories of the goalkeeper, whom Perm adored and Moscow did not accept.
Arshavin
I was on vacation, Rakhimov called and offered to move to Lokomotiv. The first preseason in 2008 turned out to be crumpled, even with Bozovic in “Amkar” did not meet and did not really say goodbye. And then I spent only one training camp with Lokomotiv, only a week. He came, beat on goal, warmed up and immediately got into battle, in the Super Cup. And I have not really had time to understand yet what this Super Bowl is.
If you watched, I ran out of the gate a minute before the goal. I see that I do not have time, I had to fold my hands behind my back and poke my head into this Arshavin. It was this lack of play that let us down. The defense should at least communicate, practice, play control games in order to feel each other. I wouldn't have had such a goal in Amkar, my defenders would have insured me. Maybe Belorukov or Sirakov.
And then, after a protracted attack, everyone ate, turned around and ran forward. The ball is in my hands, I put it on the ground, because that way you can knock it out more accurately. And then I saw this Brazilian, Rodolfo, who raised his hand. But Arshavin has already taken the ball away.
Arshavin did not say anything after the match, I never spoke to him at all. At Lokomotiv they understood: everyone is wrong, there are no robots. It's just that the goalkeeper's mistakes are much worse than those of the striker, that's all. So only the journalists recalled that goal to me.
And, even at our home matches, a fan appeared, who constantly sent me. I tried to figure it out from the crowd, but I couldn't find it. He is a swearing man, that's all I can say about him. The rest of the fans did not behave like that. Maybe they were afraid to talk face to face? It's dangerous with my build.
Melons
My height and weight are not for a field player, so I started playing at the goal right away. When I had to leave to work, my parents let go easily: come on, walk. Well, I was delighted. First Krasnodar, then Volgograd - but in Rotor I was only in a boarding school, no foundation shone. And then I got injured and went to Adler, and then to Sochi.
In the "Pearl" the judges once killed us so that we could not get up. We went to Voronezh - the third league was, in my opinion, 1997 or 1998. The referee did not let us out of his own half, not only from his own penalty area. We knock out the ball - and immediately the whistle. Well at least I gave them a penalty. We won, that's why I remember. They also offered to hand over games, even in the Premier League. Who, when and for how much, I will not say - why? Everything went honestly, we won.
At the age of 18 I played for Anapa (now - Spartak-UGP, plays in the championship of the Krasnodar Territory - Match TV). More precisely, he was sitting in a deaf replacement. I came to practice as usual, no one said anything. I see - there is a bus "Chernomorets", I ask: what is it? They asked to play with us, looked through someone. Our main goalkeeper did not come to this training session, so I had to play. The very next season I was taken to Chornomorets. Think about it, lucky or not.
At Chornomorets he trained with Yashin's understudy Boris Razinsky. His favorite was, one might say: he sent two goalkeepers with field substitutes, and he took me to train separately. He was already aged, but his calves were amazed, melons like that. In Chornomorets I remembered the 2-1 victory over Dynamo. Imagine: a provincial city, Moscow comes, and we beat them - with an 18-year-old goalkeeper.
He returned from Novorossiysk to Anapa. From there, the goalkeeping coach went to Sergei Oborin in Perm, at the suggestion of this coach I was invited to a screening at Amkar. They liked everything, six months later I finished the season in Anapa, I was invited to Amkar.
Southern
When I came to see it, there was still a natural field at the Zvezda. Now the knee remembers that for three years I played for Amkar, sometimes on artificial turf, then on real ones. Artificial ones are also different: in Luzhniki it is softer, in Perm it is harder. “Amkar” still catches rivals on this, probably - they themselves are constantly training on their field.
We are now in Anapa, plus 35, and in winter, a maximum of minus five, without snow. And in Perm it is snowing for half a year. It was not very comfortable, I had to dress warmly. In winter, however, we went to training camps more. The most severe conditions in which I played were not in Perm - we played with Moscow on the Dynamo reserve field. We didn’t even visit Perm directly from the training camp. We lost, but there was minus 20 there. We were breathing, but one day I got to Novy Urengoy, minus 43 - it’s hard to breathe there. In Anapa there was a branch of a construction company from Novy Urengoy, they won the regional cup and, in my opinion, took second place in the regional championship (Levenets played for the Anapa team Urengoygazprom - Match TV). Urengoy invited us to a tournament for some anniversary - in futsal, thank God, they played in the hall. But one guy refused to get off the plane when they got there.
