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Dazzling Dzagoev provides glimpse of an exciting future
for CSKA and Russia
Alan Dzagoev has left the horrors of Beslan behind to become one of
Russian football's bright new hopes.
This has been a largely frustrating season for CSKA Moscow, as their title
challenge failed to materialise, but it is ending on a high. They had
secured second spot in the league - and therefore qualification for the
group stage of next year's Champions League - with a game to spare, and
they have been the most impressive side so far in the group stages of
the Uefa Cup, beating Deportivo de La Coruna 3-0 and Feyenoord 3-1. Even
a draw tonight at home to Lech Poznan would be enough to see them through
to the last 32.
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Alan Dzagoev's 12 goals have been a bright
spot of CSKA's season. Photograph: Dima Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty
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Most excitingly of all for the future, though, is the form
of Alan Dzagoev. He's quick, he's tough, he's good in the air, he's technically
gifted, he has scored 12 goals and provided nine assists this season from
a position behind the front-man, and he's still only 18. "He's just
a super player," said Yuri Zhirkov after Dzagoev had scored twice
in CSKA's 3-1 victory away to Zenit St Petersburg earlier this season.
Dzagoev's parents are Ossetians who emigrated from Georgia to Beslan,
where he was born. One event, inevitably, dominates any discussion of
his childhood. Dzagoev's father, Tariel, was at work when news broke in
2004 that one of the town's seven schools had been taken over by armed
rebels demanding an end to the second Chechen war.
In the initial confusion, he was told that it was Alan's school, number
four, that had been attacked, and rushed there to discover that it was
actually pupils at school number one who had been taken hostage. Fearing
further incidents, he took his son home. Two days later, as Russian security
forces attempted to regain control of the school, at least 334 hostages,
including 186 children, were killed.
By then, Dzagoev had already spent four years training with Alania Vladikavkaz,
apparently encouraged in his football by his mother, who, he claims, can
do 10 keepie-ups standing on one leg. When he was 16, he was spotted by
Yuri Oskin, a coach at the academy at Primorsky that is now funded by
Roman Abramovich.
Dzagoev claims he had been a Chelsea fan for two years before he went
there, but there can be little doubt that his experiences in Primorsky
have strengthened his affection. He lists Frank Lampard as a favourite
player, which makes a certain sense in terms of his ability to arrive
late from deep positions, but the player with whom he is most often compared
in Russia is the former Lokomotiv Moscow playmaker Dmitri Loskov.
There Dzagoev was part of the academy side that finished sixth in the
Ural-Povolzhye section of the third tier of Russian professional football,
scoring five goals and attracting the attention of a host of clubs before
signing for CSKA. "Dzagoev plays football not for fame and money,
but because football is his life," said the academy coach Igor Rodkin.
"It is rare today that a victory is more important for a player than
the prize money for it, but with Alan, that is exactly the case.
There is a seriousness to Dzagoev that, while not entirely uncommon among
Russian forwards, still marks him out. Marat Izmailov, for instance, who
is now at Sporting, professed to be "too tired to enjoy myself"
in his early days at Lokomotiv, and when he was 19 had an operation to
straighten his nasal passages and so make his breathing more efficient.
Dzagoev hasn't quite reached those extremes, but he too has spoken of
having "no time for fun".
His coach, Valeriy Gazzaev has praised his parents for bringing their
son up to be so diligent and industrious. They remain protective even
now. Not for Dzagoev the temptations of bling and flash cars; his dad
has banned him from driving (presumably to spare him the risks of Moscow
traffic), and he takes a bus from his rented flat to training every day.
To speak only of his sobriety and his work-rate, though, is to detract
from just how talented he is. He made his full debut against Khimki in
May and scored, then he struck the woodwork after coming off the bench
to make his debut for Russia against Germany in October. That made him
the youngest outfielder ever to play for Russia (his CSKA team-mate, the
goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, holds the overall record), but, characteristically,
he was gloomy after that game. "It would have been a good day only
if my shot had gone in and we had drawn," he said.
The goals have dried up recently, but he offers far more than just that.
"I've followed him since his debut against Khimki," said the
former Russia international Alexander Mostovoi. "It seemed to me
even then that Alan stands apart from other players because of his non-standard
actions. He is not afraid to get the ball, to dribble, to take responsibility.
I always like players like that."
So too do Russia. They have had young forwards of potential before - Izmailov,
Alexander Kerzhakov, Dmitry Sychev - and none has quite delivered at the
very highest level. Dzagoev will face all the problems that beset them,
but if single-mindedness alone is enough, he will be a great.
Posted by Jonathan Wilson
TheSportBlog,
November 27 2008
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