Football player Roman Pavlyuchenko baptized his youngest daughter. Roman Pavlyuchenko: “I decided to wait for Larisa, and so Roman Pavlyuchenko and his wife waited

Larisa Pavlyuchenko: We had “our own” platform in Spartak
They missed each other a little at Spartak: Roman Pavlyuchenko had just signed a contract with English Tottenham when Danish specialist Mikael Laudrup took the helm of the red-and-white team. At the same time, both were looking for housing in new capitals and resolving everyday issues. How is life for ex-Spartak player Pavlyuchenko in London and newly minted mentor Laudrup in Moscow?
We agreed to call Larisa at midnight. It turned out that at such a late hour she was simply following on the Internet an online broadcast of the Tottenham match, where her husband now plays. Towards the end of our conversation, Larisa suddenly received text messages with congratulations: Tottenham took the lead 1:0.
“Did Romka really score?” – the now English lady was somehow happy and at the same time worried.
And indeed, during our interview, Roman Pavlyuchenko scored his first goal in the English Premier League!

– Larisa, will you go to London for Roman?
– We have already looked for housing there. We looked at a lot of houses, but didn’t find anything. Either I liked the house itself, but there was no playground nearby (Roma and Larisa’s daughter is only 2 years old. - Ed.), then the room turned out to be too large, or something else was wrong. As a result, I returned to Moscow to apply for Kristinka’s visa. After the national team match on October 15, the whole family will leave for England, where Roma has already chosen everything himself.

– What is the custom there: the club provides an apartment or do the players rent their own housing?
– The players pay for everything. Renting apartments there is as expensive as in Moscow, so many players immediately buy housing. I looked at house prices in London - they turned out to be 3 times lower than in Moscow!

– Then why didn’t you buy a house?
– First you need to live, understand what’s what, choose an area. Now it is more important than all these everyday problems for Roma to play in the team.

– Who will help you with the housework?
– If everything goes well, we’ll try to pick it up
a woman who worked for us in Moscow. Many advised to do this because it would be difficult to find there. And it’s better if it’s a person the child knows, the one I’m used to. The house there is large, with a swimming pool, and help will be very useful.

– We have already managed to understand the local club routines: is it customary to lock players at the sports base before matches?
– I went to Roma’s very first game for Tottenham. The meeting took place in the evening, and in the afternoon the guys were gathered at the hotel. They had lunch there, rested, played and spent the night at home. No one is being locked down at the bases, and that, of course, makes me happy. Moreover, the longest trip is 4 hours on the road, and on average everywhere is an hour or two by bus.

– Do the wives of football players communicate with each other, as is customary in Russian clubs?
– I noticed that wives were present at the same game, but there weren’t many of them. If we had “our own” stand at Spartak, then at Tottenham everyone rents boxes for the season and watches the games with their children, parents, and relatives.

– The British press claims that the British will still acquire Andrei Arshavin during the winter “window”. Do you know his wife?
– Yes, Yulia and I have a good relationship, and I will be glad if one of our people appears in the club. Of course, Roma is trying to communicate with the guys from the team there, but it would be easier with ours.

– They said that his wife would not let Pavlyuchenko go to England.
“I read that too, and it was very offensive and unpleasant.” In fact, I always told Roma: “Choose for yourself. We just live there, and you play. Whatever you decide, we will always support you and go with you.” Roma kept calling me and asking: “How can you get used to it?” And I answered: “Don’t think about us. It’s better to go and try than in a few years, when your career is at an end, to regret that you didn’t take the chance.”

– Then why was this decision to change the club so difficult?
“The offer just came unexpectedly.” And in fact, it was scary to change everything when everything was going so well in Moscow. If something had not worked out for him on the team, then they would have left easily. And the child here is in his own environment. She has friends in her yard. Christina had just started chatting; they wanted to send her to kindergarten in a year.

– This is not the first time you have moved from place to place...
– Well, by football standards we don’t move around that often yet. When we moved from Volgograd to Moscow, I was very worried that there were no friends in the capital. A very friendly team gathered in Volgograd, where we all communicated with each other. In Moscow, we were faced with the fact that in the new club the guys live very far from each other and communicate less. Nevertheless, over time we made acquaintances and settled down. And now everything is all over again. But nothing, the main thing is that everything works out for Roma in England.

Michael Laudrup: I'm looking for a school for my daughter

“For me, there are two important things in life – football and family,” said Michael Laudrup after signing a contract with Spartak Moscow for 1.5 years. – Therefore, before accepting the offer from this Russian club, we discussed various everyday problems for a long time. I have three children. The eldest son Mads plays for Copenhagen and lives in Denmark, the second son Andreas trains in Spain with Real Madrid (although he does not have a contract yet), but the youngest daughter Rebecca is still in school. In Spain, she studied for 2 years in a good international school, so I could not tell her: “And now, dear, you will go to a regular Russian school.” Education is very important for her, so we are placing her in a good educational institution.
“The fact that when concluding a contract with Laudrup, much attention was paid to everyday things only shows that the legendary football player came to Russia for more than one day,” says Spartak General Director Valery Karpin. – Mikael is here to work, to return the team to its Spartak style of play, so the coach wants his family to feel comfortable in the new country. The biggest problem arose with placing his daughter in an Anglo-American school, where children of employees of the American, British and Canadian diplomatic departments study. Unfortunately, even in foreign colleges in Russia there is a good bureaucratic system. Now all that remains is to send her medical certificate and assessments from Spain. After studying this data, the college will decide whether to accept her or not. The school year began, but Rebecca, unfortunately, never sat down at her school desk.

According to Spartak translator Roman Askhabadze, who spends a lot of time with Mikael and helps him in resolving some issues, Laudrup has already decided on the place where he will live in Moscow and is going to move there in mid-October. In the meantime, Mikael's family lives in a hotel.

