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In January, one of Russian Football News’ partners, Kazan-based Sport Business Online (Sport BO), published a two-part interview with Rubin Kazan manager Kurban Berdyev, which took place in early January. Berdyev, who is arguably one of the RFPL’s greatest ever managers, is notoriously introverted and has never given an interview of this length and detail before. In total, the Turkmen spoke with Sport BO’s Vladislav Zimagulov and Airat Shamilov for almost seven hours. An interview of this magnitude and rarity was something we wanted to share with our readers, and so Sport BO has given us permission to translate and publish segments of the interview in English on our website.

Here we present to you Part Four, in which Berdyev exclusively discusses league leaders Lokomotiv, Messi & Ronaldo, the future of the RFPL, the World Cup, his perceived reserved nature and what life is like in Kazan.

We must note that this was conducted before the end of the transfer window, so some parts are out of date, but have chosen to publish the full interview.

The original article in Russian can be found here.

Does it surprise you that Semin’s Lokomotiv Moscow are now at the top of the league?

No, the team has a very strong group of attacking players: Manuel Fernandes, Farfan, Ari, the Miranchuk brothers – they’re all creative players. And when you have creative players, leading the table is not accidental. It’s more surprising when you don’t have them kind of players. If Fernandes gets the ball near the penalty box, you need to beware. He’s looking tremendous this season, Semin managed to find the right approach for him. I think he’s the best player in the RFPL right now. The team’s play is dependent on him. Remove Fernandes, and Lokomotiv will be completely different. God forbid he gets injured. Players like him are the gems of the league. I want to see more foreign players like him in the RFPL

Did Farfan’s form surprise you?

We (Rubin) scouted him way back, when he was 17 (in 2002), and we could have signed him for Rubin, but we were asked to pay around €1m for him. He looked good, even back then. But still, his current performance did surprise me.

What about Semin’s influence?

Yes. He is an emotional man. When he’s “in the zone”, like now, he pulls everything together. The intelligence Lokomotiv have in attack is their most dangerous thing, the hardest thing to defend against. This line-up of intellectually strong players are all on the same wavelength. They all see how to open up the defence and how to get the attack right. And they’re doing this naturally – it’s impossible to train players to do it. It’s hard to defend against that.

Is it hard against Barcelona or Real?

Against Real, when they have Kroos, Modric and Isco, their creative players – it is hard. When at least one of them is absent…maybe. Ronaldo is a finisher, not a creative player. Messi is a creative figure, while Ronaldo is a killer. He’s the one who makes the shot, even though he can assist too.

Messi or Ronaldo?

It’s impossible to compare Messi and Ronaldo. There’ll never be another one like Messi, and I think there never was one before.

How about Platini or Maradona?

You can’t compare them either, or compare Messi with Maradona. Platini was a playmaker, a conductor of team play, with predatory instinct and excellent finishing. Maradona had incredible speed and dribbling ability. He could give an unexpected pass, win any match singlehandedly, but still, he’s more of an individual player, while Platini was a team player.

You have extensively studied defending against Messi. What’s his secret?

He’s a computer. He sees everything, reads everything, determines the situation. Possession, unexpected passes – those are the gifts of God. We prepared to play against him when Barcelona was at its peak in 2009. Our plan was not to leave him alone even for a split second. On the wings, Ansaldi and Kaleshin played against him. They were passing him to each other like a baton in a relay race.

Can you hold him off with man-marking?

In a way. Modern defending is mostly zonal, but we had to defend against Messi in that way. We worked that out step by step. The lads marked him in various areas, because it’s futile to follow him closely across the whole field. You’re just ruining your defence by removing one player.

Why are Ronaldo and Messi able to play at such an impossibly high level for so many years, and there’s nobody even close to them?

Messi had a lot of gifts from God, and Ronaldo achieved it due to work. I spent almost a week at the Real Madrid training ground and saw with my own eyes that he’s always the very last to leave the training. He’s got his own fitness program, his own recovery program, he never rushes anywhere. Ronaldo is a consummate professional and an incredibly talented player.

