"I dedicate the gold to Galitsky"
When a person achieves something really big for the first time in his career, you want to follow his whole path, understand how he came to this. Therefore, in an interview with Murad Musaev, questions about Krasnodar's championship season and his second entry into the team come second. And first of all, he was asked either much less often or not at all.
He started his career as a professional football player at the age of 21 as a children's coach. At 28, he took on the same role at the newly launched Krasnodar Academy.
Then, in 2011, the Bulls' first team made its debut in the Premier League, and only Sergei Galitsky fully understood the scale of what he was up to. But, of course, the owner of Krasnodar could not imagine with whom and when he would come to triumph. Probably, for him, a special reason for joy is that the first gold of the club was won by a coach who passed through his academy. This is generally an extremely rare case. But it seems natural for the Krasnodar team.
Mom was rooting for Senna, and Dad was watching boxing
— Murad Olegovich, I read an amazing thing about you — you wanted to become a coach at the age of 18. How is this possible? After all, this is a profession for mature people.
— It is very difficult for a teenager aged 16-17 to understand who he wants to be. Many people then retrain, get a second profession, realizing that the first one is not for them. I was lucky in this regard. It was probably my first love, football, and also some kind of intuition, an inner voice.
My whole room was plastered with posters of football players, I was going crazy and, in addition to training in the Krasnodar sports school, I disappeared from morning to evening on the street, playing football. But I listened to myself and realized that I don't have the data that will allow me to become a good football player. The boys we ran with started playing at the city championships and the regional championships, which, by the way, have a good level comparable to the second league. I knew that I wasn't interested in this, but I couldn't do more than that. That's how I came to become a coach.
He studied for several years at the Krasnodar Institute of Physical Education, came to practice with his coach, who worked in the sports school, helped him, learned something. And already in the third year, when I felt that I had some knowledge, I went to work at the Krasnodar-2000 school. I did it for free for several months, helped in all teams, at all ages. I was very lucky with the teachers when I became a coach in children's football. One of them is now the senior coach of Krasnodar, Artur Olenin. He's been with me since the first day I joined the profession, still not really understanding anything.
— What a beautiful story.
— Yes, Olenin first taught me the basics at Krasnodar 2000, and then worked with me at the Krasnodar Academy, in the youth team, in the first team, in Azerbaijan, and again at Krasnodar. We have been together for 20 years.
— How did your parents react to your passion for football and your desire to become a coach?
— They always loved sports. Even though we lived in the south, Mom liked biathlon and cross-country skiing. She also watched all the stages of Formula 1 and supported Ayrton Senna. I clearly remember the day (Musaev was 10 years old.— Izvestia), when he had an accident and crashed.
My father loved football, he was involved in boxing as a child, and he was good at it. They were two sports that we always watched together. One of my favorite childhood memories is how we turn on the program "Legendary Fights" by Vladimir Gendlin and watch boxing under his unique commentary.
Often, when it was getting dark and the boys were no longer on the football field, my father, brother, and I went to the school field, where there was little lighting, played soccer with my brother, took boxing "paws" with us, and all our friends came… My whole childhood was connected with sports. Therefore, when I decided to become a coach, it was completely normal for our family and I felt only support from her.
When you dream a lot but work a little, you usually achieve nothing.
— You joined the Krasnodar Academy as a children's coach at the age of 28. How would you react if someone had told you at that moment that 14 years later, at the head of the Bulls' first team, you would become the champion of Russia?
— I won't say that I would be directly stunned. After all, we are going into this profession for the biggest goals. It would probably be even more motivation for me to work. I would have worked with even more enthusiasm and fire.
— What were you like then?
— Young coaches sometimes ask me: when you came to Krasnodar, did you already believe and knew that eventually you would lead the youth team, then you would move to the base? It's clear that we all have goals and dreams. But day-to-day work is important to me. Initially, I just dreamed of getting into the Krasnodar academy, passing a very difficult selection from a huge number of coaches. Then there was the task of becoming the head coach of a certain age, then moving to the senior age, then to the youth team.
I just realized that I have today, I need to plan the next microcycle, have a good workout, and play a game. I dreamed less, but tried more to do my current job efficiently in order to eventually achieve my dream. Because when you dream a lot but work a little, you usually achieve nothing. He was modest, tried less to imagine what might happen someday, and more to work well every day in order to be able to develop his career. And he told the young coaches that the basis of everything is daily work.