– The head coach of Spartak is entitled to a car with a driver, so Mikael has not yet driven around Moscow on his own. The only thing he doesn’t like about the capital so far is the terrible traffic jams. In Spain, where he lived for a long time, there were no such traffic jams.

sobesednik.ru
[Reported by O.K.T.M. ]

The heart of a football player has long been occupied by one single woman. When Roman met Larisa, they were younger than Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - they were only twelve years old...

Roman Pavlyuchenko with his wife Larisa. Photo: personal archive of the Pavlyuchenko family.

Roman considers his main asset to be his family - his wife and daughter. He is a loving husband, a caring father. Over twelve years of marriage, their feelings only grew stronger, worldly wisdom appeared, so necessary in family relationships. By the way, the story of the famous athlete is a worthy answer to skeptics who claim that serious feelings and strong family unions cannot arise in young years.

How did you meet?
Roman Pavlyuchenko:“My parents and I moved to the Moskovsky microdistrict of the city of Cherkessk, and I went to a new school, where I met Larisa. In general, there were only two schools in this town, and I was lucky that I ended up in the right one.”
Larisa Pavlyuchenko:“I was in sixth grade when Roma came to us. The only empty seat was next to me, and the teacher seated us together. That’s how our first meeting took place.”

Do you remember the impression you made on each other?
Larisa:“Roma was fair, with stunning blue eyes and a charming smile. It was very interesting for me to communicate with him: who he is, where he came from to our school, what he does. And somehow it just happened that we became friends.”
Novel:“As far as I remember, Larisa and her twin sister Sveta immediately caught my eye. They both stood out against the general background - tall, beautiful, bright. There are people who involuntarily immediately attract attention to themselves. Sisters are just one of those.”

Was this your first childhood love? Did you walk me home?
Larisa:“No, we lived in different areas. There were no hints of romance, we were just friends. Although at school for some reason everyone considered us a couple. And after two years we began to go to the movies, take walks, and go to nature. But, to be honest, I didn’t understand that Roma was in love with me and that I myself had similar feelings.”

If it’s not a secret, Roman, why did you choose Larisa and not her sister?
Novel:“In fact, initially I really liked Larisa - beautiful, smart, charming. But some young man was already courting her, so, one might say, I was left out of work. Then I tried to show interest in Sveta, but she immediately made it clear that she was only interested in studying and did not need new friends. In addition, the sisters studied well, but I did so-so. That’s why I didn’t arouse any interest in Svetlana. And I decided to wait for Larisa, and so I waited.”

Are the sisters very similar to each other? Have you ever confused them?
Larisa:“Sveta and I are different in character. Maybe that’s why she had her own girlfriends, and I had mine. Although outwardly we really are like two peas in a pod.”
Novel:“And the voices are similar too. Visually, I began to distinguish them quite quickly, but by voice I could not for a long time. I often call, I hear Larisa on the phone, I start talking and then I realize that it’s actually Sveta who answered the phone. But over time, I learned to avoid this confusion too.”

When did you realize that this was not just friendship, but a real deep feeling?
Larisa:“I realized that he was in love with me on New Year’s Day. We celebrated this holiday according to tradition with the whole class. We kissed for the first time while the chimes were striking. And after that they started dating not as friends, but as a guy and a girl. And then, in the ninth grade, he went to study at a specialized sports boarding school, which was located in another city. I understood that this was very important and simply necessary for him, because he had always been involved in football and connected his future with it. And I missed Roma. It was unusual that he was far away and we didn’t see each other or communicate. With his departure, my life changed. Probably at that moment, for the first time, I thought that our relationship was something other than friendship. Long-distance calls were quite expensive, so we wrote letters to each other. I waited impatiently for news from Romka and answered him right away.”
Novel:“When I was getting ready to leave, Larisa and my sister decided to go with me. So let's say, carry out. They didn’t tell anyone where they were going: apparently, they didn’t realize that the road was long—several hours one way. The sisters returned back very late. They had a great time at home. There were no cell phones then, and parents were exhausted, racking their brains and worrying about where the children could have disappeared to.”
Larisa:“Then one day Roma’s mother told me that she spoke to him on the phone, that he was in a bad mood, he was very bored, and she offered to visit him at the boarding school with her. Of course, I agreed. We didn’t have any declarations of love, like in books and films, because there are situations when everything is clear without further ado.”

Remember how Roman proposed to you?
Larisa:“You can’t say that he proposed to me. The two of us just decided to get married. Then I studied law in Stavropol, and Roma played in Volgograd. I went to see him very often. My parents weren’t against our relationship, but they didn’t like me going back and forth.”
Novel:“That’s when we decided to get married and live together. Although, to be honest, I realized long before that that Larisa was exactly the woman with whom I would like to live my whole life and start a family.”

It turns out that you, Larisa, left college for the sake of your loved one?
Larisa:“No, I finished my studies and received my diploma. After all, since childhood I dreamed of becoming a lawyer. But I never had to work in my specialty. Family, home, frequent moving from place to place... And then my daughter was born, and I also began to take care of the child. But I think over time I’ll still go to work.”
Novel:“And I wouldn’t want that. I will try in the future to provide for my family so that my wife does not work and my family never needs anything.”