In terms of goalkeeper, Igor Uralev gave me a lot at Amkar - we are both southern. And in the tactical - Sergey Oborin. The goalkeeper also needs to know tactics in order not to miss. In defense, we all played well, but in football we need to score, but we failed to build it. Somehow we played brightly with Lokomotiv, the video is still on the Internet. Removal, three penalties, we were leading 3: 0, but lost 3: 4. We scored the last goal from a rebound: I already took the ball, but he hit Maxim Povorov and flew over my hands. Another interesting match with CSKA was, 1: 1. They have a pair of strikers - Wagner Love and Jo, the strongest at the time. It was as if they lived in the same room at the training camp: they understood each other not even from a half-word, but from a half-glance. They both scored for me, and then Wagner equalized in the end.
Once we played with Nalchik, at one point I got the ball out of the nine, the whole stadium chanted my name in unison. The recognition of local fans is my happiest moment at Amkar. I even got the best player prize in 2007, Internet fans voted - although Martin Kushev and I kind of shared it. You will never hear anger from Martin, as well as from Belorukov - they were excellent captains.
In the same 2006, in my opinion, I was included in the extended list of the national team - then Akinfeev was injured. Nobody from the national team spoke to me, I found out about the list, and that's it. Hiddink was looking at me, although I did not know about it. Then they lost to Moscow at the Streltsov stadium - everyone played badly there, not only me.
Vania
I personally liked Rakhimov's style of play and training, back in Amkar. Oborin's tactics 4-4-2 Rakhimov not only did not destroy, but even improved. Came - and the team relaxed psychologically, rushed.
I had no arguments with Rakhimov at all. Much depends on psychology and relationships. Who had the wrangling? I won't tell you. As Putin, I don’t get personal. If a person has his own vision of football, should he take sides, or what? Another thing is that not everything worked out for Rakhimov and not everyone understood his tasks. But each person has his own character, someone needs to hold back their ambitions, someone on the contrary.
I don't know if Belorukov could have moved with me from Amkar to Lokomotiv. If I had crossed over, we would have cemented the defense normally. True, since then Belorukov has not been in any other teams. At Dynamo now, but it is in the first league.
When I came to Lokomotiv, one of the goalkeepers was this Vanya, an Italian, Guilherme was injured, and they were still pulling up from the double. I did not intersect with Yakupovich. In the summer, Marek Cech appeared. All the goalkeepers were normal guys, at the same level, just the fans need a result to be at zero. And here people come after Sergei [Ovchinnikov], and for them Sergei, you know who. The goalkeepers had to keep the bar, and not everyone could.
Photo: © RIA Novosti / Vladimir Fedorenko
But we must take into account who can communicate with whom during the match. Vanya Pelizzoli, for example, could speak poorly, but for a goalkeeper, this is the most important function. Recently I heard an interview with Guilherme, it seems that I was already more or less in Russian, but at that moment I also spoke poorly. The Czech gave some hint. In Vladivostok, Marek was a star, as I was in Perm. And at a higher level, some troubles appeared. Everyone has their own, you see - the city put pressure on me. The city is an evil force, as they said in the movie "Brother".
I was told that I undeservedly received the first number. Yes, I didn’t take it and I didn’t want to! I wanted the 20th, but the 20th is busy. Once busy, take the one that is free. The first one was free - let's be the first, what to do now. Inflated an elephant from a fly! Then I was allowed to practice with Sergei Ovchinnikov, and we had no disagreements about the numbers, absolutely. This topic is closed. I am more than sure that Ovchinnikov never said that Levenets is not worthy of the first number.
Jungle
It was very difficult for me in Moscow. The traffic jams were incredibly annoying. I spent more on the road than on work - where does that go? If we have training in Cherkizovo, I will go 42 kilometers. Here I will drive 42 kilometers in half an hour, and there, I specially noted, two hours in one direction. Four hours out of the day, just sitting in the car, doing nothing.