Who’s the third best player now behind Messi and Ronaldo? Griezmann, Neymar?

I think Neymar is the closest one: his talent is crazy. Griezmann – I’m not so sure of him, even though he had a couple of great seasons. He doesn’t have great long-term potential. And Neymar – we can only hope that he doesn’t sink at PSG, because he’s got a Brazilian star mentality. He can ruin his career there. God gave him a lot of ability. Neymar can grow into the world’s best player. But I think that he was afraid to be in Messi’s shadow at Barcelona, so he wanted to leave.

How will football change in the next few years?

I think that the next level of development will be intellectual football, even more fast-paced. That’s what will happen at the biggest clubs that are aiming for the European titles. In this fast-paced game, many things will be determined by teamwork, individual skill, quick interplay in tight areas and the balance of defence and attack.

The foreigner limit is detrimental

Will we eventually go back to the spring-autumn system in the RFPL?

I think we will. I think Mutko understands that. We discussed this topic with him, and I told him, “This is criminal. Whom are we playing for at -15 degrees? Who needs that?!”

Should we abolish the foreigner limit? Doesn’t it help young players to get their first big break?

And how many young players’ careers were destroyed because of it? The limit allows young players to sign lucrative contracts and stop progressing. A big group of talented players have flopped because of that. They’re collecting money instead of earning it.

Is the foreigner limit detrimental to the RFPL?

Yes, absolutely. Competition is necessary for professional growth. Competition helps young players grow and older players to be more professional and prolong their career.

What else would you change in the league? Perhaps make it bigger or smaller?

No, 16 teams is perfect. I think that there’s a big problem with the education of coaches and managers at all levels. We need to import the best foreign coaches who can teach our ones. We brought the best Spanish youth coaches to our academy, and they did a lot. We told them, “Teach our coaches, we don’t need you for a hundred years.” We helped the boys who couldn’t make it to the reserve team after graduating from the academy to enrol at college and then invited them for coaching jobs in the academy. We built a system. That’s what should be done globally in the country: invite teachers and pay them big money, so that they would be interested.

What are you expecting from the World Cup in Russia this summer?

I would like to see some surprises.

From Russia or Iran?

Yes. Russia’s last matches (in 2017) made me optimistic. We should qualify from the group stage. Uruguay has a strong attacking group of players, but their defence can and should be cracked open. I think Russia have to qualify for the knockout round.

What matches are you planning to attend?

I’ll be at the summer training camp with Rubin, so it’s unlikely I’ll visit any matches. I didn’t visit a single Confederations Cup game in 2017, even though I wanted to. I dreamed to go, but I’ve never visited any European championship or World Cup. I always watch football on TV.

Who will win the World Cup?

Argentina, Germany or Brazil – those are my top three picks. Brazil has a very good defence and Neymar up front. And the thrashing they took from Germany in 2014 has annoyed them to no end. They have a desire to make up for that.

If you were asked to help the Russian national team, would you do it?

If it helps Cherchesov then I’d have no problem. If I can help the national team in any way, I’m ready to do so.

It is strange to hear that I’m a withdrawn man

For many, you still remain an enigma, a very withdrawn man…

When people say that I’m withdrawn… who decides that?

You certainly don’t look very withdrawn now, you’re answering openly and talking very interestingly…

I can talk like that at any time, but I don’t like small talk, non-fundamental talk, or leaving some kind of understatement – I’m afraid of that.

We see that you don’t forbid the players to do anything anymore, the team is very open…

Absolutely. When [press officer] Mikhail Stepanov asked me what he could or couldn’t do, I said, “You can do anything.” “Anything? Really?” “Yes, anything.” But still, you have to get interviews approved, because there are some young players such as Azmoun who perceive themselves as stars, and interviews only fuel that perception. There are no problems. So it’s strange to hear that I’m a withdrawn man. I’ve already said that I’ve changed.

