Sasha and the Bear: an interview with the zar Ivan Zaytsev
His record serve ball traveled at the speed of 127 km/h in front of millions of Italians. But the leader of the national team is only scary within the pitch: dressed with nothing but his son, he revealed himself for Vanity Fair.
<Each time I throw him [Sasha] up in the air he flies so high, but he's never scared and laughs so hard.>
A young father playing with his son, nothing outside the ordinary. But who's talking here is Ivan Zaytsev and this changes everything. Two meters and 4 centimeters high, he's so tall that to properly photograph him we had to use a ladder, his hands look like cannons of the Red Army, and I can't help to be scared when he throws Sasha in the air right in front of me. I guess I have the right to be scared, since he recently served at the speed of 127 km/h during the Olympic match against Iran, this being a record: the fastest serve in the Olympic games history. Maybe this is the reason why his son seems to stretch as the balls of “Mila and Shiro” [japanese manga “Attacker Yu”] used to do, before landing in his father's arms.
[The theme song of that cartoon contained the slogan “two hearts in volleyball”] “Two hearts in volleyball” could also be a representation of the life and personal experiences of the “Zar of volley”: his wife Ashling, ex-model and ex-Onu-member for international cooperation, follows him anywhere, with the national jersey and Sasha. They're handsome, blonde and romantic and show their love also on Instagram and Twitter (with the enigmatic nickname @/1v4not7o). After the Russian experience with Dynamo Moscow they came back to Italy; Ivan will start the Italian championship with Sir Safety Perugia on the 2nd of October.
While he gets prepared for the photoshoot I chat with her [Ashling]. Their life has changed when Italy won the silver medal against Brasil and a sudden popularity. <Then we needed to buy an organizer>.
Ivan arrives, without his chains, jewels, studs and those rockstar-like-clothes he was wearing before, but he still wears that Mohican hairdo that sort of identifies him. <Sasha recognizes me thanks to my hair. He watches volleyball matches as cartoons (“Masha and the Bear” in particular): when he spots me on tv he clams down. The problem is that he has the same reaction when he watches tennis matches and each time he sees Roger Federer he shouts “dad!”>.
Be honest: did the silver medal enrage you?
Yes, a bit, I don't like “wooden medals”.
“Wooden”? Is it common use to call it like this?
No, I probably just invented it, but I think it fits well. Of course it has been a beautiful experience, because we didn't expect to get so far in the tournament. But once you're there /damn/ I'm not able to accept defeats. Well, maybe it's better this way, so we'll be more hungry for Tokyo 2020.
Recently you affirmed quite clearly that volleyball needs to make a further step, to stop being the “underdog”. After coming back from Rio you also discussed with the national federation.
I didn't want to raise a controversy: I find illogical not to take advantage of the popularity we gained by creating some more chances to let the people know us better. Volleyball is the second national sport according to the number of players and yet often nobody knows about our matches. They don't know when we play. The whole national team has been invited as a guest at the presentation of the upcoming season, but this event was for journalists and press only... Wouldn't it be better to let people enjoy it?
Did your words cause any reaction?
None. Not a single word, which would have been something at least. But when we (together with all the national team) posted on Instagram some silly videos, they invited me to stop. This doesn't make sense, the fact that volleyball remains a sort of “closed club”. It's stupid not to exploit this moment of enthusiasm. And this is why I'm using social networks a real lot, to keep in touch with volley fans, that are used to follow us closely [in the pitch]. Actually I'm acting all alone in this sense.
Volleyball has a high number of female supporters: does it happen to you to meet overly pressing fans?
Some unrequested doorbell ringing sometimes, nothing serious.
Are volleyball players the kind of sportsmen that are always surrounded by beautiful women and that can make their wives jealous?
Ashling says <Physicality has much to do with volleyball, they are quite handsome boys indeed, but I'm totally fine with it; volleyball players aren't considered as possible “hooks” leading to well-being and life improvement. And the fans are often really young.>
Do you agree, Ivan?
He laughs.<It's up to you, if it's what you look for or not... Anyway I am the jealous one, my wife is a truly extraordinary woman.>
You two and Sasha look like the perfect representation of a happy family, has it always been like that in your life?
No. Do you see this tattoo on my chest? It's a swift with the head of a sparrow chick, I had it done at the age of 18-19 and it represents the fact that I hadn't my head on my shoulders (meaning not being responsible). I didn't care about consequences, let's say so.
What could a 18-old boy possibly do?