— Did you have a meeting with the young coaches at the Bulls academy after the championship?
- no. It's just that there are guys I coached there, and now they're working at the academy themselves. I see someone from time to time - let's say we meet at the youth team games and we can have a few words there.
— Tell us about the selection when you got to the academy.
— Before that, he worked for five years at the academy of FC Krasnodar-2000. There was a good team there, but then the president (Alexander Moldovanov. — Izvestia) financial difficulties began, and he closed the project. I worked there until the end, although I could have joined the Krasnodar Academy earlier, I knew that they were looking for coaches there, but I did not leave out of respect for the president of Krasnodar 2000. Because they did a lot for me to become a coach there.
When this club closed, I called Alexander Marjanovic (Serbian, head coach of the Bulls academy. — Izvestia), we were slightly acquainted. As a coach in Rostov, he came to us and conducted a master class. I told him that I would like to work at Krasnodar. He replied that everything was going through a coaching competition, we need to wait for it, there will be theoretical and practical parts. I knew the requirements: the club wanted young guys who were capable and willing to study the methods of the Krasnodar Academy to work.
I wasn't worried about the theory at all, and I knew my other advantage — I had five years of experience working in a boarding school, which few people have. Just a kid's coach who came to practice and then went home is one thing. But when you have a team that lives in a boarding school, goes to school, and one tutor lives with them, with whom you must constantly communicate, this is a completely different specificity.
— Why weren't you worried about the theory?
— When I came to Krasnodar-2000, I was very lucky with the teachers who worked with me there. There were two ages and two coaches. I've already named one, Olenina. The second is Sergey Zakhariak. They played different football. Olenin's game was more like Gazzaev's – 5-3-2, high-speed, forceful, with an emphasis on the flanks. Zakhariak's is more technical, similar to a diamond, all at the bottom, lace. I've worked with each of them and learned a lot.
And there was also a senior coach there, who then took me to work in the second league, where the older guys played at Krasnodar 2000. It was Zakhariak's brother, Igor, and at that time he had just graduated from high school. When I arrived, he started taking exams with me every three days. Physiology, theory, training techniques — a lot of everything. He gave me books by Platonov, Chirva, Godik — everything they were given at the Higher School of Coaches, including his lecture notes from there. "Today," he says, "you're starting to work on the topic of Aerobic Endurance. The exam is in three days."
He gave me books by Valery Lobanovsky about models of special endurance development — modes A, B, D, E... It was very interesting for me to figure it out! He and Oleg Bazilevich translated everything that happened on the field into numbers. And we worked in Krasnodar-2000 according to these modes. Rather, we tried to build everything in accordance with them. Now I understand that even all the teams of the current Premier League will die from these regimes - that's how people worked during the Soviet era. We just tried to reduce them a little bit and transfer them to our reality. And in principle it worked well.
I went to training in Krasnodar 2000, and then I returned home, read books, and I had a bunch of notebooks where I wrote out the main things. I always prepared well. But sometimes he didn't understand something, and then Zakhariak would say, "Tomorrow-again." And that's how we went through topic after topic. Not at the institute, but in a team where a person was absolutely not obliged to study with me! And he did it only because he wanted to help me. And that's why I passed the theory exam the best when I was recruited to the Krasnodar Academy, because I was trained by a coach who had a Pro category. I will never forget this, and I am grateful to all the coaches with whom I started at Krasnodar 2000, and this became the basis of everything for me.
— Where is Igor Zakhariak now?
— At one time he was with me at the Krasnodar headquarters. Recently— in the Saratov "Falcon". As far as I know, it's not working right now.
— Have you been influenced by documentary books about great coaches, Soviet or foreign? Or did you prefer technical literature?
— That's later. Of course, I've read everything. Books about Guardiola, Mourinho, Michels, van Gaal. Ancelotti's biography and Alex Ferguson's first book left the greatest impression.
There is also a book about hockey by Anatoly Tarasov. How he started, took his first steps, how there was an isolated Soviet hockey school. There were Canadians somewhere, and we were on our own. There was Russian hockey in the Union, with a ball, and then they said: "Now we're developing ice hockey." But there was nothing. How to train, by what methods? All this was created from scratch, and two autonomous schools turned out. As a result, ours turned out to be original, and then the North Americans also took something from her.