Perhaps it’s a stereotype. But, for instance, you’re always wearing a cap. You’re obviously an introverted man.

I can’t go anywhere without headwear, it’s uncomfortable to me. I live in an internal world that’s comfortable to me. This world is based on faith, forbearance and fortitude.

We don’t see you freezing in a sports jacket anymore. Have you shed your old superstitions?

Yes, it’s more comfortable this way for me now. Earlier in my career, I could be freezing, but now, I don’t see any sense in that.

You say that you have virtually no free time, but still, do you have any means to turn off from football? Do you have any hobbies?

I can’t turn off, I simply can’t! I don’t get tired watching football. If there’s some football on TV, I’ll be watching it. If Napoli play, I’ll watch them, If Manchester City play, I’ll probably watch them too. But I watch Napoli more closely, of course. Sometimes I watch their games several times, I make videos for players, show them how the Napoli players interact with each other. Napoli have no obvious diamond structure, but I made a loose diamond to help the lads understand the principles of our style, how to transition from one diamond shape to another. This makes it easier for the boys to digest the information and for me to explain. We have changed our training process, and so we’re training in diamond shapes now.

Politics, music, books, movies – all that doesn’t interest you?

I rarely watch movies, but Pavel Lungin’s Island impressed me. I’m not interested in politics. Music I do enjoy, of rather diverse kind: Okudzhava, Rosenbaum, Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Il Divo, Tina Turner, some Deep Purple. I rarely read because there’s no time, but sometimes I re-read Michele Montaigne or Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

Whom do you admire outside football or sports?

I admire medical professionals, especially those who give life to the people who’d lost all hope, in both peace and war time. Especially to cancer patients, who already contemplate death, go to the doctors with their last hope, and the doctors give them a new lease of life.

Do you have any favourite dishes? Miss any?

I miss Turkmen food. There’s a dish called dograma. It’s a flatbread that gets crumbled only by men, then you cut meat, onion and mix all that, and then pour in some hot bouillon. But you have to eat it immediately. They don’t make that in Kazan. My friends recently brought me some frozen bouillon and a bag of dograma from Turkmenistan – it’s such a delight. I felt like I was back home!

How are you planning to spend your vacation? [The interview was conducted in December.]

I’ll be in Kazan, analysing the first part of the season. But I’m planning to visit Saudi Arabia, as always – I go there every year, on the same day.

But there are no such strict requirements in Islam…

Yes, but this is for heart and soul. Hajj and Umrah I’ll go if possible, observing all rituals. But I go there and feel some new strength in myself. I’m going privately, not to put up a show or something. I’ll go for three days, even though I used to go for longer.

Do you like Kazan?

Actually, the city impressed me even back when I was a player. I played for Stroitel [now Kopetdag Asgabat] against Rubin. I was very young, but even then, I already felt very comfortable in Kazan. We stayed in the Volga hotel. Ivan Danilyants [now a coach at Rubin with Berdyev], who was with us, has a great talent for negotiation. So he somehow asked someone to take us to the sports palace for ice-skating. We’d never used skates in our whole life! It was so exotic for us! They couldn’t find standard skates for my shoe size, they had only figure skates, and we couldn’t tell them apart! The other guys went on the ice, they managed to do at least something, but I couldn’t skate at all in those skates. I jokingly told the girl from the sports palace that helped us, “Have you made these notches on the blade on purpose to make it hard for me?!” When I left the sports palace, I thought, “What a good city this is, why don’t I move there?”

Do you feel that Tatars are close to you spiritually?

I have many friends here. They say that it’s very comfortable and calm in Tatarstan. Perhaps that’s why I felt at home when I came here for the first time. There are no mosques in Smolensk, so it was hard for me, but when I came to Kazan, I immediately felt that I was in my proper place. I immediately thought, “This is exactly what I need.”