“He was a patriot to the core”: Andrey Malosolov, a veteran of fan journalism, died

Sports journalist, public figure, devoted fan of CSKA Andrey Malosolov died in Moscow on May 1, 2023. The cause was a detached blood clot. At first, Andrei lost consciousness, and when the ambulance arrived, it turned out that the doctors could no longer do anything.

It’s very hard to believe it. And it’s very hard to write something – hands just fall and tears in the eyes. I knew Andrey for 15 years.

More precisely, I knew him even earlier, but we began to communicate in a friendly way in 2008, when he headed the press service of the Russian Football Union, and I worked as a sports writer in a very famous online newspaper. We met at one of the solemn football events and somehow immediately became friends. Maybe because there were common acquaintances since the early 90s, maybe they just spoke the same language.

Malosolov, without exaggeration, was a significant person not only in sports journalism, but also in the football fan subculture.

In the early nineties of the last century, he published the now legendary magazine “Russian Fan Vestnik”. I once asked him how it was, and he answered only one thing: “Fun and very interesting.”

And in the Russian Football Union, while he headed the press service, he supported and conducted the annual All-Russian competition of printed publications about football as much as he could. To which it was possible to send, among other things, samizdat books, reference books, calendars, magazines.

I still remember how the small room where Andrei was sitting with several of his subordinates was full of mailboxes, each with hundreds of brochures. I then asked how he manages to sort it all out, because he also has to deal with his immediate duties. This question surprised him to the core, because football for Andrey was the main meaning of his life.

And Andrey also worked as a military correspondent from RIA Novosti on the 1st Chechenskaya. And I never really liked to think about it.

He was a patriot to the core of his soul. Sometimes he was carried away, we quarreled, sometimes we didn’t even communicate for a while. But today, recalling our conversations and our Motherland, about its difficult fate, I understand how right he was in many things.

In mid-March, Andrei was admitted to the hospital. I read about this from one of my friends in the telegram channel, and immediately called him. “I operate on old sores,” he joked then. We talked for a long time until the connection was interrupted. “Call me a little later,” he wrote then. I was all about it. And didn’t make it…

He was always joking around. Even when it seemed that there was no strength to joke. And this optimism has always helped to take a fresh look at the most difficult and controversial situations. That in football, that in more global things.

An article was published in MK on January 4

https://www.mk.ru/politics/2023/01/04/rossiyskie-futbolnye-fanaty-rasskazali-pro-otnosheniya-i-boi-s-ukrainskimi.html

with him about our fans taking part in the SVO, about the famous Espanyol battalion. Read it, and you will see for yourself what Andrei Malosolov was like.

He also loved his wife and children very much. They were his light and joy, it was even amazing to hear with what kindness and warmth he spoke about them during our long telephone conversations.

I know that Andrei was friends with many. For many, he was a true friend. And we will all miss him greatly. And it hurts a lot.