Sergei Lavrov spoke about legionnaires in Russian football.
“Sometimes with sadness I remember the past years, when we didn’t have “Varangians”, legionnaires, and when the transition of a football player from one team to another was a whole event. If a person already appeared in Spartak, Dynamo, CSKA – CSKA had a special article – then he remained to play there.
In Spartak for me it is [Георгий] Jikia, captain for many years, is truly a symbol of the team.
But in most other cases, he played for a year or two, moved, three or four – a legionnaire. Yes, foreign players score goals, point to the emblem, greet the stands, but something is not right. There is no such constancy.
[Сейчас соревнуются в том,] who and how will spend money more skillfully in order to buy someone somewhere, to find someone for a couple of seasons.
Perhaps this is life, there is no getting away from it. If we want to develop football, then it is wrong to stew in our own juice. But something has gone from that tradition. I hope he will return,” the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said in an interview with the Rossiya TV channel, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of “Spartacus”for which he is rooting.