"I have never renounced my belonging to Russia"
Norway has become a new home for Russian goalkeeper Nikita Khaikin, who wandered around the countries. After two championships and another silver medal, his departure to England, to the Bristol City Championship club, turned out to be short — three months later, without a single match, he returned to Bud Glimt. And then two more gold medals followed: with Khaikin in the goal, the club achieved all its achievements.
Nikita also met his wife in Norway, and now he is waiting for the Norwegian one, following the Russian, British and Israeli passports that he already has. And he can play for the Norwegian national team, which will go to the World Cup in the summer for the first time in more than 20 years. The Buda-Glimt fans I spoke with believe that in this case he will immediately become the main goalkeeper, but no one can know this except head coach Stolbakken. In an interview with Izvestia and Sport-Express, Nikita spoke about this moment, as well as about the upcoming duel with Inter in the Champions League.
We definitely don't have anyone driving a Ferrari.
— Who would you like to meet more in the Champions League: Inter or Real Madrid?
— To be honest, with Real Madrid. It's not every day you play at the Santiago Bernabeu against Mbappe, Vinicius, Bellingham and the rest, you compete with Courtois. But Inter, the legendary San Siro stadium, is also cool!
— Do you believe that it is possible to pass it?
— Of course I do. As I believed before Atletico, you heard it from me the day before the match. But the main thing is, as before, not to get hung up on the result and play your game.
— You are a graduate of the academies of three English clubs — Chelsea, Portsmouth, Reading. When you left England in 2013, at the age of 18, how would you react if you heard that your team would beat Man City, led by Pep Guardiola, and get out of the Champions League group?
— I am also a pupil of a Russian school — I studied for six years at the Torpedo Sports School, and a little bit at Dynamo. I never forget about that either. I often remind myself where I come from, where I grew up, and what I had to go through. What is happening to me now is the result of that work both in Russia and in England, and only later, when I came out of adolescence. I often tell myself that I must never forget that I cannot stop. And then, hopefully, I'll have many more memorable matches and tournaments.
I think every boy who plays football dreams of something big. About the Champions League, world cups, great clubs, about becoming a superstar. I, like many people, had such dreams. But I never imagined that they would start to come true at a Norwegian club and with him we would beat Manchester City in the Champions League. I had to go through a lot to get to a certain level. And I will always be very grateful for this experience, these difficulties.
— Have many of the Russian football people congratulated you in the last two weeks?
— Of course, there were such people, although I would not say that there are many of them. The fact is that I have a fairly narrow social circle in Russian football. Naturally, Vitaly Kafanov congratulated me. I treat Vitaly Vitalyevich very well, having worked with him in the national team, we keep in touch. As with Yuri Pavlovich Semin, who once took me to the youth team of Mordovia, and this, as I have already said, saved my career in many ways.
Many friends from abroad, especially from England, congratulated me. My best friend has been a Manchester United fan since childhood. We never thought that I would play against such giants. When he played in the European Cup against Manchester United at Old Trafford, he came there. As fate would have it, I managed to play with both United and City. And this makes me and my friends happy.
— Do you even get it all in your head — four championships in six seasons, the semi-finals and quarterfinals of two European cups, getting out of the group in the Champions League? After all, you couldn't get a screening at a Norwegian second division club before Buda-Glimt.
— Again, I often remind myself of what happened before. When all this hits you a little bit, when you start to consider yourself a star, I immediately pull myself together with the thought: "Don't forget what happened to you just six years ago." There were a lot of teams that I didn't get to, not just the Norwegian one. There were Russian clubs and those from other countries. Life is a very interesting thing. I didn't give up and I'm very happy about it.
— Have you ever had the opportunity to communicate with athletes who have followed a path similar to yours: grew up in wealthy families and started playing sports professionally for the pure love of this very sport?
— No, I've never met such people. And I think that someone's condition is not the key to success. It's all in your head. I had a different upbringing, a different perception of where and in what conditions I grow up. I think my parents raised me right, I've never been bombarded with money and I didn't think I could afford anything.
Of course, I had a good childhood, we always had good food and a comfortable home. But I didn't have a chance to start talking down to people because my family has more wealth. It was stopped instantly. There was no question of any pampering. Everything was as it should be, and I am very happy about it. I was brought up to respect any profession and any person. My mom and dad taught me that you have to fight for everything. I never asked my family for special financial help, I thought it was wrong.
— Viktor Goncharenko once said that his BATE ended with a victory in the Champions League over Bayern Munich. The players fancied themselves, he couldn't do anything about it, and everything fell apart. Can this happen to Buda-Glimt now?
