Maxim Motin

If you work in football club administration you have to love football. It’s not a factory and not an ordinary business. It will take you nowhere if you don’t love it. By the way, when you play football yourself you understand that football players earn their money absolutely deservedly.

Football is the best game in the world. I understood that when I was 4. My dad took me to the football field where guys were playing. I remember that ball, it had some spots on it. So we were standing behind the goalpost, when that ball flew in after a hard shot and hit me directly in my head. It seems to me now that it has determined my destiny.

Breakage of cruciate ligaments of knee is the worst injury I’ve ever got on a football field. In fact it is the worst injury among ones that can allow you to return to football playing. The rehabilitation takes six months, and you have to spend 4-5 hours in a gym every day. After that accident I have changed my attitude towards football players.

Sergey Semak is the most amazing football player I’ve ever worked (?) with. IHe is not just a captain, he is a mega-captain! It’s hard to pick a compliment for him, he’s far better than any epithet. The team, which Semak plays in, has an odd player. On the field and beyond.

If I want to relax I go to the gym or play poker. Besides that there’re alcohol and sauna. Why football isn’t in this list? When you work in the football sphere, it stops being your hobby, and you have to have a rest from your work sometimes.

The most extreme drink I’ve ever tried was a wish-wash served in one of Moscow night clubs. Ten different liquors in one glass… That was the local bartender’s invention. What was it like? I can’t remember.

China is the country I’d like to visit very much. A half of our world depends on this country. But visiting it just as a tourist is not interesting to me. I’d like to spend there a couple of months to take a deep dive into Chinese culture.

In my boyhood days I practiced table tennis professionally. But then I realized that I there was no way I could beat the Chinese table tennis-players, and being the best only in Europe wouldn’t be enough for me.

One morning I packed my backpack, asked my friend to put the Schengen visa in my passport and bought a ticket to Berlin. In 48 hours I started my hitch-hiking journey around Europe. I took a small amount of money intentionally in order to avoid the temptation to travel by train or by airplane. Berlin — Amsterdam — Brussels — Paris — Nice — Milan — Vienna — Munich — Berlin. And that’s aside from the fact that they didn’t let me in Slovakia because they weren’t part of Schengen. At first I thought I as an idiot. Three months later I understood what a great voyage I made.

If my club gains the lead I’m ready for everything. Of course, if my liver and kidneys are still operational.