The Kremlin is history, but this stone jungle is not for me, I am somehow closer to nature. Now I’m sitting with you talking, I have flowers, trees, I don’t have these tall houses. I live in my parents' house, this is already considered a suburb - and I don't want to go to Anapa, because there are a lot of cars there. We have a private house, I've made a pond, I have fish swimming there, water gurgling. It doesn't even make sense to compare this with Moscow. At every opportunity, I tore out of town to sit in the forest and listen to him. Anywhere, the main thing - behind the ring, outside the Moscow Ring Road. Once we went hunting and fishing. Somehow one trophy was not bad, eight to ten kilograms.
This is how I ended up playing in 2008. I will not say that the goal from Arshavin ruined my career. Why didn't you stay at Lokomotiv then? I didn't want to. I saw that I was still the fifth in the team, plus the main reason was the city. Well, it's not mine. You do not understand, you are urban.
District
The first time after Lokomotiv was resting. The feeling was one: I won't go back anywhere, I don't want to. Physical form I have also lost - not weight, it is still playable, but my form. I did not go to Ufa to watch, as they wrote, I was in Volga. Held one gathering, right after the new year. But five goalkeepers have already been signed there, so they did not take it. But I got to know the coach of goalkeepers, it's useful.
At Zhemchuzhina in Sochi, he helped coach Uralev more with Pyatibratov (Dmitry Pyatibratov, defender, played in Amkar with Levenets - Match TV). I played two or three matches, but I was already tormented by injuries, mostly young guys were playing. We entered the second league in 2013, solved the problem, although no one set it to us. Then they just took another.
Ivan Levenets "disappeared from the radar" at the end of 2009. After leaving Loko, it was impossible to find him. The phone did not answer, friends said that they also did not know how to find Ivan. It was only known that he moved to his homeland, to the Krasnodar Territory. Go find him there ... But then Levenets showed up on his own - at the training camp of the newcomer of the Volga Premier League ...
"PLAYED IN STANITS AND VILLAGES"
– How long have I been looking for you!- I turned to Levenets, like Katerina to Gaucher in the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears." - Where have you been for over a year?
- Yes, I was at home, in Anapa ... The Moscow number was disconnected, and few knew the local.
– Have you even played football?
- Well, it's hard to call it big football. He played in the local team ...
– What is the name of?
- Without a name ... We can say that he played for the team of the village of Anapskaya. For the championship of the Anapa region.
– That is, you spent your home matches in the village of Anapskaya, right?
- No, the guests were received in Alekseevka. This is quite side by side. Everything is close there.
– And how, how many people gathered in Alekseevka and other settlements?
– That is, you traveled through the villages and villages ...
- And what's the big deal? I've been there many times before. I know all the moves and exits.
– Did you miss it often?
- I didn't. They scored, it was the case ...
– Once we played for a year, albeit with amateurs, apparently you are in good shape ...
- I played so as not to gain weight. And games at this level cannot be called serious.
– Your weight was 95 kilograms. And now?
- Now 96–97. I got almost nothing. It didn’t come to a hundred.
– Received bonuses for performances in the village team?
- What money? - Levenets is surprised. - Played for fun!
– What place did you end up with?
- First! Medals? Come on! There was a banquet at the end of the season. That's the whole reward.
- Let's go back. Why did Loko no longer need you? Because Rashid Rakhimov left, who called you from Amkar?
- Better to ask the management. This was not explained to me. Such situations are not discussed with the players. And who to put in the goal, the coach decides. After all, all at once cannot take a place at the gate.
- Yes, coaches had a wide choice of goalkeepers then. Levenets, Pelizzoli, Guilherme, Cech and Yakupovic. Have you wondered why so much?
- By the way, Yakupovich only trained with a double. So there were four goalkeepers in training. Maybe one of them falls out due to an injury, or maybe two ...
- Many have the impression that your career at Loko did not work out right away - when you conceded a funny goal in the first match. In the game for the Super Cup against Zenit, Arshavin ran out from behind you and threw the ball into the goal. Did that goal break you?
- Of course not. No matter what they say, but I do not break psychologically during the game, and indeed I never break down. By the way, after that goal, a man appeared on the tribune of the Lokomotiv stadium who loved me very much. He sent me home at every match.
– Did you answer him something in the end?