But women sometimes try to work not because of financial problems, but for the sake of self-expression...
Novel:“I still don’t want Larisa to engage in professional activities. My position may seem selfish, but it is important for me that my wife is next to me, with my daughter. Knowing her well, I understand that she cannot work half-heartedly; she is characterized by complete dedication. Whatever she does, she always gives it her all. This means that I will see her less often. I would like everything to remain as it is now. May she always be by my side. And when returning home, I hope to always find her at our family hearth. True, I don’t think it’s right to force Larisa to give up something, I can only ask.”
They say that your wedding did not go very smoothly...
Larisa:“We had a wonderful wedding, but there was a person who wanted to ruin our holiday. The fact is that when Roma played in Volgograd, he had an ardent fan. I was still living in another city at that time. And this girl came up with something for herself, imagined the possibility of mutual love with Roman, tried to hit on him. Then, when I arrived, she apparently realized that there was no chance for her here, but instead of leaving us alone, she began to do minor dirty tricks. There is no other way to call it. She came to the wedding as the girlfriend of one of Romina’s teammates. She behaved disgustingly, defiantly, and said various nasty things. When she was asked to leave, she did not react. In the literal sense of the word, I had to throw this girl out the door. In general, the lady is strange. She even tried to pester my father-in-law, but she quickly got slapped there too.”

This is already fanaticism...
Larisa:"Yes. Roma has a lot of fans, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But I don’t understand those girls who begin to build some illusions, write all sorts of absurdities about me on the Internet: “I don’t like Larisa Pavlyuchenko. She’s so and so...” Firstly, I shouldn’t evoke any feelings in them, and secondly, how can you voice something like that if they don’t know me at all? At first it was unpleasant for me to encounter such outpourings, but now I’m indifferent to them, I just don’t pay attention.”

Maybe this is just a manifestation of jealousy on their part. Were you jealous of Roman yourself?
Larisa:“He never gave me any reason. “Besides, I trust my husband and know that he will never let me down.”
Novel:“In general, it only seems from the outside that being a football player’s wife is easy and very cool. In fact, this is real work. She has to adapt to the rhythm of my life: she followed me around to different cities of Russia - like an officer’s wife, and went to London. Plus, my character is not a gift; if something doesn’t work out, I freak out. She carries a lot on her shoulders. And if I had been in her place, I probably would have shot myself. And Larisa never complains about how hard it is for her, and does not point out how much she has done for me and for our family.”

You got married in 2000, and your daughter was born only five years later. Didn't want to have children right away?
Larisa:“We wanted to, but at first it didn’t work out. Firstly, we were nineteen years old, and secondly, I was still studying. Yes, and it takes time to just get on your feet. You know, they say, everything has its time. I found out that I was pregnant on December 31st. We were just getting ready to go to a New Year's party with friends, I was already getting ready. And then I think - I need to do a test, otherwise I keep putting it off. As soon as it became clear from the results that I was pregnant, weakness immediately fell on me. I understand that this sounds funny, but I lay down on the sofa, and it seemed to me that my head was spinning and it was hard to move, and immediately I began to feel all the possible symptoms of pregnancy. In a word, we decided not to go anywhere and celebrated 2006 at home together.”

Was your husband nearby when your daughter was born?
Novel:"No. That day I had a very important game - the issue of Spartak’s entry into the group stage of the Champions League was being decided (Pavlyuchenko played for this club at that time. - Author’s note). And when I left home, everything was fine. As they say, there were no signs."
Larisa:“Then I started having contractions and went to the maternity hospital. Romka did not call. I understood how important this match was, I didn’t want him to be nervous.”
Novel:“We won 2-1 that day. And I scored the decisive goal. Returning from the field to the locker room, I started calling my wife, but she didn’t answer. When I failed to reach her on the phone within half an hour, I began to worry and realized that something had happened. Her doctor told me that Larisa was in the maternity hospital, and I immediately went to see my wife.”

Men, as a rule, dream of sons...
Novel:“And from the very beginning I dreamed of a daughter. Of course, if a boy were born, I would also be incredibly happy. But a daughter is something special. Double Happiness. I wouldn’t mind if we had a girl a second time.”

Would you like to add to your family?
Larisa:"Yes. Christina is now six years old. And you can already think about a second child. In any case, we have such plans.”

Who does the daughter look more like - dad or mom?
Larisa:"On both. Both in appearance and in character. Just like me, she studies with interest, is diligent and assiduous. I took after my dad in his activity and emotionality.”
Novel:“If something doesn’t work out for her, she reacts very violently. This is exactly what I like.”

Does your daughter watch football and root for you?
Novel:“Yes, yes. Sometimes I come home after a game, and she shows me the gestures with which I celebrated my goal. I ask: “How do you know?” And Christina answers that she watched the match on TV. If our team wins, my daughter rejoices and congratulates us. When we lose, she tries to support. She says: “You can’t just win all the time...” At the age of six, she finds words of consolation that really help her cope with the bitterness of defeat.”

Do you discuss past matches with Larisa?
Novel:"Yes. She often goes to the stadium to cheer or watches the game at home. And then in the evening we analyze what was right and what was wrong. Sometimes I even get angry with her, because it’s always easier to evaluate from the sidelines, sitting in the stands, than in the midst of the game itself on the field. But I understand that the wife’s impartial words are most often fair. We must give her credit: she knows how to tell the bitter truth and support in difficult times. In general, I believe that informed criticism is more necessary and important than creating illusions.”

Larisa, do you often hear your husband being scolded? How do you react?
Larisa:“As a rule, this happens when people don’t know that I am the wife of Roman Pavlyuchenko. If complaints about the case are expressed, this is still acceptable and understandable. But this rarely happens. Usually they scold for no reason. So, just recently I was riding in a taxi with a friend, the driver was talkative and was talking about football. Both Roma and his colleagues got it. The reasoning boiled down to the fact that football players have huge salaries, but they don’t want to play, they just hang out and drink. And so, they say, they have nothing to do: well, once a week, or even less often, run around the field for ninety minutes - and that’s all. And this driver spoke in such a way that one got the impression that he knew the topic from the inside, and not from hearsay.”

