In an interview with us, the head coach of "Urartu" FC talked about protection from coronavirus, trainings under quarantine conditions, the enthusiasm of players and much more.

  

WE WERE IN A SITUATION IN WHICH HUMANITY HAS NEVER BEEN

  

- How do you feel? What is the situation in the city where you are now?

 - In Russia, as in many other countries, everything is tough now. When I came here from Yerevan, literally in 4-5 days everything changed. A state of emergency was timely introduced in Armenia, because it is clear that now you can’t think about anything except being isolated. Players, coaches, and, in general, people find themselves in a situation in which they have never been. Therefore, it is very important to maintain a good positive attitude. In particular, this concerns players, because their activity is connected with workloads, training, communication, competitions, and now everything is canceled. Therefore, it is very important for us to maintain this positive attitude, doing everything possible to keep our shape.

 - The guys are training according to the program provided by the coaching staff. We have already published several videos on the Internet where they work with great enthusiasm. Is it possible to say that after quarantine they will return in good shape?

 - Indeed, the version of the work that we proposed, of course, excited great enthusiasm among the players. The team has leaders who, in the current situation, show not just enthusiasm, but also infect everyone else with their mood. Players train, and then send us a video of their work. Without exception, everyone is working so seriously that I, as a trainer, thought a lot about the preparatory period, about the training process, because, despite the way they work now, even the word work is not suitable, because they show a lot of creativity and a lot of them added something new to this exercises. And they relate to this with humor and high dedication. Of course, with such an attitude they keep themselves in good shape, and this allows us to maintain such an atmosphere in the team. These days, a huge amount of work is done by my assistant Arsen Petrosyan, who sends me videos with players' trainings. If it takes me 2-3 hours to watch this videos, I imagine that it takes him all day to make out all these videos. I think that if our team continues in this spirit, then when the training process resumes, they will be able to be proud of themselves for how they behaved in such a situation.

- Semyon Sinyavsky found a creative option and showed with his example how player’s life goes in quarantine.

 - The video of Sinyavsky was really original. In fact, there is a lot of creativity from team leaders. The way Baregamyan, Osipov, Paderin works now is very impressive. Recently, the daughter of Evgeni Kobzar was born, everybody understands the conditions in which he is, and what kind of enthusiasm he shows, it is not easy. In fact, I can list the whole team, but the fact is that the players I have just listed are constantly adding theirs to the tasks that we give. They are very creative about everything. This, of course, is incredibly interesting, that they motivate me, too, because I see that they do everything that we require of them unconditionally.

  

DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE DISEASE, THINK ABOUT POSITIVE

 

- At the moment, 3 options for resuming the championship are being discussed: the beginning of May, the beginning of June and the end of June. In your opinion, how will everything be organized, and how do you see the future of football?

 - I believe that the third option is the most optimal, the most distant, I think that we are closer to it. And with regards to future football, I’ll say that this quarantine will definitely have certain consequences, because for the first time, humanity has faced such a situation. Everything must be perceived in terms of progress. Even this coronavirus, which has brought so many misfortunes to people and so on, cannot be unilateral; it must also carry something positive within itself. And all this can bring benefit to football. Due to this coronavirus pause, in my opinion, approximately a lot of teams around the world will simply cease to exist, but such a situation will increase competition. Perhaps a new generation of players will emerge, with a new mentality. This applies to all sports. I think the whole world will begin to change after all this, not just the football sphere.

 - Do you have any words to football fans?

 - I know that if you are afraid of something, for example, the same coronavirus, this is not the best condition in which a person can live. I wish our fans more positive, the most important thing is that the family and friends don't get sick. But even more important is not to think about the disease, think about positive.