My first and only meeting with Gena Zubov in an informal, so to speak, environment happened in the second half of the 90s, on one of the days when the national and youth teams of Ukraine played their qualifying matches in Kyiv with a difference of a few hours.
The younger ones played first, at the "Dynamo" stadium, the older ones - already in the evening at the "Olimpiyskyi". Journalists usually barely had enough time to relocate from Hrushevsky to Velika Vasylkivska so that they had time to settle in the press box and study the protocol.
During one of these transfers, he was in an underground passage near the central sports arena and found himself almost side by side with Zubov. He played his match as part of the U21 team. But he also hurried to the "Sport" hotel, where the "youth" players lived during the meeting. Evidently, watching the match of the national team promised to be quite fiery for Gena, because through the crowd of passers-by - as if through the defensive lines of the opponents - Zubov deftly made his way with several bottles of champagne.
I don't remember if the youth national team had a reason to relax so much on the wave of tournament success. But that's not the point. Image is nothing, thirst is everything. Over time, this formula of observing a sports regime will not allow Zubov to fully reveal his football potential. He never became the Ukrainian Maradona, no wonder they are almost the same height as the famous Argentine.
Although for the age of a native of Alchevsk (then still Komunarsk), titles and awards were enough. From the very first - bronze in the U16 youth team at the 1994 European Championship in Ireland - to the victory in the Ukrainian Cup 2003/04.
They claim that Zubov was considered an idol among Shakhtar Donetsk fans, with whom he won the Cup four times, adding the 2002 championship to those triumphs. Scored enough, left his mark in the first team.
But for some reason, personally, I remember him more not for the goal against Germany in the first playoff match of the 2002 World Cup qualification, but for the episode in the cup final of the following year. Enraged by the unfair, in his opinion, decision of the assistant referee, the midfielder tried to... kick him right on the curb. It already looked not at all as funny as the clip of alcoholic "Faus cartridges" that the kid Zubov was triumphantly pulling then in the dungeon, like a dwarf had mined gold. Rumor has it that he could be banned from football for two years for hitting a linesman in the face with his head. But somehow they were "smeared off".
Shakhtar's diminutive star eventually found no place in Mircea Lucescu's Brazilian paradigms. He went through Mariupol "Illichivets", Alchevsk "Stal", Luhansk "Zorya" and "Komunalnik" to his boots. Nowhere did the "corporate open guy" stay for long. And after the end of his career, the invitation to the Shakhtar academy became a real bonus for him - for the years and emotions in the miners' team, for the skill. For the technique, a specialist in the teaching of which he was listed in the lists of children's trainers of Donetsk residents. Already, by the way, when the "orange and black" settled in Kyiv, having evacuated from Donbas after the start of the war in 2014.
Probably, Gena regretted the apartment of 150 square meters in the new building in the center of Donetsk. Felt sorry for "small business". But the main thing should remain the fact that Zubov, according to him, "took place as a football player and a person." All the more so for a person who was preoccupied with spiritual spheres, under a rare iconostasis in his home or at Sunday services in the temple...
Six months after the beginning of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, a few days before his 45th birthday, Zubov, as our media reported, moved to St. Petersburg, where he will now work as a coach of the local club "Zvezda". In the "cultural capital" of the aggressor country, he will have someone to turn to for advice: after all, Tolik Tymoshchuk will enlighten Gena both regarding professional activities and, say, where in St. Petersburg the best wholesale prices for "Soviet sparkling wine" are available. "And the star spoke to the star..."
However, several questions cannot but arise from the reason for Zubov's employment.
The first thing is how a conscript citizen born in 1977 left the border. After all, he does not fall under the effect of the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which allows athletes and coaches to travel to international competitions. Therefore, falls under the article.
Secondly, I would like to inquire about the reaction of the disciplinary bodies of the national football association. Sanctions were applied to the traitor Tymoshchuk, up to the point of being removed from the historical lists of the country's main team, where that mankurt appeared as the record holder for the number of matches played. Will we wait for a similar verdict on Zubov? Will our defenders of football morals show consistency and principledness to the newly minted coach of "Zvezda", who flaunts the international diploma issued to him by the FFU at one time?
But Shakhtar should, in my opinion, somehow appreciate the act of its former employee. In many news stories, the information about his escape is placed next to the indignation of the leaders of the Donetsk club that FIFA sold the rights to broadcast the World Cup to the Russians.
“We are angry. The aggressor country must be isolated, the miners said in a statement. — We are not only against the participation of Russian clubs in European competitions, but also call for the exclusion of Russia from all international competitions, including those under the auspices of UEFA and FIFA. The world sports community must finally unite on this issue and exclude Russia from all organizations and block its cooperation with sponsors... Russia must become a state-in-exile while Ukrainians die at the hands of its soldiers, and in Europe it has unleashed a terrible war ".
Previously, "Shakhtar" convincingly expressed its attitude to Putin's invasion with a charity tour of Europe and active participation in social programs. The blue-yellow club emblem on the bus and the set of game uniforms in the colors of military camouflage are worthy of respect - a clear reminder to Europe of the Armed Forces defending the eastern border of the civilized world. And the "feint" of the next "breadwinner" is a dirty stain, first of all, on the image of the team, where the traitor worked with the change for a long time.
Was his titanic work underappreciated there? Were they oppressed in some other way, were they not given a chance to show their extraordinary coaching talent? Was Gena's cotton-wool brain just pumped full of champagne bubbles?
Zubov, by the way, like Timoshchuk, is a record holder: the youngest debutant of official competitions in the history of Shakhtar. He is followed by Oleksandr Voskoboynyk in this register. The last news about the former forward was a report in May: forcibly mobilized to the front in the terrorist "DNR", near Mariupol he was seriously wounded in both legs...
Such a bitter irony of fate. Such a path is through the thorns to the "stars" and... back.
Yurii Korzachenko
