‘It will be very difficult to relocate’: Cuban woman leaves Russia after racist scandal

Cuban volleyball player “Uralochka” Ailama Montalvo has left Russia. According to RIA Novosti, the athlete decided to leave the club because of racial insults against him. But the general manager of Yekaterinburg club Valentina Ogienko denied this information, saying that the racial scandal did not affect the athlete’s decision to leave the team.

“Not satisfied with the local climate, his contract has expired, so Ailama returned to Cuba. And so he really liked everything – both the team and the attitude of the people in the team.

Ailama has already published her appeal, where she talks about her stance on the scandal, is not offended, and is over it.

Therefore, it has nothing to do with resolving the situation that has occurred,” he said.

what happened during the match

During one of the breaks, Lokomotiv Kaliningrad head coach Andrey Voronkov, in the Russian Championship final against Uralochka-NTMK, said, referring to one of his wards, “Why are you holding this monkey?” He dropped his expression, perhaps referring to the only black volleyball player in “Uralochka” – Cuban Ailama Montalvo. This moment entered the lenses of television cameras and caused a great resonance.

According to Match TV, the head coach of the “railroads” has not yet reacted to what happened. Did you receive an apology for Voronkov’s remarks? So far, there is nothing, neither from the federation, nor from Lokomotiv – they said in Uralochka.

Sports commentator Dmitry Guberniev was also surprised at his indifference to the racist scandal involving a foreign volleyball player. “Typical… Racist Voronkov is quiet as a log and nobody cares… And really everyone…” Guberniev wrote on his Telegram channel.

In social networks, Ailama Montalvo warmly said goodbye to the Yekaterinburg team and promised to keep the memories of playing in Russia for a long time.

“Thanks to Uralochka for the opportunity to play in such a great club. Thanks to the girls for all the moments we spent together and to the fans who have always supported us. I am sure I will never forget the time I spent at the club. You are in my heart forever!” – wrote the athlete.

Ailama has been playing for Uralochka since 2019 and has won silver and bronze medals at the Russian Championships. The volleyball player has been playing for the Cuban national team since 2017. She has two bronze medals in the Pan American Cup among under-23 youth teams, the most valuable player title among under-23 players in the 2019 Pan American Cup, and the final Four Cup bronze medal among girls in 2017.

Who will replace Montelvo?

Former volleyball player of the Russian national team Dmitry Fomin, in an interview with socialbites.ca, said that the loss of the 21-year-old Cuban will be tangible for the Yekaterinburg team. “He was a key player in Uralochka with 45-50 field goals per game, so it will be very difficult for the team to replace him.

There are very few players in the market right now, they are in trouble. Now it’s hard to complete the team even with money.

If you give any money to any club on condition that it collects players and takes first place in the championship, then no one will do it,” he said.

According to her, false statements about Ailama will not affect the future of the country women’s championship.

“Could a racist scandal affect the attractiveness of the Russian league? No, I do not think so. It seems to me that the coach (head coach of ZhVK Lokomotiv Andrey Voronkov. – socialbites.ca) did not want to offend anyone on purpose. If the decision of the Russian Volleyball Federation (VVR) is sufficient, then everyone will have no questions for themselves.

This cannot be left unnoticed, it will be interesting for me to watch how all this is resolved. Again, this is an unpleasant episode, but I don’t think the Lokomotiv coach wanted to somehow intentionally insult the Cuban volleyball player, ”said the director.