MOSCOW: It is June 17, 2014, and Russia are taking on South Korea in their opening game of the 2014 World Cup. The sides are locked goalless with the game just into the final half hour. Then substitute Lee Keun-ho hits a shot seemingly devoid of sting at the Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. On any other day, the then-28-year-old who had been keeping goal for CSKA Moscow since 2003, would have grabbed it and circulated it back for his team to attack.
But against Korea, the ball bounced off his fingers and, as Akinfeev tried to recover it in vain, fell on the other side of the white line. Akinfeev lay on the ground, his face covering his hands. That video had already been added to multiple YouTube collections on goalkeeping howlers by the time that match was played out. To make matters worse for Akinfeev, Russia crashed out in the group stages with just two draws to show for their efforts. If he hadn’t let in that goal, they would have finished level on points with Algeria who qualified for the knockouts. Russian journalist Konstantin Levik remembers what Akinfeev had to deal with after Brazil.
“He was criticised a lot,” he says. “There were a lot of jokes about him. And at that time, he was eight years into his record run of not keeping a Champions League clean sheet with CSKA Moscow (that run finally ended in November 2017 when Akinfeev kept a clean sheet against Benfica after 11 years and 43 games).” Criticism was one thing, but for Akinfeev, the jokes were the hardest to deal with. Following his howler, he became the subject of numerous memes. One featured a photoshopped picture of him with his hands coming out of his backside.
Another snapped that very moment in which he was stretching to prevent the ball from going into goal. The caption read ‘welcome to the goal, sir’. “He never laughs,” Levik says. “And he hates the jokes about him. That made people make even more jokes about him.” All this was anti-climactic for a man who had been building up to this moment since he was four. It was then that Akinfeev’s father, Vladimir Vasilievich who was a truck driver, dragged him to CSKA’s Sports School. His displays early on in his career earned him comparisons with the legendary Lev Yashin.
He was thrust into first-team action when he was just 16, and Akinfeev duly responded by saving a penalty kick and keeping a clean sheet. He was CSKA’s number one before he turned 18 and played a pivotal part in their 2005 UEFA Cup win which saw them become the first Russian club to win a European competition. By then, he was also in the frame for the national team and played every game during Russia’s run to the semifinals of Euro 2008.
And when Russia qualified for a World Cup after 12 years, everyone assumed that it was Akinfeev’s time to shine. Instead, there were all the jokes. On Saturday, after Akinfeev had stuck out his leg to deny Iago Aspas in the decisive penalty of their shootout against Spain, the whole of Russia once again chanted his name. After the game, the expression on his face was one of defiance as he silently walked past the media clamouring for a couple of words from him. There was not a hint of a smile on his face. But this time, no one was making jokes.
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com