“The sound of football from my childhood”
Sports commentator Vasily Utkin died due to pulmonary embolism on March 19. His death shocked the Russian sports community. Although Utkin gained fame as a football commentator, representatives of other sports also remember him. Spartak Moscow supporter Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi said that he was proud to know Utkin.
“He called me to John Donne about Nikitsky to talk about the first two games of the Carlsen-Karjakin match in 2016. I remember about 10 people came, we decided to look at other formats. Since then we have communicated sporadically – mostly corresponding on football topics. The sound of football from my childhood. An acquaintance of whom I am proud. “Sacred memory,” Nepomniachtchi wrote on social networks.
“For some reason he always supported me”
Tatyana Tarasova, honored figure skating coach of the USSR, expressed her gratitude to Vasily. He admitted that he did not understand why Utkin always supported him, despite a superficial acquaintance. In particular, the commentator spoke out in support of Tarasova, who was suspended from working in the Russian Grand Prix final due to sanctions from Channel One.
“What is this, how did this happen! He’s nothing, he’s only 52 years old. This is terrible. Utkin spoke very often, very, very eloquently.
He’s a real person, a real commentator. He had the qualities that define a profession.
He was a great commentator in his profession. Thanks to him, for some reason he always supported me, even though we barely knew each other,” Tarasova reflects. “Match TV”.
“I hope you feel good, Vasya.”
Olympic diving champion and sports journalist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya did not deny that she often quarreled with Utkin on various topics. At the same time, contradictions never interfered with their friendly communication.
“We clashed sharply at times – mainly because of Vasya’s habit of emotionally cutting off the shoulder – of attaching labels to people who were interested in sports (not football) even if they were not very into the subject. Sometimes, despite my fierce anger, I was able to suddenly change the subject: “Listen, I so miss those meetings in your kitchen. Invite me, okay?”
And this abyss of attraction melted all the accumulated roughness in the relationship with its pressure. He turned 52 two weeks ago and, responding to my call, muttered guiltily: “And I, such a bastard, forgot to congratulate you. Let’s see each other already, okay?..”
<…> Vasya, in this life you have felt bad and hurt so often… That’s probably why you lived so brightly outside and always surrounded yourself with people so that it didn’t even occur to anyone that everything was completely inside. different.
It can be cold, lonely and sometimes completely hopeless. And not to mention a lot of health problems. I hope you feel good, Vasya! Silly words, I know. There is no one else at the moment, sorry…” Vaitsekhovskaya wrote: Telegram.
Kandelaki – about the conflict with Utkin, Sobchak – about Kandelaki’s hypocrisy
Although Utkin has not worked in television in recent years, he has remained in the media field, presenting his own program “Football Club” on his YouTube channel and heading the Egrisi media team. At the same time, he did not rule out that at some point he would return to television, where he started working 35 years ago – as he wrote two days before his death. By the way, his departure from television screens was accompanied by a violent conflict with the former general producer of Match TV, Tina Kandelaki. Kandelaki believes that he can no longer give Utkin the attention he deserves.
“Unfortunately, my relationship with Vasya did not work out. This, of course, was my fault, because such an extraordinary person as Vasya needed special attention.
Because of my rush and desire to prove as quickly as possible that Match TV would be the best sports channel in the country, I could not devote enough time to him and he needed it. He was a man who lived for the attention of others. He had to tell me how the shooting went in Brazil, whether the hat I told him to try on fit him, and much more.
I can’t help but admit that he is one of the most talented sports journalists I have ever met. Objectively. Sports television was the meaning of his whole life. “For all the bad things he said to me – it’s stupid to talk about it now – his talent was undeniable.” Wrote Kandelaki.
Journalist and public figure Ksenia Sobchak responded to Kandelaki’s words. He accused the former head of Match TV of hypocrisy and described his remarks as sarcastic.
“What a mockery. I never cease to be amazed. In his personal correspondence and speeches, there was no one he blamed more for the collapse of the channel and for taking personal revenge on himself than Tina Kandelaki. Everyone knows this.
Ruining his living job, depriving him of everything, and then writing tearful letters. “I recognize the handwriting”
— Sobchak left such a post on social networks.
“Rozanov is waiting for you, you see, I will pick you up”
One of the most touching messages came from football commentator Alexander Elagin. Started a day ago telegram channeland it turns out that the first entry in it is dedicated to the memory of Vasily Utkin. Elagin also remembered his colleague Yuri Rozanov, who passed away a few years ago, and said that Utkin was a close and dear person.
“I never thought that my first text would be dedicated to the memory of Vasily Utkin. Which words?! In memory. Utkina. This means that the person does not go somewhere far away for a long time, but goes with forced return – this means that I will never see him again, I will not talk to him, I will not argue, I will not sit down with him over a glass of reasoning about literature, cinema, football, life.
<…> He pulled and pushed at the same time. He attracted people to himself with his crazy charisma, his horizons, his wit, and his touching, painful interest in the people he brought close to him and included in his inner circle. <…> He probably repelled those who approached him with wearisome flattery, those who entertained the hope of basking in the rays of his glory. Vasya felt the lie. Although he often missed the mark with the people surrounding him, and believe me, he suffered greatly from this,” Elagin wrote.
The commentator said that Utkin was betrayed.
“For all his deliberate arrogance, sometimes ostentatious rudeness and self-sufficiency, Vasya was an extremely sensitive, vulnerable person, insanely suffering from betrayal. And this happened,” Elagin remarked.
He also noted that Vasily avoids talking about what kind of commentator Utkin is because he has long become part of fan folklore. At the same time, Elagin emphasized that Utkin was the only person who supported and helped him in a difficult moment.
“Man chooses his own path in this life. Vasya trampled, plowed, flew, leaving no trace, but he left a real scar in my life.
Rest in peace my dear friend. Yurok Rozanov is waiting for you. You are closest in spirit. Here, you see, I’ll take that too. And we will build something for three,” Elagin concluded.