The former striker of “Dynamo” Viktor Leonenko shared his thoughts on whether it is normal to come up with nicknames for football players, recalling the story of Andriy Yarmolenko with a young fan.
“If Yarmolenko has the nickname ‘Yarmola,’ then what difference does it make who calls you that — teammates or fans? It is ridiculous to be offended by a child for ‘Yarmola’ — that’s a circus. Then let everyone tell him to call him Andriy Mykolayovych.
I had many nicknames — both ‘Leon’ and ‘Artist,’ and ‘football premier,’ Khats used to call me ‘Master.’ I treated everyone normally and was not offended. Lobanovskyi used to call me ‘Viktor Yevhenovych,’ joking like that. After that, the whole team started calling me by my patronymic. I also like to come up with nicknames, and no one is offended. I used to call Yovichevich ‘Aramis’ because of his little beard and mustache. That’s normal.
The incident with Yarmolenko reminded me of a story that Aliyev told me. Once he was at a match with his son, and after the game they met Rebrov. Aliyev’s son called him ‘uncle Seryozha,’ to which Rebrov replied: ‘What uncle Seryozha? I am Sergey Stanislavovich.’ Then the child says: ‘Stanislavovich.’ Rebrov again: ‘Not Stanislavovich, but Sergey Stanislavovich.’ This touched Aliyev a bit,” Leonenko said.