Did you tell him that you are a footballer's wife?
Larisa:"No. And why? It is stupid to explain to a person that he is mistaken and in fact everything is not as simple as he thinks. The reality is completely different from what many people imagine. Matches are on schedule, but training is daily. Therefore, I see my husband less often than the wives of men engaged in other activities. And if someone else came home after a shift, relaxed and left all the difficulties at his workplace until tomorrow, then my husband brings all this home. Analyzes, relives, thinks how and what to do next. We must not forget about injuries and health problems that sometimes arise if a person plays sports professionally. Being a footballer is not as easy as it seems. And it’s easy to judge others when you haven’t done anything like that yourself. Believe me, the same taxi driver could have made several comments about the way he drives the car - it’s far from ideal, but this is his bread, his profession. In a word, I didn’t say who I was, but, naturally, I couldn’t remain silent, I began to argue and prove that his comments were unfair. However, as I expected, he did not hear me. He likes his own theory."

Do you tell Roman about such meetings?
Larisa: “As a rule, I try to remain silent. I don’t want to needlessly upset my husband. If the criticism had been justified, I would have voiced it at home. And so, why convey someone else’s empty eloquence? Although we now remembered the negative statements and did not mention that there are also people who come up and say kind words and express their support. Thank you very much that they consider it necessary to do this. Their words also help to survive the defeat and get ready for a new game, for future victories.”

Let's get back to pleasant topics. Roman, how do you choose gifts for your wife?
Novel:“I like to please her with something, and even more I like to give her surprises. True, it is not always possible to keep this a secret. So, for example, I decided to give my wife a car. I spent a long time choosing, preparing, and negotiating. Then I presented the car to Larisa, she was very happy, and only after some time I found out that there was no surprise. From my telephone conversations, she guessed what I was going to do. And although it was not possible to maintain secrecy, I am not upset, on the contrary: it means that my wife knows me very well. There is nothing wrong".

Do you fight over driving? As a rule, men don't like the way their wives drive...
Novel:“There are no quarrels, but we make comments to each other. If I am driving a car, and my wife is nearby, she begins to tell me how to act in a given traffic situation. In this case, I say: “Stop!” I’m driving now!” And that’s where the argument ends. But, I confess, when Larisa acts as a driver, and I act as a passenger, I also begin to teach her how best to change lanes, where to turn. She answers me with my own words: “Stop!” Now I’m driving!’ And I fall silent. And this is correct: whoever steers is right, and unnecessary advice only distracts from the road.”

Do quarrels ever happen in your family?
Larisa:“I wouldn’t say that we are quarreling. Conflicts, of course, happen, as in any family. Or maybe there are even fewer of them, since we are used to listening to each other and discussing everything. That’s why we simply don’t get into quarrels.”
Novel:“It happens, sometimes I start screaming if something doesn’t happen the way I would like. Larisa listens wisely, and then, when the intensity of passions subsides, she expresses her opinion.”

Sons-in-law often tell jokes about their mothers-in-law. How is your relationship, Roman, with Larisa’s mother?
Novel:“I have a golden mother-in-law! I love her very much, and she loves me back. This shows up in everything. When my wife and I gather to visit her parents, I have no doubt that there will definitely be manti on the generously laid table with pickles. She knows that I love them, and therefore, no matter how busy she is, she will make them for me. She loves to spoil me."
Larisa:“Unlike many daughters-in-law, I also have complete mutual understanding with my mother-in-law. She is a wonderful person and we both love Roma. But it seems to me that everything turned out exactly this way, and not otherwise, also because she treats me sincerely, kindly, tenderly, like a daughter.”

Who makes decisions in your family?
Larisa:"With common effort. We try to look for ways together: I come to Roma for advice, he comes to me. There aren’t many situations where you have to decide something on your own.”
Novel:“In fact, I am capable of spontaneous, impulsive decisions, and I made them, which I often regretted. Larisa is a different person. First of all, she weighs all the pros and cons, looks at the root of the situation, tries to predict what this or that action may lead to, so she, with her thoughtful decisions, rarely gets into trouble. Now I try to discuss almost all questions with my wife before giving my answer. She is far-sighted and rarely makes mistakes. Besides, we have the same family, and therefore the same interests.”

Roman PAVLYUCHENKO’s wife has not yet been to Warsaw. It was her first time to come to such a major tournament as the European Championship. At first Larisa refused to talk, but then we finally met in the bar of the Intercontinental Hotel.

The pretty wife of the Russian national team forward set a condition: no photographs. Larisa caught a cold, although she looked her best!

- Do you always stay in such cool hotels abroad?

Many wives of national team players live in Intercontinental. Our placement was handled by the RFU. The girls and I became friends, we live like one family.

- What stopped you from coming to Euro 2008, where your husband was included in the symbolic team?

Our daughter Christina was still very young at that time. I didn’t dare give it to my nanny or grandma.

- How do you like Warsaw? Weren't you upset by what happened before the Poland-Russia match?

It was terrible! Faces distorted with anger, fights, blood... It’s bad when politics interferes with football. I liked Warsaw itself; I didn’t think it was such a green city. True, at the hotel they tried to cheat us at dinner. The waiter brought three bottles of wine, said - for tasting, and added it to the bill. But we refused to pay.

- Roman scored a goal for the Czechs. Did you reward him with a kiss that evening?

But of course!

An unforgettable evening at Arshavin's

- You are always very stylishly dressed. Who helps you look so good?

When my husband was invited to Tottenham and we moved to London, at first I looked closely at what the wives of other football players looked like. It turned out to be nothing special. Blouse, jeans, some makeup. It's on the podium. Another thing is techniques. There were sables and diamonds, so I had to match. But in general, I will never buy myself a fashionable dress if I feel uncomfortable in it. In Europe, people dress more simply.

