Very soon, the Russian team will play its first match after a long break. Kyrgyzstan will become the opponent of our national team. The sign is not very intriguing, but under the current circumstances, even such a meeting is already a success. Moreover, Kyrgyzstan is not as weak as it might seem.

One of the leaders of the Central Asian team is its captain – central defender Valery Kichin. The football player is 29 years old, and during this time he managed to turn from an ordinary Russian boy from the streets of Bishkek into a hero of the nation.

And he is also the only player of the national team of Kyrgyzstan, known to Valery Karpin.

Scrap metal and fights

Kitchin’s childhood fell on the 90s. Bishkek of that period was a rather poor city, and the family of the future captain of the Kyrgyz team did not show off either. The Kichins lived in Khrushchev on the outskirts of the city and barely made ends meet. However, the children still found something to entertain themselves with.

– My friends and I constantly climbed along the river, looking for metal and bottles. All this was handed over, enough for ice cream and computer games. I spent almost all the time on the street, it was impossible to drive home, ”Kichin said in an interview with Sports.ru.

The early years were spent not only in poverty, but also in constant tension. The Russian guy in the yards of Bishkek had to be constantly on his guard. The local guys were not too fond of the representatives of the titular nation of the former USSR, and Valery and his friends periodically got it. However, they sometimes won in street fights.

– They didn’t beat them to death, but to the blood – of course. If two or three Russians are coming, one person will never attack. Even when there is an equal number, they will not climb on you. And when there are three or four more people at once, Kichin told Sport24.

Valery admits that he matured early. From early childhood, he himself earned his livelihood, since there was no extra money at home. Kichin admitted that he even hunted robberies on the streets, took away people’s phones. Now the footballer is ashamed of this part of his past, but then it seemed normal to him.

Valery Kichin / Photo: © Sergey Astakhov / Match TV

At the age of 17, Kichin lost his father. He drank a lot, but he always loved his son, so the loss was a strong blow for Valery. However, this tragedy also contributed to the rapid maturation. Four years later, Kichin moved to Russia, where he signed a contract with Volga Nizhny Novgorod.

Asian triumph

In Kichin’s Russian career, there were quite a few clubs playing at the junction of the First Division and the Premier League. Now Valery plays for the Krasnoyarsk Yenisei, with whom he played in the RPL in 2018. The defender regularly goes to the base, and his team is in 6th place. At the same time, the gap from the leader is only 4 points.

Outwardly, Kichin is very similar to Conor McGregor, but he is unlikely to ever succeed in growing to the status of an MMA star. The clubs that Valery plays for often struggle for survival, and at the age of 29, footballers rarely make a qualitative leap in their development. However, success in a club career is not everything. Valery also has the national team of Kyrgyzstan – and here he is a real favorite of the public.

For the first time, Kichin played for the national team at the age of 19. But the main triumph came to him in 2019. The national team of Kyrgyzstan, led by its Russian captain, left the group at the Asian Cup and fought on equal terms in the 1/8 finals with the team of the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates then won with a score of 3:2, and the decisive goal was scored only in extra time.

– They could have evened it: in the 121st minute, our player outflanked two opponents from the United Arab Emirates, hit the crossbar from three meters. There was a counterattack, I still had to run on the defensive. There was a two-on-one way out, but it was lucky that the striker hesitated during the beat. I blocked the shot, causing the ball from the foot to bounce in the face, and I lost consciousness for a few seconds. For me, it all ended there, ”Kichin recalled in an interview with Sport24.

Photo: © Anadolu Agency / Contributor / Anadolu Agency / Gettyimages.com

The loss turned out to be extremely offensive, but at home the national team players were greeted as gods descended from Olympus. A huge crowd gathered in the center of Bishkek, everyone wanted to greet their team, which has achieved historic success. On the same evening, a rather amusing episode took place, which vividly demonstrated how the Kirghiz people feel about Kichin. The announcer announced the composition of the team, naming only the names, and the fans had to respond in unison. But something went wrong…

– We have one more Valera in the team, the goalkeeper Kashuba. When our names were announced and it was his turn, the announcer shouted: “Valery …” And he waited for them to finish him off. And the crowd answered: “Kichin!” We laughed, – the footballer said in the same interview.

Confession from Karpin

It is difficult to argue with the fact that Kichin is the leader of the Kyrgyz national team. There is no doubt that on September 24 he will take the field against the Russian team with a captain’s armband. And he will, as always, give himself to the game as much as possible, even in a friendly match.

Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

It is curious that Kichin is the only player of our rivals whom Valery Karpin knows. The head coach of the Russian national team himself admitted this the day before. However, nothing surprising: the defender played in our country for a long time and managed to establish himself, albeit in not the strongest teams. And the fact that Karpin himself noted the football player can even be considered a kind of recognition of merit.