heart problems
“Vasya Utkin died. There is something wrong with the heart. Creepy! – First reported Famous football expert Ivan Karpov posted the gloomy news on his Telegram channel. The information was almost immediately confirmed by another football journalist, Andrei Pankov.
After this confirmation seen On the Telegram channel of the Egrisi football club, which Utkin has owned since 2017:
“It pains us very much to write this article. But it’s true. Vasily is no longer with us.”
In the afternoon, an ambulance took the journalist to the cardiology department of Pirogov Hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with acute vascular insufficiency and he was immediately put on a ventilator. reported Telegram channel Baza.
Blood clots blocked the passage of blood, and as a result, Utkin’s circulation stopped. Doctors revived him within 16 minutes. Doctors managed to pump the journalist out, but soon his blood circulation stopped again. After that, Utkin died.
The first cause of death is pulmonary embolism. The exact cause will be determined after the autopsy.
There had previously been conflicting information about Utkin’s health condition. In the second half of 2023, it was reported that Utkin suffered from atherosclerosis due to obesity, but he immediately denied this data.
Weight issues have plagued the journalist throughout her adult life. At one time, its weight reached 215 kg, but after a gastric resection was performed in a clinic in Stuttgart, Germany, the weight dropped to 125 kg. Despite the fight against obesity, in recent years Vasily gained weight again.
The commentator was unable to fly to Kaliningrad for Egrisi’s Media Football League semi-final match against Brooke Boys due to health issues, including; here the yellow-blacks lost in a penalty shootout (similar to a penalty shootout).
generation commentator
In his youth, Vasily Utkin worked as a correspondent for popular socio-political programs “Vzglyad” and “Politburo”. He came to work at NTV in 1994 and connected his career with sports with the opening of the sports editorial office at the television channel.
In the same year, he became the second presenter of the TV program “Football Club” after Oleg Vinokurov. With short breaks, Utkin maintained the leadership until December 21, 2012, the last issue. However, the FC brand became firmly associated with the Utkin surname. He continued to make programs under this name on the radio and also used this name on his personal channels on YouTube and Telegram.
During his studies, Utkin received two TEFI awards as the best sports commentator in 2004 and 2005 and has repeatedly worked on all major football tournaments (World and European Championships, Champions League), including final matches.
As a reporter and commentator, he visited the Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996), Nagano (1998), Athens (2004), Turin (2006), Beijing (2008) and London (2012) and the Salt Lake City Olympics. (2010) Worked as a commentator from Moscow.
Utkin collaborated with various media outlets, publishing in print and online publications, including socialbites.ca.
On television, he once headed the football editorial office of NTV-Plus and was involved in the training of young employees. Many commentators note Vasily’s direct or indirect influence on their work and reporting styles.
At first, Utkin, together with other editorial staff, moved from NTV-Plus to the Match TV channel, created after the Olympic Games in Sochi, but in the end he could not work well with the management and left television.
After leaving Match TV on February 5, 2006, Utkin once worked as a guest commentator on the Eurosport channel and also collaborated with services including Okko-Sport.
In 2018, Utkin was supposed to commentate on the FIFA World Cup in Russia on Channel One, for which the channel released a promotional video. However, he only worked in the Spain-Portugal group stage match and was subsequently removed from broadcasts. He has repeatedly said that this happened after a call from the Russian Presidential Administration. At the same time, Channel One paid the full promised fee for the tournament.
In recent years, Vasily has remained an independent media outlet, managing its own channels. Utkin’s Telegram channel has constantly been in the spotlight, and his YouTube episodes have garnered tens and hundreds of thousands of views.
football club
Utkin had neither a wife nor children, and his starting point in recent years was the Egrisi team, which he joined at the invitation of its founder NTV-Plus and Match TV correspondent Lasha Bakhsoliani.
Vasily became president and owner of the club and led it to the top division and victory in the LFL (Amateur Football League) North-East League Cup.
Egrisi has been a regular participant in the Media Football League in recent years, where he achieved great success by winning a bronze medal in his final season.
Moreover, the yellow-blacks eliminated the media’s most popular and titled team, “2Drots”, on their way to the quarter-finals.
Utkin has always been not only a leader, but also a friend of his football players, to whom he often provided financial assistance, bought equipment, rented housing and paid for treatment.
“I changed profession”
The football world was shaken by the news of Utkin’s death. The Media Football League started the draw for the play-off matches with a minute of silence in memory of the commentator.
“I can’t believe it. I have no words, something broke inside me. What remains is emptiness. Vasya is always the best,” wrote journalist and commentator Nobel Arustamyan.
“There are people changing careers in the creative field. Only a few actors, directors and representatives of other creative fields can do this. Vasya Utkin did this as a sports commentator. “He changed the language of the comment,” commentator Georgy Cherdantsev wrote on his Telegram channel; The negative and cynical attitude that Utkin has repeatedly shown in recent years. — <…> He was the first in post-Soviet times to comment in bright, modern, sophisticated Russian. Vasya changed the language of the sports commentator profession. And it left a huge mark on him. Thank you Vasya, <…>”
“A great loss for all of us, he was the best in the profession. I really missed Utkin on the big screen. The comment section is orphaned. No words…” wrote Dmitry Guberniev, another star commentator on Match TV.