— Were you not internally offended by Galitsky when, in his first season at the head of the main team, he did not let you go on an internship with your deeply respected Maurizio Sarri at Napoli?
— I was a little upset, but nothing critical. I made this decision with respect, and now I understand that it was the right one. Galitsky explained his position, said that I have to form my own coaching style and don't have to learn from anyone yet, so as not to start blindly copying. You'll form your own style, they say, and then you'll start driving.
And a year later, I went to Lopetegui in Sevilla, and the club organized all this. Then the president thought that I had found my way, I was developing my own. Since then, Krasnodar has only helped me with internships. I now consider this story as a continuation of Tarasov's book and his story about the originality of the Soviet style. First you need to look for your own, and once you have found it, you can layer someone else's experience on top of it.
I didn't sit anyone down
— Remembering your entire journey to gold 2025, to whom are you dedicating this title?
— To Sergey Nikolaevich. He did a lot for me, and I wanted to become the coach who would give him this title. Although "gift" is the wrong word. Because he created all this himself, and he stands at the head of this ship, and he has experienced everything that has been connected with the club over the years. This victory is for him.
— By the way, are you offended by reading and hearing the cliche that the head coach of Krasnodar is Galitsky?
— It's already impossible to offend me in any way, no matter what you read. I can't get upset at someone's word.
— Since when do you have such thick skin? Or was it from the very beginning?
— You know that I was not a big football player, I started with children's football, from the first steps. Krasnodar had a lot of big players and strong coaches. And if I had listened to someone and wondered if I could, I wouldn't have started working properly.
Therefore, although I treat other people and their opinions with respect, I have been going my own way all my life. And I don't care what anyone thinks about it. No one can say anything to me in person, when I meet them, and they have never said anything in their life. And if someone is talking and you pay attention to it, you'll finish it quickly. That's why I don't read much now, first of all, when the season is on, and secondly, even if something catches my eye, it won't upset me 100%.
— Evgeny Giner said that only once in all the years did he ask Slutsky to have a player in the squad — to give Georgy Schennikov, a graduate of the academy, a chance for ten games to see if he was ready for the base. Did Galitsky ask you to put or not put any player on the match?
- no. We had differences in terms of players: I believed in someone more, and he believed less, and vice versa. Then life put everything in its place. We always discuss everything globally, but when exactly to put whom is absolutely my prerogative.
— In case of discrepancies, who was right? And who were they for?
— It would be incorrect to specify. And on the latter, when we disagreed, Sergey Nikolaevich was right. This player has already left the team.
— Do you remember your first conversation with Galitsky?
— I am lucky that it is very easy for me to communicate with him. Sometimes I saw people trying to play games, behave unnaturally, talking to him in order to please him. And from the very first day, when I was still a coach at the academy, I didn't have to be myself. I immediately realized that if you answer him briefly and reasonably, not vaguely, you will have a normal dialogue.
He asked me questions, and I just told him what I thought and how I saw it. That's how we developed a good relationship. Then they introduced such a tradition that once a week Sergey Nikolaevich talked with the coaches of the youth team, the second and third teams and the head coach of the academy. We went to his office and discussed different teams, which players had what prospects. Sometimes it could be harsh communication, but for me it was simple and natural. That's where I think we got along well.
— There have been many coaches at the academy over the years, including successful ones. Why did Galitsky believe in you so much? At what point did you feel such a liking for the president and did he explain his nature to you personally?
— I think that I have earned this favor with my work. He was at almost all the games of my teams, and he liked what was happening. It was really beautiful and bright. And the most important thing is that in each of my groups, he saw the players who would become the mainstays.
About six months before he was appointed to the first team, he told me that eventually he wanted to see me as a foundation coach. Igor Shalimov is there now, and I want him to finalize his contract, but over time, if you continue to work and develop like this, you will lead the main team — and I want it to be for a long time. In the end, it happened faster than he thought, Igor Mikhailovich was fired, and I took over Krasnodar six rounds before the end of the championship.
— At Uralan, Shalimov accused Leonid Slutsky of setting him up. Has that ever been said to you?
- no. I didn't sit anyone down. I had a team that was in first place in the youth championship. I repeat: I didn't want anyone to like me, but I was just doing my job well. I never told the management bad things about my colleague in order to take his place. Usually, if you do this, you won't succeed. It was strange to hear criticism of myself after returning, as if it was my fault that Ivan was removed. I didn't even think I'd be back at that moment!
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