Well, a lot of things. When I was 18 I signed my first contract in Rome, I went out every night and stayed up late.
So you were a kind of “footballer”?
Exactly. I bought a car that had the value of the payment I got for the whole season.
Did you lose yourself?
Uhm, well... A bit.
How did you save yourself?
Love changed me when I met Ashling.
Finally! You speak italian but you have something russian inside of you: you're sentimental. Have you got a tattoo also for this?
Yes, I have this word on my arm and my wife has the same on her back. It's written wrong way round, as Leondardo Da Vinci used to do [he wrote from the right to the left], and you have to watch it in a mirror, it's a mix between ancient japanese and italian. But I've never told anyone its meaning, it's something private.
Come on, tell us! You're looking more and more romantic.
Ok, it says “Ocean Sea”. This book by Baricco has been very important for the two of us. My last tattoo is way different: a samurai riding a horse on my thigh, it's an original drawing made by Horiyoshi III, one of the greatest japanese living tattoo artists and I care about it a lot.
Apart from the name of “Zar” and the tattoos, that remind me of some novel by Nicolai Lilin, you look italian and you speak Umbrian. Which russian feature do you think you own?
I read Siberian education / Deadly code [the famous book written by Nicolai Lilin] and I liked it. Nicolai Lilin is russian and italian indeed, and he also makes tattoos. I'm quite fascinated by the russian criminal world but that's only an abstract fascination: I'm a pacifist. What I do have is the russian education that my parents gave to me, I would say a soviet education. They threw me in a lake to teach me how to swim when I was a baby. I've been raised with strict methods.
You look like a quite calm person, so where do the Cossack yells come from?
That is the russian dna. When I'm playing I become a totally different person. And this happens because I can't accept losing. Truth be told I'm neither russian nor italian: I belong to the sea, I like water and sand, I would say I'm a Sicilian.
You were born in Italy indeed.
Yes. My father has been the first athlete from Soviet Union to obtain from Gorbaciov the permit to leave the country and play outside the Urss. It was clamorous. In 1988 he went to Spoleto, where I was born. I'm a son of Perestrojka. But I became an italian citizen only recently.
Your mother was a swimmer, your father an heroic athlete and gold medalist at the Moscow Olympic Games. Was your destiny already written?
Of course, when I was a child I've never dreamed of being anything else but a sportsman.
Could your son be the third generation?
Actually I really hope he'll be a great chef, I'm fond of good cooking and eating. But I'm under no illusions: volleyball already enchants him.
Talking about Brasil, this year you have been carried in triumph, but always in Rio a year ago you have been excluded from the Italian team and sent back to Italy with three other players because you returned late at the hotel. You already apologized, but can you tell us how this episode really went down?
Sure. It wasn't a sort of teenage transgression, we were (and especially I was) in conflict with Mauro Berruto. I don't mean we were prisoners, but during those two or three years there was a bad atmosphere within the team, with punitive rules and schedules. The retreats were too long, we spent few hours at home, faced long trips to come back. I've had enough.
So you voluntarily mutinied...(?)
Let's say we were at the edge, when on that Saturday night while we were having dinner, Dragan Travica received a message from the staff saying that the return was set at 23.30. The day after was free, so we decided to disobey. We took a taxi to Escalera de Selaron, we walked along the area a couple of times and drank two caipirinhas. We made a mistake and we were described as anarchists, then we apologized. When we were sent back home most of italian people thought “assholes, acting like that while we pay [through taxes] to sustain the national team”. But we acted under the influence of intolerance. It just happened.
This year's experience has been totally different.
Yes, we felt like we were in our element and we weren't stressed at all. I didn't see anything, not a single match, but the atmosphere was just magical.
Didn't you see your lightning serve as well?
Yes, on YouTube, I didn't perceive that it was that fast.
Was it a stroke of luck or would you be able to do that again?
I already did it again here in Perugia.
Before you came back to Italy you were in Russia. You were playing in Dynamo Moscow when the doping scandal was revealed: what do you think about it?
It was terrible to be in Russia at that very moment. What I can tell you is that in two years there I never underwent an anti-doping check...
Do you know in person someone who took meldonium?
I prefer not to answer.
Now that the Olimpyc Games are over, what's in your plans besides the championship?
We'd like to have another baby and we're already trying to have it. We'll see. If the second will come... It would be a great “silver”.
[That’s all folks! Probably there are some mistakes, so feel free to suggest corrections. Most important: tell me if there’s something unclear.]
@ivanzaytsev
