Big dream. Young footballers from Tver visited the Zenit base and met with players

In September, for the third time, the charity mini-football tournament “Cup of the Charitable Foundation Nadezda” among teams born in 2007 was held at the “Tekstilshchik” stadium. The tournament was organized with the support of the Department of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs of the Tver City Administration, the Football Federation of Tver, with the support of PFC Zenit and personally spouses Sergey and Anna Semak. The main prize of the tournament was a trip to St. Petersburg and a meeting with Zenit players. It went to Volga-2007. It was said and done. On the night of October 19, 11-year-old boys accompanied by their parents made their way to the railway station.

Excitement and curiosity.

The excitement started to build up back in Tver. However, it was more the parents who were worried. Nine young soccer players had used up all their energy by 2 a.m. and were just waiting for the train to go to sleep. Moms and dads, seeing off their athletes, gave instructions: “Thermal underwear in the backpack, when you arrive – put it on”, “Call more often”, “Do not waste all the money on chips”. Fathers also instructed them on which of the soccer stars to take selfies with and whom to get an autograph from.

St. Petersburg met the Tverites with excellent weather. A minibus, provided by the soccer club, was waiting for the guys. It drove the guys around the city throughout the trip.

On the way to Zenit’s training base, everyone was doing their own thing. Some of the boys were downloading a new toy onto their phones, using the local wi-fi, some were calling their parents, a few boys organized a competition: who would get the most reciprocal waving from the residents of the cultural capital. That’s how they got there.

On the spot, the boys realized where and why they had come. Again excitement mixed with admiration and this sincere childlike curiosity. Of course, not all the boys manage to see with their own eyes the parking lot, the canteen, the star autographed balls and the bus that takes Zenit to matches!

Playing alongside the pros.

Athletes must eat well, so the base staff first took the boys to the canteen. The young footballers sat in the part where Zenit’s double team eats. Everyone was busy eating until they learned that Dzyuba, Kuzyaev, Anyukov, Luis Neto and the rest of the players, whom an ordinary person can see only on TV, were having lunch behind the partition. It was no longer about porridge and croissants. Attempts to peek through a crack did not yield any success, so I had to calm down, sit in front of the TV and wait. Cartoons were on in the hall, which angered the boys. And how could it be! They are not children, but real soccer players, they need to watch Match TV and comment on it.

As soon as the children’s attention had dissipated, Sergei Bogdanovich Semak appeared in the doorway! He came in so unexpectedly that many people were simply stunned. Full of energy tomboys immediately turned into modest children, shyly shook hands with the star, which he extended to each of those present. Zenit coach stayed for a while – he had a press conference and open training of the team ahead of him. The guys went outside to watch the field, where the famous players train, and wait for the cherished meeting.

Standing about twenty meters away from the players, the boys hesitantly called out to the players. The boys, coming out in pairs or one by one, did not ignore them – they smiled and waved back.

Потом мальчишкам разрешили проследовать за мечтой на поле, где уже начался рабочий процесс. Притихшие, скромные, они во все глаза наблюдали за умелыми пасами, бросками и навесами. Так продолжалось недолго. Юный возраст и запас энергии сделали свое дело – кто-то из мальчишек достал из сумки футбольный мяч, и мальчишки тихонько начали свою тренировку – кто больше прочеканит мяч, кто кого обведет и так далее.

Three Dzyuba on the same field.

And so the warmed-up players one by one began to move towards the exit. But no one managed to leave so easily. First, they had to pass through a number of young colleagues who had stocked up on autograph cards and notepads, and had also charged their camera phones for a reason.

Dzyuba, take a picture with Dzyuba!

this request surprised the footballer

It turned out that one of the winners of the Tver Region tournament was Vasily Dzyuba, who had come to meet Zenit together with his father Igor. So they were frozen in an embrace in my lens – the famous footballer Artem, the best goalkeeper of the Nadezhda Foundation Cup tournament, and his father, who was also a footballer in the past, by the way.

Sergei Semak also came out to the guys. He gladly signed autographs, took part in selfies and talked to the guys.

It was time to leave. But before that there was one more surprise – dinner in an Italian restaurant in the center of St. Petersburg. There the guys were fed with pasta and given a lot of ice cream, from which they, satisfied, shouted to the waiter: “Grazie! Grazie!”

This is the best day of my life!

assured one of Tver soccer players….