The death of a popular sports journalist, one of the founders of the All-Russian Association of Fans (VOB), became known on May 2.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, Malosolov died on May 1. Witnesses who found him unconscious immediately called an ambulance, but doctors who arrived at the scene only reported that he was dead.
Vasily Konov, deputy general producer of the Match TV channel, said that the cause of death was a detached blood clot.
From the age of 15, Malosolov was part of the supporters movement of the capital CSKA and actively supported the away team. He founded the Russian Fan Vestnik in 1990.
Malosolov has worked at various times for publications such as Komsomolskaya Pravda, Rossiyskaya Gazeta and RIA Novosti. In addition to sports, he also did socio-political journalism, covering the armed conflicts in Chechnya and Yugoslavia in the mid-90s.
In 2005, Malosolov headed the press service of the Russian Football Union (RFU), where he worked for five years. In 2007, together with Alexander Shprygin, who at that time was in charge of the capital’s Dynamo fan movement, he founded the All-Russian Fans’ Association, which organizes collective fan trips to matches of the Russian national team.
In 2010, Malosolov left the post of head of the RFU press service, then worked as a marketing director in Zhemchuzhina-Sochi, headed the press secretary of the project of the United Football League, hosted a writer’s program on Radio Sport and taught at the university ” Synergy”.
The journalist was involved in a racist scandal involving Spartak Moscow striker Luis Adriano in June 2019.
During the game “Spartak” – CSKA Malosolov issued a message in which he called the Brazilian striker of the red and past “monkey”.
“Spartak” made a statement to the prosecutor’s office, demanding that Malosolov be found guilty of public actions aimed at humiliating a person on the basis of racial intolerance. In September of the same year, the capital’s court found the journalist guilty and imposed an administrative fine in the form of a fine of 20,000 rubles.
Condolences were expressed to the journalist’s family and relatives in the RFU’s communication service.
In the obituary, the CSKA press service spoke of the important role of Malosolov in the development of the club’s fan movement.
“Yesterday, at the age of 50, Andrei Malosolov, a well-known journalist and a devoted fan of PFC CSKA, passed away. This is a great loss for the entire army fan movement. Our condolences to the family and relatives of Andrey Vladimirovich, the club said on its Telegram channel.
Ilya Kazakov, former spokesperson of the Russian national team, who served in the RFU at the same time as Malosolov, shared his memories of himself:
“I am very sorry for Andrei who left so early. He was very talented – especially when he did not write about football. He was very sincere – it was always clear to him who was friend and who was foe, what was light and what was dark.
And in recent years he has not found himself. His old football was a lot – and RFU, the national team and VOB, and above all CSKA. And in recent years he was looking for himself, as it seemed, and could not find himself in any way.
Or rather, not personally, but did not find an application for himself. Colleagues, who now remember Andrei, write about his work, passions, travels and Russia.
And for some reason, I still remember the garden he planted with his friends year after year in the courtyard of his tall building. I planted, watered and rejoiced, proud that the trees took root and there was life instead of barren land, ”Kazakov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Malosolov is survived by his wife and two sons.