ALL ABOUT YOUTH

RUSSIA
Dual expectations
Not only is Leonid Slutsky head coach at CSKA Moscow, he is also in charge of
leading Russia through the final phase of EURO 2016 qualifying. However, performing
both roles is no problem for the successful strategist, writes Ivan Tarasenko.
As Russia continues to prepare to host
the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, its
national team is starting life under a
new coach: current CSKA Moscow
boss Leonid Slutsky. For the first time
since 2006, the Russian Football Union
(RFU) has entrusted the job to a Russian
national, following the appointments of
Dutchmen Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat,
and the Italian Fabio Capello. What made the
selection even more unusual is that Slutsky
has agreed to take charge of the national
team until the end of the UEFA EURO 2016
qualifiers while still fulfilling his coaching
duties at CSKA Moscow, where he has been
in charge for six years, winning the Russian
Premier League twice and the Russian Cup
twice.
“I know that having a part-time coach is
unusual in modern football, but it’s not the
first time this has happened in Russian or
world football,” he said.
“When I spoke to the RFU, we talked
about a short period of time, four to six
EURO 2016 qualifiers. It’s an exceptional
measure. Russia’s got into difficulties in its
group, so when the offer was put to me, I said
yes. For any coach in my position, I think it
would have been entirely natural to answer
the call and help the national team, even if
it’s only for a few matches.”
Multi-tasking not an issue
As a result, Slutsky’s autumn schedule now
looks particularly daunting. It includes the
domestic title race, which CSKA are currently
leading, the UEFA Champions League
group phase, in which they lost to Wolfsburg
and still have to face Manchester United and
PSV Eindhoven, and key EURO 2016 qualifiers.
Yet this packed programme holds no fear
for the 44-year-old.
“I don’t see a problem here,” he said. “In
modern football, what a coach needs to think
about above all is the next game. I’ve already
been operating that way for a number of
years and it’s nothing new for me. I know virtually
all the players in the national team –
they’re all playing in the Russian Premier
League. The only exception is Denis Cheryshev
at Real Madrid, but we’ve spoken on a
few occasions.”
However, critics argue that coaches performing
dual roles can develop a conflict of
interest. A club coach who also works with
the national team could, for instance, lack
objectivity when it comes to players he
knows well.
“I think any coach in
my position would
have answered the
call to help the
national team.”
Leonid Sluzki
Slutsky is not too concerned in that regard:
“My main objective is to get good results.
If we can do that then it doesn’t matter
what people accuse me of. If we don’t get
results then me favouring certain players is
only one of many things I could be criticised
for. So I’m really not worried about it.”
A year in hospital
If Slutsky sounds confident, it is not without
good reason. Domestically, he has been one
of the most successful coaches in recent
years, helping CSKA to hold their own
against a star-studded Zenit St Petersburg
side. In 2009, he was the first coach to lead a
Russian club into the quarter-finals of the
UEFA Champions League, and before that he
enjoyed more local success with Krylya
Sovetov from Samara and FC Moscow. But as
far as the strategist is concerned, his finest
achievement to date was his work with the
Olimpia youth team in Volgograd at the very
outset of his career.
“At Olimpia I was working with boys who
were born around 1982, and 17 of them ended
up playing professionally. That’s just an unbelievably
high percentage, pretty much impossible.
I’m proud of that,” he remarked.
Slutsky himself, unlike the overwhelming
majority of Russian coaches, has virtually no
experience of playing professional football.
His bourgeoning career ended when he was
19, after he was injured falling out of a tree
while trying to rescue a neighbour’s cat.
“The woman next door came round and
asked me to help retrieve her cat from a tree,”
the Volgograd native explained. “I climbed
up the tree but then I fell. The result was an
open compound fracture of my left kneecap.
It’s the sort of injury that not only rules you
out of football, but also affects every part of
your life. In all I spent a year in hospital and,
while I was able to work on my leg and later
tried to get back into football, it didn’t happen.
But now, as a coach, when I look back at
what happened, it was no great loss to Russian
football to be deprived of Slutsky the
player.”
Russia’s “Special One”
When Slutsky later began coaching in the
Russian Premier League, the local press
dubbed him “the Russian Mourinho” given
his lack of experience as a professional player.
“When the president of FC Moscow, Yuro
Belous, hired me, he was asked why he was
employing someone who had never played
football,” Slutsky recalls. “He answered:
‘Mourinho never played professionally either.’
That’s how what is really a far-fetched
comparison started. But I was pretty relaxed
about it.”
Although Slutsky has done most of his
coaching in Moscow, he has strong links with
other parts of Russia. He was born in Volgograd,
and spent a year coaching in Samara .
Both cities will be hosting matches at Russia
2018, and, according to the CSKA boss, are
very excited about the prospect.
“People in Russia, and the provinces in
particular, are really looking forward to the
World Cup. For these cities, it’s the chance of
a lifetime to see the best stadiums, the best
footballers, to bring about real improvements
in infrastructure and to be part of
the international community. Not everyone
living in these cities has the opportunity
to travel abroad. They’re already looking
THE FIFA WEEKLY
25