Dmitry Torbinsky must be the bane of the Netherlands. Having scored
what turned out to be the vital goal in Russia's 3-1 win over the Dutch
in Basel at the European Championships, he turned provider on Wednesday
night, tumbling under a Giovanni van Bronckhorst challenge to win his
side a penalty, which Konstantin Zyryanov put away.
One might think this success would be reflected in his
mood when Sport Express came to interview him, along with his father Evgeny,
the day after at Lokomotiv's training ground. But as he pulled up in his
black Mazda Torbinsky had a rather glum look on his face. Had we caught
him at a bad time?
"I'm fine, I just have that look on my face. Maybe I'm a very serious
guy."
It turns out that Torbinsky, who grew up in the Siberian city of Norilsk,
was a happy-go-lucky child, but that as soon as he moved to Moscow he
lost the smile.
"I never wanted for anything," he explained of his childhood.
"My parents did everything for me they could. They wanted me not
only to play football, so they bought me a piano and sent me to music
school. The teachers said I wasn't bad, I played Bach, Mozart, everything
that was on the programme."
He did, however, get into a few scrapes at school. According to his father
Evgeny, aged 10, he attempted to set fire to the school with some friends,
using torn up scraps of paper. The school asked Torbinsky's father to
pay damages, but the next day was a school football tournament which Torbinsky's
team won.
"The school called me," continued Torbinsky senior, picking
up the story. "The director said to me: lets agree to this - you
don't have to pay anything to us, but please fulfill my wish that Dmitry
will play for Spartak." A year and a half later Spartak came calling.
Things started disappointingly at Spartak. In 2002 he suffered a torn
cruciate ligament in his left knee, and in 2004 the same injury in his
right. Both times he was operated upon in Germany.
"After the second cruciate," Torbinsky recalled, "I went
to church and asked the priest why this was happening to me. I had done
everything to avoid problems and to get back to my best, but I only seemed
to get injured again. What had I been guilty of? Why was I being punished?
'Come to church more often,' the priest said. 'Pray.'" Since then
he has not picked up any other serious injuries.
After making 43 appearances in the red-and-white of Spartak Torbinsky
left for Lokomotiv this summer, though in rather controversial circumstances.
After allowing his contract to run out, Torbinsky left on a free transfer,
which angered the Spartak faithful. Torbinsky admits financial reasons
played a role in his departure.
"From the financial point of view the contract details meant that
I wasn't being paid very much," he explained.
"When Dima got into the first team I told him he would sign a new
contract," Torbinsky senior said. "Don't ask about money, I
said, just sign anything they give you. Then your pay will depend on how
you play. You're playing for Spartak, and if you show what you can do
your pay will rise, they'll give you everything.
"But my hopes did not come off. When Dima recovered from injury and
began playing at the top level, I tried to negotiate with the club management
about a change in the terms of his contract, but nobody wanted to meet
me. So we found an agent and then in 2008 he went to Lokomotiv."
The summer was also a successful one for Torbinsky as he took part in
Russia's run to the semi-finals of Euro 2008. "I was very disappointed
that we couldn't get past the Spanish. I sat with Kolodin in the stands
[in the semi-final] and when the score went to 2-0 I said 'right, that's
it, time to pack the suitcases'."
He clearly doesn't dwell on successes, and prefers to look forward to
more trophies. "In my collection I only have one big medal, for winning
the Russian Cup...Yes, I won a bronze with the national team at the European
Championship, but that's not the greatest success. If I won the Russian
Championship, the Russian Cup or a European tournament, then I could say
that I have really won an important trophy."
Away from football, Torbinsky has his own life. "I try not to think
and talk about football, because there's so much of it already in my life.
That doesn't mean I'm tiring of football, but but you have to get away
from it and do something else."
He also holidays in some nice locations, notably two years ago in Cuba,
where reports surfaced that he caught a shark while fishing. "It
wasn't us, but the Cuban fishermen. We sailed with them on a boat and
they caught a shark, though a small one. We began to reel it in, but it
bit through the line and swam away." Does he surf? "Not with
my knees..."