- Which players’ wives did you communicate with most often?

- Larisa, your husband is a millionaire. Are you counting money?

Every person counts money - it doesn’t matter whether he is rich or poor. The more you earn, the more your head hurts - where to invest this money. There have been so many cases: an athlete ends his career and eats his money, doing odd jobs. We need to think about the future now.

Two honors diplomas

At school, Larisa and Roman sat at the same desk, and the future forward of the Russian national team often copied homework from his neighbor. She graduated from school with a gold medal, left the university where she studied to become a lawyer with honors, but devoted herself entirely to her family.

- Isn’t it a shame that your years of study were actually wasted?

We are often criticized: they say that the wives of football players do not want to work. Yes, I would go, but Roma wants me to stay at home and take care of the child. And by the way, I have not one, but two honors diplomas. I really loved studying.

- Which of you learned English faster in London?

Oh I do not know. The local press wrote that Roma did not master the language well. But in my opinion, he was just shy. At home he spoke normally. But he was embarrassed at the sight of journalists.

- Are you protecting Roma...

But he's my husband! ( Laughs.) By the way, in England there are no such training camps before the match as in Russia. Roma left for training and was home two hours later. There was time to go to the theater, and to exhibitions, and to concerts.

- You are well acquainted with the actress Chulpan Khamatova...

Chulpan and Dina Korzun More than once they organized charity evenings in London, and my husband and I were invited. These people brought me to tears - they do so much good for people! We communicate regularly.

- What feelings did you experience when Roman said: that’s it, we’re leaving London and returning to Moscow?

To be honest, I didn’t want to leave. I cried quietly into my pillow. Why, I was sobbing, the stress was extreme. Especially because of my daughter. She already had friends there; English was easy for Christina. For the sake of her future, for the sake of a good education, staying in London for a few more years would be right. But Roma could not go to Moscow alone - we have been with him almost since childhood. When we returned to Russia, I was depressed for two months. My daughter still asks: “Mom, when are we going back to London?”

- Are you settled in now?

We have just finished renovations in our Moscow apartment. It lasted for two whole years.

- Is the apartment big?

Six rooms. Two of them are for children.

- You have one child!

Roman says he wants another daughter. He loves girls.

- In what sense?

Oh! ( Laughs.) Not in the way you thought. There are simply men who only need a son. But Roma is not like that.

- Did Roman express a desire to be present at the birth?

They were hard for me, and at that moment I didn’t want to see anyone. I was in labor for almost a day. Roma had a game that day, after the match he called, but the doctors had already taken my phone away. Before that, I managed to send an SMS saying that I’ll give birth soon. The husband saw the child the next day.

- Usually, after giving birth, women gain weight, but you remained just as slim. How did you do it?

I ran, did special exercises, tried not to eat after six.

Roman once admitted that he threw his alarm clock at the wall a couple of times out of emotion. How do you let off steam? Can you beat your husband?

No, it doesn't come to that. ( Laughs.) I’ll grumble, make an offended face and go to my room. But I’m quick-witted, just like Roma.

Some believe that Roman, having become famous, has changed. They say arrogance has appeared. Has it remained the same for you?

Yes. Fame doesn't affect him at all! He knows how to make fun of himself and admit mistakes.

-Where will you go on vacation?

What vacation? Lokomotiv A players are already preparing for the new season. After the European Championship, Roma may be given a week or two of rest, but we are unlikely to have time to go somewhere.

-Where did you go on vacation last year?

In the south of France, along with Dmitry Torbinsky and his wife visited Saint-Tropez, Cannes, Monaco. I am delighted with French cuisine and the Cote d'Azur. It’s just a pity that it didn’t make it to the Cannes Film Festival.

The wife of the Russian national team and English Tottenham striker, in an epic interview for Football Magazine, talks about a crying lizard, a black silk suit with white tigers and her husband’s tattoos, complains about the lack of decent clubs in London and recalls how she left a strange Volgograd woman with nothing, ready for all.

On August 10, the Russian national team played with Serbia, then the time will come for the decisive qualifying matches for the European Championship. Does Roma now regret that he spoke out about his favorites in the national team and thereby ruined his relationship with Advocate?

– I think Roma is simply not at the age when you need to sit and be silent. When you are 22–23 years old, you do not have the right to open your mouth, because first you need to achieve something, and then express your thoughts. And at Romina’s age and status, when he has already proven something to the country, when Advokat came to the team, knowing full well who Roman Pavlyuchenko is, it is no longer possible to remain silent. For me, Romka is always for the truth. He told me: “You know, if I saw the reason why they didn’t appoint me, I would sit and be silent.” By the way, he said the same things to the Lawyer in a personal conversation, that is, he did not say all this behind his back.

But then Roma was assigned to play against Armenia, and he scored three goals. Didn't you discuss his post-match feelings with him? Can this match be considered one of his best performances for the national team?

– I think that if it were not Armenia, but Spain or England, one could say so. In general, all goals without exception bring him joy. The main thing is victory. He never cared whether he scored three, two or one - the main thing was that the team won.

- Which Roma match do you think is the best?

- With England, in Luzhniki. When we qualified for the European Championship. This is probably the most important match.

- Were you on the podium then?

– No, the fact is that Malakhov invited me to the studio along with the wife of Arshavin and Malafeev. The filming took place before the match, and after recording the program we had to be quickly escorted to the stadium. And that day my child fell ill, the nanny called and said that the temperature was 40, and of course I went home.

When Hiddink left, Roma said that if there had been no one on the plane then, he would have cried. Is he really that sentimental? He says he can cry while listening to movies?

- For movies? Hardly.

