Radiom

Yaroslav Korolev's career developed rapidly. He showed an outstanding performance at the 2003 European Junior Championships in Belgrade (our team then took bronze) and was the leader of CSKA in the victorious 2005 Euroleague youth. As a result, the Los Angeles Clippers chose 18-year-old Yaroslav at the highest number 12 (the record among Russian players in the entire history) in the 2005 NBA Draft. But he failed to build an impressive career. For two seasons, the basketball player played 34 matches in the NBA, never becoming a full-fledged player in the rotation of the Californians.

Yaroslav Korolev returned to Russia, where he played for Dynamo under the leadership of David Blatt, tried to return to the NBA through the Development League, and also managed to play in Spain, Greece and the United League. At the age of 29, the basketball player retired. Now Yaroslav lives in Los Angeles, but often visits Moscow. In an interview with Izvestia, he spoke about his new job, the prospects of Maria Vadeeva in the WNBA, the mistake of the Lakers club, which signed LeBron James, and the problems of domestic basketball.

The champion is coming to us: CSKA will try to beat Real again
In case of a home victory, the Russian club will move up to second place in the Euroleague standings
- You haven't given an interview for a long time. What is Yaroslav Korolev doing now?

- I have my own basketball school in Los Angeles, with a full-fledged coaching staff, manager. We work with children between the ages of 3 and 13, giving them in-depth training in all aspects of basketball. We have both a beginner level and 8-10-year-old children already working in teams. Games are held on Sundays. Once a month we go to a tournament, the essence of which is simple: three matches are played on Saturday, according to their results, either you go to the playoffs for games on Sunday, or you go home.

In addition, we also train trainers for schools that work on extended programs. If the school and children are interested in acquiring additional knowledge of basketball, we send one or two specialists to the school. It must be understood that this is not an additional physical education lesson, when the teacher throws the ball to 20 children, and they do what they want. Each coach works with a maximum of 10 children for one hour, but this time is very busy and most productive. 15–20 minutes - dribbling, 15–20 minutes - assists, then - throws. If a place at school permits, children can play, but it is important to take into account one point: this is an extended program, and the level of preparation of students is very low.

- If we consider any training as a kind of social or professional lift, then on what “floor” is your school located?

- Let's start from the very bottom and look at how basketball works in the United States. Ground floor - parks and streets. There the trainers are volunteers. Parents themselves bring their children to workout once a week, and on Sundays all comers are divided into two groups, and they play with each other. Second floor: the best players are selected from the same children, who are assigned additional training. There may be a fee for these classes. Sometimes the coaches are parents who once played themselves. Floor three, this is most likely my school. Children purposefully come here twice a week: one training for technique, the second for tactics. The next step is to select the guys from among those who have been coming to me for two years, to the group with which we will analyze the video. An hour before training, we get together and watch our games, evaluate certain situations, learn to analyze an opponent. The fourth floor is already high school (the senior stage of school education in the USA is grades 9-12). The fifth floor is a college or university. Sixth - pro, optimally - NBA.

Pele, whose real name is Edson Arantisdo do Nascimento, is a legendary Brazilian footballer who played for Santos and New York Cosmos. Became a symbol of the generation of players of the 50-60s after becoming the world champion three times. Until now, this record has not been broken. For his own football career, Pele scored 1289 goals in 1363 games.

Childhood and youth
The future star of world football was born in 1940 in the tiny Brazilian town of Tres Corazois, located in the state of Minas Gerais. For the parents, the boy was the first, but not the only child. His younger brother, Jair Arantes do Nascimento, later took up football as well.

Pele in his youth
The football player's family lived very poorly, and the ball was, perhaps, the only available entertainment for children. The father, whose name was Dondinho, in the past was himself a magician of the game of millions. He was the first person to show Edson the basics of football.

When the child was 7 years old, Edson was accepted into the basis of the local children's team. It was then that the boy received the famous nickname Pele, however, today the football player no longer remembers why and what this name meant. The coach, seeing the speed of the little player, immediately put him in the line of attack.

A couple of years later, the section was headed by former Brazilian national team player Valdemar de Brito, who spoke about the talented teenager to the mentors of the famous club Santos from São Paulo. Soon Pele signed his first professional contract and made his debut for the main team at the age of 15.

Football
Pele played his first game as a professional football player in September 1956, that is, at less than 16 years of age. The young man went up against the grandee of Brazilian football, the Corinthians club, and immediately distinguished himself by scoring a goal. The phenomenal player played for the Santos team for 19 years and scored almost 650 goals. Such performance helped the athlete to become the champion 11 times, win the Cup 6 times and win more than once on the international arena. Only his compatriot Garrincha, who in Brazil was considered the second footballer after Pele, could compare with the star of the football field.

Together with the Brazilian national team at the age of 28, the footballer went to the 1958 World Cup for the first time, which was held in Sweden. Luck smiled at the star only in the quarterfinals, where he scored the winning goal in the match with Wales. In subsequent games, Pele showed himself in all his glory and for the first time in the history of Brazilian football led the team to victory.

In the same year, the first match between the USSR and Brazil took place in the group stage in Gothenburg, in which Pele, Didi, Garrincha, Vava and others participated from the South American country. Soviet football was represented by Lev Yashin, Vladimir Kesarev, Konstantin Krizhevsky and others. Later, the teams met more than once.