"Not everyone will make it to the national team. Life is ruthless, and guys realize it."

Last November, the players born in 2004 and 2005 played their last matches for the Russian youth national team, and their performance cycle was completed. Despite the fact that these players were formed during the period of Russia's withdrawal from international football, we got a bright generation — with Alexey Batrakov, Matvey Kislyak, Vadim Rakov, Matvey Lukin and many others. A new cycle is on the way — the boys born in 2006 and 2007 will compete for the youth team. The senior coach of the Russian youth team, Ivan Shabarov, attended the training camps of RPL clubs in the UAE, where he answered Izvestia's questions about representatives of several generations of our football.

"Our players should strive to become world champions"

— The cycle of working with children born in 2004 and 2005 has ended. What results can you summarize?

— Batrakov, Kislyak and Lukin have made a big step in their mental development. We hope that others will do the same. In difficult conditions, we found serious rivals. It was good for the players. The RFU has done a good job organizing training camps and field trips over the past two and a half years. Some of the players took the chance, some did not. We tried to give it to everyone. Taking into account the acquired experience, we hope that the cycle with the years of birth 2006-2007 will be no less fruitful.

— Which match or trip do you remember the most?

— I will single out a trip to Brazil, where we played four matches in five days. There were 27 people in the team, and everyone had an equal workload. In Brazil, we are faced with a new gaming culture. We were driving into the unknown. But we played well! After defeating Palmeiras (3:1) and Santos (6:4), the guys felt that they could play football at the level of such rivals, they believed in themselves. We realized that we were on the right track.

All the trips to South America were very interesting and useful. We also met with Colombia and Uruguay, because of the high level of opponents. Do not forget about Asia, where we met with China and Vietnam. We made sure that there is no big difference in the skill level — professionals work everywhere, everyone plays combination and intense football.

— Who would be singled out from the team born in 2004-2005?

— It's not for me to do this. Please note that the coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, consistently calls the young guys. Kislyak, Batrakov, Lukin, Pinyaev. Yes, Sergey [Pinyaev] was born in 2004, but, in fact, he is their peer — the same Batrakov is only six months older.

These guys should be singled out in the first place. If we think there are more interesting players, we won't name them anyway, because we don't want to hurt them. The players have to make themselves known. I can say that there are definitely such people — they appear in the RPL, they play in the FNL. It all depends on the guys themselves, now they are at the level of adult football players, they have a different status.

At the same time, you need to understand that not everyone will reach the Russian national team. Moreover, not everyone will play RPL. Life is ruthless, and guys realize it. I just want them to try to make themselves known in the next two years.

"Did you tell them that?"

— Of course, we explain such things. Our players should strive for the highest goals, ideally to become world champions. Not just to play in the top 5, but to win gold!

Although for some reason we don't even think in such categories.

— We are afraid to jinx it.

— Then we will continue to be content with the fact that some of our players are playing in the championships of the top 5 leagues. But this is not what we want and what we put so much effort into.

— Which of the players born in 2006 and 2007 should we start monitoring now?

— There are a lot of them at the team training camps in the UAE, but I don't want to get ahead of events. For example, Matvey Bardachev has already become the main defender at Ural. Viktor Okishor from Dynamo is well-known to everyone. There is also Andrey Ivlev from Paris NN. We know them, but this does not mean that these guys will be in the lead roles. Our task is to ensure fair competition, and then look at who will be the best at a particular moment.

It is necessary to create conditions for the growth of football players, despite the exclusion from international tournaments. When we are returned, we will be guided by other categories, in particular, the achievement of the result.

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"If they tell us to come back tomorrow, we have no right to be confused"

— Does the Russian youth national team interact with Amir Ibragimov from Manchester United? How can we not lose him?

— The youth team is not doing this right now, he was born in 2008. Amir first needs to make his debut for the Russian youth national team, then we can fairly evaluate him at the level of our best players. If he stands out, we will consider an invitation to the youth national team. Everything should be consistent.

If the youth teams don't see him yet, we won't get ahead of them. Now we need to use the 2006 and 2007 resource. You need good reasons to call up the 2008 player of the year to the youth national team.

— Have you made inquiries about Ibragimov's speech? Have you been collecting information?

— We read the same thing in the press as you do. Don't rush it. He doesn't play in the main squad of Manchester United, so we can say that we missed the guy. Everything goes on as usual. Senior coach Stanislav Korotaev, who has been working since 2008, keeps his finger on the pulse. If he sees fit to call him, we'll make a note for the future.

— Vasily Berezutsky's son Vladimir joined the Betis Academy. How do you feel about this?

— We are proud! This is another person who plays abroad, he needs to be watched. We hope that the guy will grow up in that environment and help our national team in the future. But now he is 15 years old, it is premature to give estimates and draw conclusions. He has plenty of time to prove something.

— Do you support the idea of creating the U-21 championship?

— Guys should play at an adult level, but not everyone can. The point of the championship is not for young players to play — look at the current application from the RPL teams. There are 22-23 people there. There are 10 field players, and 2-3 substitutions are made during the match. It turns out that 8-10 football players don't get practice. And there are up to 160 such players in each round. Yes, there are not only young people among them, but also 25-year-old football players, and even foreigners.

It's important that the guys have the opportunity to play. If the teams have a duplicate squad, then qualified players will grow in a competitive environment.

— Recently, the FIFA president announced the need to bring Russia back at least at the youth level. Is this encouraging?

— She appears, but this is not the first time we have heard such words. The euphoria from the statements is gone. We need to be ready to come back at any moment. If they tell us tomorrow that we're coming back, we have no right to be confused. Now the team born in 2006-2007 has such a task.

— There are also recommendations from the IOC on the return of youth teams.

"I can only hope so. And get ready. We can be returned without any applications. We are not interested in whether there will be any preliminary information work. We have to be ready. And do your job.