Vasily Utkin gave life to Russian football with each of his new releases

Everything here is true, except for the beautiful lady. Instead of a beautiful lady, Vasily Utkin had a microphone. He devoted all his tenderness, intelligence, and reverent love to football. He called him, commenting, the most affectionate, non-trivial, non-banal words and expressions. He treated football like the woman he loved.

On the day he died, Match TV showed the return game of the Champions League between Manchester and Real Madrid. Manchester won 4:3, but this was not enough to beat Real Madrid on aggregate. It was a great game, Ronaldo scored three goals, not Cristiano, but Zubastic, the Brazilian. The commentators were Vasily Utkin and Yuri Rozanov, the best of the best, precisely those who are no longer with us. And when Zubastic, having beaten two, put the ball in the very “nine”, Vasya shouted live: “Mom, can you hear me? I’m watching this football! And then he gave a magnificent speech about a dream.

This half-educated philologist, mountain man, first appeared on NTV in 1994. He really adored the Russian language, although he was never able to pass it in his fifth year and left. He unusually loved literature, books, savored, felt the word, cherished and cherished it. The Russian language was his weapon in the struggle, his sweetheart, and his friend. He could write a poem about the Russian language, prose verse no worse than Turgenev’s.

1994… Just recently the Soviet Union collapsed, came apart at the seams, the former prohibitions, the blinders fell away. So what if you don’t have a college degree, go out, try, try. And Vasya went to Anna Dmitrieva, the one who commented on tennis like a king, and suggested making a new football television. How? Remove all stamps, praises, bows. Football is life, and even a little more. Drama, tragicomedy, farce, slapstick (hello, great goalkeeper Buffon). Theater, but life. Like this.

In 1994, Vasya was only 22 years old. Remember: this healthy guy appears on TV and starts talking about football. So lively, unconventional, in the best sense, like an actor, but at the same time, as fans on the street say, removing, of course, all these familiar and beloved words without cases.

Vasya seemed to breathe air into our old football, which in the early 90s was a heartbreaking sight. Without Kyiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Vilnius, Baku… But “Textilshchik” (Kamyshin) appeared in the major league, with all due respect.

With each of his new releases, Vasya gave life to new football, intrigued, dramatized. More life, comrade!

He breathed this life into what already seemed half-dead. He created a theater out of Russian football, and the football players in it are actors. He raised Russian football to the top, brought it to the forefront, looked for and found human emotions in each of the players and coaches… Although our football may not be worthy of such a high regard for itself.

Yes, it was Vasin’s “Football Club”, remember it, guys, with a kind word. In philosophy, being determines consciousness, but in Vasya’s performance the opposite happened: consciousness determined being. The consciousness that was broken was rebuilt by one man with his own program. After that, people believed in Russian football, no less, and went to it. After the Football Club, the stands began to fill up. Vasya found and showed a phenomenal peak interest in sport No. 1.

Well, he commented relishingly, dashingly, subtly and very Russian. Now he is all over the place in quotes, everyone remembers him with great pleasure and bitterness that never again…

I have my own “quote”, proprietary, Jewish, sorry. There is such a Serbian football player Lazar Markovic, Lazar is his first name, Markovic is his last name. And Vasya, commenting on some match of the Serbian national team, with an indescribable Odessa pronunciation, with a burry letter “r”, as we know how, he took and suddenly: “Lazar-r-Mar-r-kovich” – as a middle name. Yes, Vasya, thank you on behalf of all Jews, although someone was probably offended.

You know, I used to really love doing interviews and met with almost everyone: TV presenters, channel heads, artists, directors, writers, politicians, ministers… So, the smartest among everyone (including Posner himself!) turned out to be Vasya, well, who doesn’t know him . With the highest IQ. He put this immeasurable mind, Utkin’s unique irony, and deep knowledge of football into his reports. And they became unique!

Whatever he undertook, he did it perfectly. Here is the Earth-to-Air program on the now defunct TV-6 channel. It seems to be purely musical, pop. But Vasya led her… Vasya was here. This means meanings, jokes and the same excellent Russian language. He was a moderator there between the star, journalists and the viewer, but the kind of moderator whom you always wanted to listen to.

In the film “Election Day,” Vasya Utkin played Igor Vladimirovich Tsaplin, a candidate for governor. There he utters the sacramental phrase: “I’m not interested in football.” This is very funny.

On the radio “Echo of Moscow” he perfectly performed politics, as always humanizing it, he was paradoxical and bright. As always, I dug very deep. By conviction, of course, he is a democrat, but also a statesman.

He was somehow wounded. Some freak with a screwdriver in the back… Also probably offended or hired. But there was always a lot of Vasya, a good person, and the screwdriver didn’t work. Then I wanted to tell everyone: “You can’t wait!” I visited Vasya in the hospital: a solitary ward, his leg was tied at the top, a TV was showing near the ceiling, Vasino’s native NTV. He felt good, so it seemed. At least it’s fun.

The last time it thundered throughout Russia was in 2018. The first signed a contract with him for the duration of the World Cup. He played one match, was brilliant and inimitable. But the intrigue here played against him, and the country lost its favorite commentator. At the same time, as a sign of solidarity and protest, former coach of the Russian national team Leonid Slutsky left TV and stopped commenting.

Yes, Vasya was not an angel in the flesh. With his brilliant Russian language, he could joke so much that it wouldn’t seem too much. Ask Solovyov, he knows. But essentially he was a kind-hearted person, sociable and at the same time very lonely, very big and very gentle inside. Vasya is life in all its manifestations. And when life was gone, no one could believe it.

Eh, Vasya, Vasya. You are the best.