Arshavin in childhood did not want to be an astronaut

On the Saturday, the leading sports publication of Europe , La Gazzetta Dello Sport has published an extensive interview with the leader of the St. Petersburg Zenit and the Russian national team Andrei Arshavin.

We can say that this is a historical event for our football, since so far not a single player of the Russian Premier League has been honored with such an honor, - pays attention to Sportbox.ru . We give some excerpts from this interview, which was taken from Arshavin by the Italian journalist Jacopo Nandiorio.

"As a child, all the guys wanted to become astronauts, but I didn’t want to. I liked the work of taxi drivers."

"When, at the age of 7, he began to play at school" Change ", football in the USSR was not considered a profession, but was just a game. I could not even think that football would once become my work."

"One of my first foreign trips was to Italy. We then held two tournaments. One of them won, and at the same time I was recognized as the best player. At home I still keep that trophy - this is my first cup, and even the biggest."

"There is a lot of money in Russia today, and therefore clubs can buy good football players. But even the most eminent world-class footballers do not go to Russia yet. And, probably, they will not come soon. And I can only explain the success of the Russian national team at Euro-2008 by the emergence of the Dutchman Hus Hiddinka. It is he who is our main star."

"My idols were Stoichkov and Romario as a child. Later - Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. All these players represented Barcelona - the club for which I was sick."

"In Italy, I liked Milan at the time when Liberian George Vea spoke for him. It was a big football player."

“I have a great desire to go abroad. At the same time, I would prefer Spain or England. Barcelona is still the most welcome option. In England, I used to liked Manchester United, but now Chelsea is more impressed.