One for all

Dmitry Sychev, the most vivid striker of the country in the 21st century, is 40 years old on October 26

I thought for a long time about how to call a congratulatory text about the striker, who did not become a legend for any of the clubs where he performed and advancing. Clubs, of course, football. Well, it happens. There is nothing strange and terrible in this. Sometimes extraordinary sports guys generally complete their careers, so it really without starting. And the boy from Omsk worked out. Let it not be as victorious as it could be. Nevertheless, the fans of all Russian teams will be remembered. And it is worth a lot.

... I look at the photos of Dmitry Sychev of different years. Here he is, in the Spartak T -shirt, not in size, at the Eduard Streltsov stadium, the ball taps the ball with one touch. Here in the match with Rostov in Luzhniki, the 19th Red-White Number in the center of the penalty area, and after a few seconds, the program will be closed from the flank. Here he is, in an absurd jeans suit, sits with dad in anticipation of an important solution. But the 18-year-old striker, having scored the “Zenith” a decisive ball, tears off a T-shirt from himself, under which another flaunts-with the inscription “Who are we? Meat". Many wanted Dima to turn into a "meat" forever. Even those who hates Spartaches with all their hearts. It’s just that with the set of qualities that the unique teenager possessed, he, as they say, was spelled out “Spartak”.

For health and happiness. As a matter of fact, this was smashed by Vyacheslav the Terrible, who delivered the player of the Tambov Spartak (by the way, there, in the peripheral team, Sychev crossed for a short time with Yuri Zhirkov) to view Oleg Romantsev in December 2001.

I noticed him at the Commonwealth Cup. I came to write about Dynamo Kiev, and I had to talk in detail about the schoolboy who passed the difficult exam “excellent”. Dima popped up five times for a replacement, and five times his surname flaunted on the scoreboard after the end of the battles with teams from the former USSR. For a nimble Omsk boy, the Moscow Grand, without bargaining, paid the Tambov fellow funny at the present time 3 thousand dollars ...

He fell in love with fans at the speed of Yura Shatunov. Still. Cute, talented, ambitious. But the main thing is that football was truly for him.

At the sight of the ball, his eyes sparkled, with his boyish energy he infected and charged the stands. And by goal, he, if anyone forgot, charged great from the right and left. Ernst Hoffmann once said: “In life, you need to do only what is easy, but do it with all your might.” And Dima, who perfectly fit into Yegor Titov’s “gang”, clearly followed the golden commandment of the German classic: 19 fights - 10 effective injections. Cool? Not the same word. “That's it in the province of the villain ...” - fans of other teams from the pioneer sighed with a smile.

... No less piercing and summer frames of 2002 from Japan and Korea. Here is a little Joker in a duel with Tunisia receives a program from the current coach of the national team Valery Karpin and, bursting into African possessions, earns a penalty. Here is the youngest player in the history of the USSR and Russia, included in the application for world championship, crying after defeat from the Belgians, whom he managed to upset. By the way, Dmitry, whom experts recognized in every match as the best football player of our team, was the most young author of the goal in that mundial. For reference: at the age of seventeen, only Pele scored on planetary forums, and at eighteen, in addition to Sychev, only Rosas, Kovach and Owen ... In general, sincere and radiant in every sense Dima and pogroms on the arena - that’s what we have made from that championship.

However, just a couple of months after the tournament, Spartak lost the ascending star as quickly as he caught in his networks. Firstly,

Football of that time with “bugs” agents, specific boys and various henchmen-ties were muddy to disgrace, and Spartak himself reminded what sin to hide, the gray office.

The conflict history with the contract of Dmitry (“Sychev’s case”) was covered in August-September 2002 The G-20 summit. My colleague Ruslan Dubov brought many participants in those events to clean water. But the result for Sychev himself, who really received four thousand rubles a month under the initial contract and refused to put a new autograph on the contract, was disappointing: he was disqualified for four months, after which he went (and is unlikely of his own free will) to Olympic.

In the photographs of Dima, Dima is different: more fashionable and more closed. There he was lost. In football plan. For some reason, I recall the plot from one program, where he is in his apartment in the port city cooks pasta and sadly broadcasts about his life. “Cook” in the French fields and, in particular, at the “cycling industry”, it turned out on a three with a plus. True, it was precisely his exact blow that the Olympic took to the group stage of the Champions League. But the injury, an unusual environment and a powerful competitor in the person of Didier Drogb interfered with military exploits. Seven goals in 44 matches. With his red and white statistics and cannot be compared.

From the republican exile of Sychev in January 2004, Lokomotiv pulled out, which did not regret about four million euros. Spartak also claimed a prodigal son, but Yuri Semin was more persistent. And did not lose.

The mature Dmitry, although he turned into a blond, did not lose his skills of Killer. He opened imperceptibly and closed in one or two touches as before for a sight for sore eyes.

... Here he, in a red-green T-shirt, takes the ball (most likely from Loskov) and after a moment upset the goalkeeper of the “wings of the Soviets”. And here he, already with a Iroquois on his head, from the heart celebrates the capture of the Kuban gate.

There were fifteen such pleasant moments that season. A frisky forward also distinguished himself in a golden match in Yaroslavl. Lokomotiv became a champion, 21-year-old Sychev became the best football player in Russia, and in the stands of the Cherkizov Arena, the number of girls doubled. They wrote to Dimushik, who overshadowed both Maratics (Izmailov), and Diniyarchik (Bilyaletdinov) in their ranking. By the way, according to the VTsIOM survey, in 2005 and 2006, Sychev was the most popular football player in the country. ... Spartakov’s fans sobbed and sent to the “Judas” of the curse. By the way, the red-white holder of the Cup and Super Cup of the country upset on the field regularly.

In 2007, his assassin of the Andorrts, coupled with the victory of the Croats on the “Wemblers” allowed Russia to get to the euro, where in the semifinals with the Spaniards he struck the only blow on the goal of Iker Kasillas. However, the career of Sychev himself has since been declining, and his passion for the game, in fact, faded away in 2011, and the goalkeepers, seeing him in the starting lineup, were no longer strained. What is the reason? In injuries? In personal life? In coaches who could not find an approach to the striker? In crazy money, falling from the "railway" sky and gradually killed motivation? Or maybe he was banally tired of English fun? Doesn't it happen? Although Dmitry tried to carry out his own rebooting in the Dynamo Minsk, the Nizhny Novgorod Volga, the Kazakhstan Okstesz and Kazanka (Lokomotiv farm club), and also tried his hand in beach football. But, figuratively expressing himself, he was not given to his hair from the “swamp”, like Baron Munchausen.

On August 31, 2019, Sychev signed a one -year contract with the Armenian Pyanik. But in December, without having a single fight, the agreement terminated the agreement. And a few days later he officially announced the end of his career, in which 491 matches and 141 balls were discovered.

Could be more. Both. But it happened as it turned out. Quickly, honestly, beautiful, cool and fun. And inimitable. We remember.

Happy birthday!