- Well, he told me how he cried to “Hachiko”...

- And, probably, it was not with me. But in general he is pitiful. Can't stand tears. As soon as I cry, the whole world is mine (laughs). As for Hiddink, everything really was like that. And he didn’t understand why management did this. The man did a lot for our country, but he wasn’t even honored.

“She even tried to pester Romkin’s father”

- How did you spend your summer?

“We thought for a very long time about where to fly. At first we were going to Mallorca with the Torbinskys, but then we realized that the flights were very long, and we would have lost 2 days due to connecting flights. Therefore, we decided to fly to France again. We have been spending our holidays there for three years in a row, only on different coasts. Just before the flight, we were pleasantly surprised when we saw a large company - Rebko and his wife, Epurean and the Sheshukovs. Rebko only visited after the wedding - with Alka-Seltzer (laughs). It was a lot of fun on the plane; we had an adventurous flight. We spent one day with the guys in Cannes, and then we flew with the Torbinskys to Saint-Tropez.

The football world is a small place indeed! What's the funniest meeting you've had on vacation, when you absolutely didn't expect to meet some football player, and then - oops - he looms around the corner?

– So in the same Saint-Tropez we went to dinner at a restaurant with the Torbinskys. When suddenly a huge yacht floats up, we look - Rooney is sitting with his wife. And we had dinner for two days on this embankment and for two days we watched from the sidelines how well they were having a rest with their salaries.

- Come on, our salaries are also good! Although Rooney probably gets more...

– More is putting it mildly. He's still a star.

- And Roma is also a star, albeit on a Russian scale...

“We’re not old enough to buy yachts yet.”

- Do you think it was their own yacht?

- I think it's rented. But, by the way, looking at Rooney, we thought how well we were having a rest. Everything is calm, no one bothers us. Mostly the British recognized us; the Russians, if they recognized us, did not touch us. And Rooney sat on his yacht on the second floor in a cap and glasses, and every passerby took pictures of him.

- Is publicity putting pressure on Roma in Russia?

– It was very difficult after the European Championships. It was generally impossible to go anywhere. Apparently, then people who had not watched it before became addicted to football.

- I think the girls should have immediately become interested in Roma. He is a man with texture and a beautiful smile.

- Yes, that’s how it was, now everything has calmed down. They recognize him everywhere, they come up to him, ask for autographs, but there is no such madhouse as after the European Championship, when girls could rush after him and cry. This is funny! They behaved very badly, they wrote all sorts of nasty things on social networks. I think there is no need to pay attention to this. Those people who treat me well, for whom I have not crossed the path, they write normally. And those who have an eye on Roma write nasty things. How can they even like Pavlyuchenko’s wife? She's terrible! If you like a person very much, then they try to look for flaws in his other half. This has always been the case, and not only in the football environment.

- Has it ever happened that they would guard Roma at the entrance, write love messages on the walls, or call?

- A long time ago. Roma and I had not yet gotten married. He had some kind of fan. He moved to Volgograd, and I was far away, in Stavropol. And she tried to somehow hit on Roma. When I arrived, she immediately realized that he was inaccessible to her. And then it began. She came to our wedding as the girlfriend of a football player from Romina’s team. She tried to ruin my wedding, she said all sorts of nasty things. They had already begun to kick her out of there; she didn’t want to leave.

- She tried to date one person on the same team, and then another?

- It was very funny. When she realized that nothing would work out with Romka, she even tried to pester Romka’s father. There she was already quickly cut off. So there are a lot of stories in football life.

“There aren’t even any good clubs in London.”

- What other trips do you remember?

– The most memorable one is to Thailand. A lizard settled in our bed, and we didn’t get much sleep that week because it cried so much at night. It was impossible to get her out; she crawled into the crack. She was tiny, but she cried so much that our nights turned into a nightmare.

Young Spartak player Pasha Yakovlev once said that in Thailand he wandered onto a famous street where prostitutes worked. What impressions did you have after visiting her?

– We didn’t go to these shows. It turns out that they didn’t see the most important thing (laughs). We only saw transvestite shows. I don’t even know why we didn’t show curiosity... At first we couldn’t even understand where they were pulling their hands. Nobody told us about this. Then we thought it was just a brothel and they were dragging us there. We didn't know that there was also a show there.

- You constantly spend vacations with the Torbinskys. How long has Roma been such close friends with Dima?

– They are best friends since the days of Spartak. When we arrive from London, the first thing we do is call Torbinsky and Khomich.

- Is Khomich now in Alania?

- Yes. But anyway, we come to the national team, they have some days off, and we see each other all the time. Again, we go on vacation together.

- I wonder why Roma became friends with Khomich?

– That’s how they played at Spartak.

- But Khomich was the second goalkeeper...

- What's the difference? Wojciech Kowalewski always brought us all together, united the team, we often went out somewhere together. And there, as in any team, people appeared who you liked best, with whom it was easiest for you to communicate.

- How easy was it to find a common language with the other halves of the players?

– The second half is the second half, nothing can be done about it. This is probably why we communicate so closely with the Torbinskys and Khomichs, because I am close friends with Zhenya and Alina. These are my friends. So do the guys. So everything came together very well. If my wives and I had not found a common language, the guys would only communicate at the base, and that’s all.

- And in England, of course, you must be friends with Zhirkov, Bilyaletdinov and Arshavin.

– London is very big. We live on the outskirts, right next to the base. And the guys – Zhirkov and Arshavin – are in the center. They, of course, see each other more often. We can spend a couple of evenings a week together. Or when I go into town alone to go shopping, I always call the girls. Bilyaletdinova also tries to spend every weekend in London.

- What do you do there besides shopping?