- What for?! Maybe he came to throw out negative emotions. Let it go! On Monday, after the tour, he probably went to work in a good mood.
– Did you dream of Arshavin's goal later?
- Stop it! I just drew conclusions for myself. At some points, he began to turn back before throwing the ball in front of him. Just in case. And the people in the stands, seeing this, laughed.
– That is, it has become a reflex to look back?
- Not that a reflex ... So, with one eye, why not take a look?
"KILL AT LEAST with your ear, AT LEAST with your forehead!"
- But Sergei Ovchinnikov, in an interview with "Soviet Sport" three years ago, said that all the troubles of Levenets are because he took himself a sweater with the first number, under which Sergei himself played.
- You know, Ovchinnikov had a couple of trainings at Loko, but he didn't say anything to my eyes. And in the interview ... Well, perhaps Sergey decided to add emotions.
– You yourself have not regretted taking the unit?
- I didn't want to take the unit. My favorite number is 20. It was busy, so I took the first one.
- Did you like the way Ovchinnikov plays? Or do you have another favorite goalkeeper?
I like the way it plays van der Sar... He does not differ in that he constantly makes some mind-blowing salvation. A good goalkeeper is a reliable goalkeeper. The same can be said about the Dutchman. No saves needed. You beat off at least with your ear, even with your forehead. But the main thing is to beat it off!
– Who is the best goalkeeper in Russia?
– Ryzhikov.
– Not Akinfeev, who was recognized as the best last year in the RFU?
- I understand that they recognized Akinfeev. But this is done by people who are in Moscow, and not in the provinces ...
- Have you regretted that you left for Loko from Amkar? There you were the first guy in the village, but here it got to the point that you had to leave for the village.
- This is life. I tried it at Loko - it didn't work out. Next time I will not get up on this rake. A slightly different level in Lokomotiv. Probably, if it happened so, this level is not for me.
– By the way, how do you like the initiative of the Amkar leadership to go to the bottom?
- I hope everything will be all right in Perm and the team will remain in the Premier League. I'm worried. Good people in Perm, good-natured. The Urals is not Moscow, where the people are tougher, meaner, more gross. But first of all I would single out Amkar fans for their support.
– They are raising money with might and main to keep the club in the Premier League.
- I know.
– Are you ready to donate?
- Ready. How many is not a pity? Tricky question. I will say this: I don’t mind the money for Amkar.
OPINION OF THE MANAGER
LEVENETS MAY BECOME THE FIFTH GOALTENDER OF VOLGA
After the invitation of Mikhail Kerzhakov from “Alania” and Ilya Abaev from “Anji” there were four goalkeepers with valid contracts in the “Volga”. Levenets can become the fifth.
- Actually, the goalkeeper's position is closed with us. But there is a possibility that we will lease one goalkeeper. So Levenets has chances - everything is in his hands, - said the president of the Nizhny Novgorod club Alexey Goikhman to the correspondent of "Soviet Sport" Sergei PRYAKHIN. - The main thing is to return to the previous conditions and, as they say, to be on friendly terms with the head. If Ivan reaches the level that he showed at Amkar when he finished fourth, then we will sign a contract. If he plays like in Lokomotiv, then no.
FROM THE HISTORY OF THE ISSUE
Ivan Levenets is not the only professional player playing at the amateur level.
"Soviet Sport" has already talked about the Ukrainian striker Aleksandr Melashchenko, who previously defended the colors of Dynamo Kiev and the Ukrainian national team. Last summer, he played for the "Nove Zhittya" team at the championship of the Poltava region. You can also recall the examples of Vladimir Beschastnykh, who played for the amateur "Istra", and then played in the championship of Kazakhstan, Sergei Rebrov, who played for "Irpen" from the village of Gorenichi in the Cup of Ukraine, and Artem Bezrodny, who played for the Sumy "Autolux", and then to the Orenburg "Gazovik". True, after signing a contract with the club, he never got into the application.
PRIVATE BUSSINESS
Ivan LEVENETS
Height 189 cm, weight 97 kg.
Career: Zhemchuzhina (double, 1997), Anapa (1998), Chornomorets (1999-2001), Spartak (Anapa, 2001-2003), Amkar (2004-2007), Lokomotiv (2008-2009), the team of the village of Anapskaya (2010).
