“Few people believed in Ilya Kovalchuk’s return to the ice” – Kommersant FM
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Olympic champion Ilya Kovalchuk wants to return to big-time sports. According to media reports, the 40-year-old striker is in negotiations with Spartak Moscow and will make a decision by the end of November. Can a player at this age help the team? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.
No one will argue that Ilya Kovalchuk is a great hockey player. Three Gagarin Cups, two gold medals, a world championship and a victory at the Olympics speak for themselves. Yes, Kovalchuk’s trophies do not include the Stanley Cup, but the Russian’s career in the NLH can hardly be called unsuccessful. Playing in overseas clubs, he earned $62 million. And the star forward performed successfully in the Kontinental Hockey League.
More recently, in 2021, he became a champion with Avangard Omsk. After that success, Kovalchuk even worked as a manager for the national team. The team then won silver at the Olympics. However, the player never officially announced his retirement. Few believed the rumors about Ilya Kovalchuk’s return to the ice, but videos of the striker’s strength training, who worked with the famous fitness mentor and blogger Dmitry Yashankin, began to appear more and more often on the Internet. Although the player himself said that he is not as active as he would like:
“I don’t train as actively as I would like because I fly all the time. But when I’m in Moscow, then we work together. He is a professional in his field.”
And yet, despite his age, and in April 2024 Kovalchuk will turn 41, and almost a two-year break in his playing career, the striker is still in demand on the KHL market. Moreover, Spartak is interested in Kovalchuk, who is playing brightly this season.
Fans, of course, are concerned about the possible contract of the aged forward with the red and white, because there were many scandals in Kovalchuk’s career, and the famous story where he told how to recover after games with beer has generally become resonant. But Kovalchuk is a star of such a level that all this needs to be understood and forgiven, hockey analyst Igor Larin is sure:
“Ilya Kovalchuk always came to the Russian national team. This is a legend of our hockey. I think that we can forgive him for his whim and complex, ambiguous departure from big-time sports, and maybe even thank him for prolonging his youth and our hockey. Still, here we need to look not for minuses, but for pluses.”
Of course, there is talk that the KHL is constantly rejuvenating, but just recently Danis Zaripov took to the ice at the age of 42, and in the NHL older players do not bother anyone at all. Jaromir Jagr played overseas until he was 46 years old. And, by the way, he still plays on the ice for his Czech club from the city of Kladno. Experience in hockey will always be in demand, but only if the physical form is appropriate, hockey expert Leonid Weisfeld told Kommersant FM:
“The whole question is in what condition Ilya Kovalchuk is. But judging by the fact that he is a sporty guy and trains, I think his physical shape is at a good level. He wouldn’t embarrass himself. I remember Oleg Petrov, who at 41 was running around like an electric broom, and even young players could not catch up with him.”
In addition, Kovalchuk’s return to big hockey will definitely attract the attention of fans. I have no doubt that many will want to see a star of this level on the ice. After all, there are very few such famous players in the KHL now.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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