– We usually go to a restaurant for dinner. There are no good clubs in London. When you come to ours, you can sit and have a snack. If you dance, there is plenty of space around, but they stood up like a herring. And there are still a lot of paparazzi there, so you won’t have much fun. Football players are being caught. And there is no point in going somewhere if your photo appears in the newspaper the next morning.

“Even if you step on someone’s foot, they will still say “Sorry” to you.

- At the matches in Luzhniki you had a family stand. Is there something similar at White Hart Lane?

- Yes, the same platform. It is considered family. They give us four tickets, we come with children, but in fact everything there is much more thought out than in Russia. There is a children's room where they work with the child: draw, sculpt, bake cakes in the microwave. At the last game, the kids made spaghetti, then the nanny packed it up. We were driving after the match, I told Kristinka: “It’s late, get some sleep.” She says: “No, I’m hungry” - she needs to cook her own pasta. We also tried her pasta.

- Do you go to all London Tottenham games or only home ones?

– In England, everything is very difficult with tickets, so only for home ones.

- If the calendar allows, do you and Roma attend matches of other foreign players?

– You used to be able to come to Zhirkov, but then they made subscriptions only for the family or only for the wife, they don’t even let parents in. We go to Arshavin.

- What really surprised you besides the children's room at the Spurs stadium?

– First of all, there is a culture of pain. The fans there, unlike ours, always support their team.

- How to convince our people that this is normal?

- No need to convince. Everyone decides for himself why he comes to the stadium - to swear at a player, get negative emotions or cheer for his favorite team.

To what do you attribute the fact that most people actually go to the stadium to throw out their negativity?

- This is how our life is. So not only at the stadium, come to Sberbank or to the supermarket for sausage - everything is the same. In England, you go to the supermarket and everyone smiles at you. Even if you step on someone’s foot, they will still say “Sorry” to you, as if he is to blame, not you. In general, I was somehow interested in why people in English stadiums don’t behave like ours. It turned out that everyone who comes to the stadium is a member, and they have his data. If this fan allows himself to show a banana to a black player, he will never be allowed to go to football again. And for the British this is the worst thing in life.

- So what should we do?

- It seems to me that it is useless to do anything.

“Why were you hanging around with him then, walking, walking?”

- Yulia Arshavina said that in London you go to a grocery store and it’s even difficult to choose milk.

- No, she probably said that when she first arrived there. There are Russian-Lithuanian shops in London. We buy the same condensed milk, flour, buckwheat - we take everything there.

- I understand that you cook Roma’s dinners?

– Yes, I cook the same as in Russia. The first is required every day. My Romka cannot live without soups and borscht. In general, we always have first, second and compote.

- Do you like to stand by the stove?

- I'm used to it. This must be laid down from childhood - you see how your mother does it. After the 9th grade, my sister and I moved from Karachay-Cherkessia to study law in another city, in Armavir, and lived there on our own in a dormitory. We had nowhere to go. After Armavir, I went to Stavropol, to the institute - there, too, there was no personal cook.

You met Roma at school, in the 6th grade, in Karachay-Cherkessia. Tell us how to maintain interest in each other over such a period of time?

– It seems to me that love lasts a year. Then relationships are formed that last a lifetime. When I don’t see Roma for a month, like in the case of Euro 2008, I feel like I’ve fallen in love again. The main thing is to maintain respect for each other. If you respect a person, you will do everything for him - cook, clean, look after him, give him gifts. In return, the person will understand that he loves you for this care, and will reciprocate.

Roma told me that when he came to your class, you already had a fiancé. And now, when you say that you didn’t love anyone except Roma, he asks you: “Why did you hang around with him then, walk, walk?”

– You can understand what a groom might be like in the sixth grade (laughs). There was one boy who looked after me. He constantly came to school and tried to push Romka away from me. He was jealous of Romka.

“Wife, can’t you buy earrings for yourself? Go and buy it"

- You and your sister are twins. Why did Roma choose you?

– Firstly, he sat with me at the desk. Well, Svetka and I were very different in childhood. She, for example, believed in God, was directly obsessed with these things, never tried not to joke, reacted very strangely to all the boys’ antics, and avoided them. And Romka was smart, all the teachers cried because of him, they constantly kicked him out of lessons. Romka will take and send a note around the class: “Whose socks are on the ceiling?” - that’s it, the whole class was immediately distracted, classes were disrupted. When he went to a sports boarding school in Stavropol, the whole class missed him!

- And you?

- Of course, I missed you. We had just started dating then. We had an Autumn Ball at school: I was chosen as queen, and he was chosen as king. I saw that he was training to dance with me. But at first I didn’t even notice that he was courting me, I thought that we were just good friends. Then his mother told me how he loved me and was jealous. We usually celebrated the New Year with the whole class, and for the first time he kissed me just as the chimes were striking. So every time we celebrate the New Year and the start date of our relationship. Then, in the 9th grade, he went to Stavropol, and six months later I left for Armavir. We were in different parts, but there were no mobile phones. So we are still in the era of letters. He wrote beautiful letters of twenty sentences (laughs).

In an interview, Roma told me that the main gift you gave each other was a daughter. But maybe there is some kind of material gift that Roma surprised you with?

– I gave him a car that year. In fact, these are all such nonsense - these gifts. I sometimes jokingly say to him: “Rom, you haven’t given me earrings for so long.” He replies: “Wife, can’t you buy them for yourself? Go and buy it." We're already laughing at this. We know each other so well that it is no longer even possible to make surprises. When he wanted to give me this car, he hid all sorts of documents from me for a whole year. But I still recognized him - by his whispering on the phone in another room, by his mysterious smile.

I don’t know much about cars at all, but I read an interview with the Arshavins here, they said that they drive a Citroen. It seemed to me that this was too democratic for a football player.