— No, I'm sure that can't happen here. Because of the Scandinavian mentality. They are quite modest, calm guys, and the coach won't allow it. There is a very serious competition for a place in the squad at Buda-Glimt, if someone turns up their nose, they will immediately be kicked out. In general, I can't imagine it.
— Are they modest in salaries too?
— They're definitely not comparable to City. Anyway, these are good, decent salaries, and what we are doing in the Champions League now, of course, brings financial support to both the club and ourselves. In Norway, player salaries are open information, anyone can see who earned how much in the previous year. But to be honest, I didn't go into details, I'm not interested. No one drives a Ferrari for sure. It's hard to imagine, especially in the north (laughs).
In fact, I've always felt like a Russian.
— Buda Glimta coach Kjetil Knutsen said that he wants you to get Norwegian citizenship before the summer and join the Norwegian national team for the 2026 World Cup. What is the current situation?
— It's quite complicated. Actually, I would like to become a Norwegian, not because of the national team, but in order to make my life in the country a little easier. My wife and I are planning to have children and live in Norway, and it would be easier for us if I had a passport. You never know where life will lead you, which is why it's interesting. But it's pointless to talk about the national team yet, because I'm not Norwegian yet. The process of obtaining citizenship is quite lengthy.
— Have you talked to the head coach of the national team, Tabla Solbakken, about this topic?
- no. I've heard some news [about the national team's interest], but it's not specific. And since there are no specifics, I'm not serious about it. If there is a day, there will be food.
— There were rumors that after the only call-up to the Russian national team in the fall of 2021, you refused to come several times. Was this really the case?
— We have some agreements with the national team, especially with Kafanov, because I am constantly in touch with him, and we have a very good relationship. He knows that such a challenge can only harm me in purely football terms.
I have a lot of games, heavy flights. I know that some legionnaire guys even fly across the ocean and they like it because they also meet their families, whom they haven't seen for a long time. They're great. But it would really be hard and impractical for me right now. Now I would like to focus on my club career.
— You mentioned that as part of the citizenship process, you took an exam on the history of Norway and its language. How difficult was it?
— Passed both tests. On the history of Norway — from the first time. It was interesting to me, because I used to know only individual personalities and did not go into the essence. I learned a lot of events, dates, and laws that I had no idea about before.
I passed the spoken language at the B1 level, which is quite good. I studied with the teacher for as long as I could for a year. Even though the whole team is Scandinavian, I don't have enough practice because they are already used to speaking English with me. And if I don't start a conversation in Norwegian myself, they won't switch to it either, especially since they love English very much.
I won't call Norwegian a heavy language. The difficulty is that there are different dialects: in Oslo and in the north of the country, they speak different ones. There is also the "new Norwegian". The construction of sentences differs from Russian and English. Sometimes I think in Russian, I start translating into Norwegian, and I don't make sentences the right way.
— The Norwegian passport will be your fourth. What kind of feeling is it to feel like a citizen of the world?
— It sounds too global (laughs). In fact, I've always felt like a Russian, and when asked where you're from, I answer that you're from Russia. I spent part of my childhood and youth in the UK, and have been living in Europe for many years. And I am very happy in Norway. Who would have thought when I arrived that we would achieve such results, that I would live here for seven very positive years, and that I would want to be married to a Norwegian woman? It would be important for me to become a citizen of it. I made this decision for myself a long time ago. And then everything doesn't depend on me.
— Is your wife a pure Norwegian?
- no. Tanya was born in Bryansk, but has been living in Norway since she was nine years old, and her first language is Norwegian, although Russian has become much better since I came into her life. We met by chance, and we've been together for five years soon. She understands both our culture and Norwegian culture. We are very happy together.
— Were there any unpleasant conversations about Russia and its citizenship with someone from the locals?
— Personally, I don't. No one showed any hostility towards me because I have a Russian passport, at least to my face. There are probably such people on the Internet somewhere, but it doesn't bother me in any way. Either I don't read, or if something catches my eye, I don't pay attention. We don't talk about politics in the team.
I have never renounced my belonging to Russia. I have a lot in common with her, and I still imagine her in her sports career. If someone thinks otherwise, this is their opinion, everyone has the right to it, I'm not going to convince anyone. I continue to keep in touch with a couple of guys I played with at Torpedo High School, and my first goalkeeping coach, Dmitry Gulenkov. But life turned out in such a way that I found happiness, both football and personal— in Norway.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
