Sergey YaremenkoSports correspondentAll materialsA correspondent on the agency's blog discusses whether the return of football player Mario Fernandez to Russia is possible. The first truly strong foreign players began to come to the Russian championship around 2003. In 19 years, we have played a lot of fantastic players — from Wagner Love with Daniel Carvalho to Alex Meschini, Alejandro Dominguez, Danny and Hulk. Many went to entire stadiums. But only a few were able to get on the board — Nicholas Lomberts in Zenit, Christian Noboa in a good half of the RPL teams, Mario Fernandez in CSKA and a couple of people in other clubs. Mario is the only one in this company who played for the Russian national team, but this is completely not an indicator. Roman Neustadter and Ari also played — but even now you remember them with great difficulty. A couple more years will pass, and very few will be able to say what kind of players they were. And Mario is always in front of his eyes. Scored a goal against the Croats in extra time. Entering the field with a broken nose in some crazy protective mask. Beaten-killed, but always returning as soon as possible. Iron.
Football players of the Russian national teamToday, Fernandez announced his departure — in his statement, he hinted at the possibility of a return, but it seems that this is a common courtesy. We most likely will not see Mario in the RPL. Yes, he is only 31 years old — his teammate Alexander Anyukov played until almost 40 years old. A 38-year-old colleague from the other flank of the defense, Yuri Zhirkov, continues his career at all, but Mario has a different story. He doesn't talk in vain about fatigue and exhaustion. According to Transfermarkt, Fernandez has been injured eight times over the past two seasons and has been out once more due to the coronavirus. For comparison, over the previous 10 years of his career, the Russian Brazilian was injured only 12 times. Almost always, these were trifling injuries for a week or two, but when in a couple of years you get almost as many injuries as in your entire previous career, this is a clear reason to think at least about a pause, and as a maximum — about the fact that it's time to quit football. Perhaps Mario will rest, spend time with his wife and child and return to business, but even in this case it would be more logical for him to stay in his first homeland — in Brazil. There and closer to the family, and the climate is milder.