– Andrey, in my opinion, is not sick of cars at all. Either way, my Roma is a little turned into a car. For me, the car would be safe, comfortable and family-friendly.

- Another hobby of Romino’s in recent years is tattoos. How did you let him?

– I myself have a tattoo, I got it for 10 years of marriage. Romkin's initials are stamped there. It didn't even hurt!

- How did you dare to do this?

- Very easy. When you live with a person for 10 years... And Romka has several tattoos. He filled himself with “Save and Save” and our three dates. Then I made another half-arm drawing.

- They say that if you start getting tattoos, then you can’t stop.

- It's probably about him. But definitely not about me.

- In London. I have a friend there, her boyfriend is a very good tattoo artist. Romka also got his first tattoo done by him, and the second one was done by the master whom all the Tottenham guys go to. Romka said that it was very difficult for him to explain what “Save and Preserve” was. He came up with this text himself, without consulting anyone.

“Someone had boots in the locker room, he took the laces out of them and put in different colored ones instead.”

Tell us about Roma's relationship with Redknapp. After all, you were the one who had to endure Romino’s bad mood when he wasn’t in the lineup.

“I just tried to support him constantly.” I don’t know how it is in other families, but with us all decisions are made mutually. We weigh all the pros and cons together. For example, if you return to Russia, where? There were moments when he said: “That’s it, I can’t take it anymore, let’s pack up and leave.” I said: “Okay, Rom, where to? So, what is next? This is why you tried to play football all your life, did you try? You gave half your life to come back, so that they would say that you are the same as everyone else, incapable of anything?! If you have already come here, please fight to the last, achieve.”

- Before the new season, were you worried that Roma might be put up for transfer?

– No, due to the situation, I thought that we would stay. Judging by the interviews between Redknapp and management, they did not intend to sell Roma. The fact that Tottenham fans love him very much plays a big role here. They love it very much.

- How are things going with you and Roma with a foreign language? Have you mastered it?

– Roma studied at home with a teacher for only a year. But I studied – that’s putting it mildly. He sat with textbooks until three in the morning every day. He arrived without any English at all, but now he calmly understands and expresses himself. It's been two years without a translator. He doesn't speak enough English to buy a house or solve a tax problem, but he can communicate well in a team. Roma himself says that he doesn’t know the language, but he’s just shy.

- How difficult was it for Roma to join the team without speaking the language?

- It's terribly hard. I remember when he came from training, I saw how he missed the team. He loves to joke and laugh. But here he doesn’t understand jokes, doesn’t know the language, and has nothing to do. On trips, the guys get together after training, talk, and you sit alone in your room like a fool. But now it's easier.

It is considered the highest achievement in the translation community when you understand humor in a foreign country and can joke in a foreign language yourself.

– Roma recently tried to joke with our Russian jokes, but no one understood him. There are expressions that are unknown to the British. He was talking about someone and said about this person that he had “a bullet in his head.” The guys didn’t understand, they started asking: “What, did he have an injury?”

- Okay, everything is clear with Romina’s jokes. How are his teammates playing him?

- It happened. But I don’t remember now. Once there was a lot of snow in London. One player - I don’t remember who exactly - was made a snowman and put behind the wheel of a car. Moreover, the guy had an expensive car. He comes out of training, and there is a snowman sitting in the car. Romka himself also made fun of one of the guys. Someone had boots in the locker room, he took the laces out of them and replaced them with different colored ones. But these are good jokes.

Roma once said that when he first moved to Tottenham, his clothing style amused his teammates, because there it is not customary to go to D&G all the time. Have you heard anything about this?

- There was only one joke. Roma bought himself a tracksuit, very bright – black, silk, and on it were white tigers. And they started teasing him. And Romka stopped wearing this suit, he only wears a jacket from it.

“In England, training is only two hours long, and Romka is at home all day long”

- Who helped you settle in England?

– A woman lived with us for the first year; she came from Moscow: she helped with the housework and babysat for Christina. Then her visa expired. And we were faced with the question of whether we would stay or not. So I sent her home. Then, there is a man in the club, his name is Alan, he helped us, at first he took us everywhere. They also helped us with buying a house.

- How did it happen that you immediately went ahead and bought a house? Wouldn't it be more logical to rent a house at first?

– I don’t like living in rented houses. And then, I think this is a smart decision. The only thing is that for the first six months I thought whether he would play or not, whether it was worth buying a house, because he needed care.

- Who had more influence on the choice, you or Roma?

– Roma never gets involved in these matters. We made one apartment for ourselves, the second for rent, he was never even there. Even when they bought it. I say: “Rom, aren’t you interested in where we will live?” He says: “Well, you’ll do it, let’s go in and I’ll take a look.”

Why is this happening? You are not the first football wife to tell me that their husbands are not interested in doing household chores. In ordinary families, the man would rather choose a house, meet with contractors, and so on.

– I’m not sure about this... I think it depends on the people. And football players, maybe, just trust their spouse’s choice? At first I thought maybe they were just busier, but in England training is only two hours long, and Romka is at home all day.

Many football wives actually act as personal agents for their men: managing all affairs, scheduling interviews, doing PR, and so on. Are you also one of the active wives?

– Romka tries not to interfere anywhere at all. In our family, I always make decisions. Even if he wants something, he will wait for my answer. He will show that this is not so, but in fact he will torture me for a long time so that I agree. And for Romka, the most important thing is the opinion of the family. He cannot say yes until he consults us. Even this story with buying a house, he told me this: “You don’t know the language, you’re planning to buy real estate. Where are you going?!” But he still knows that I will do everything my way. Now he doesn't interfere anymore. Even his agent always calls me first. He can talk to Roma first, but he will still have to talk to me again later.