“After losing to Manchester United – 0: 5 to Liverpool, I don’t know how to live with it” – Realnoe Vremya
Adventures of a South African rugby player in Kazan
Arrow rugby newcomer Eddie Ludik came to Kazan from South Africa and very quickly became a base player. Ludik is 22 years old: he is still a student who is studying the teaching of Afrikaans. Realnoe Vremya acquaints its readers with this striking character: before you is his monologue.
“I play rugby, studying to be an Afrikaans language teacher”
I was born in 1999 in the South African city of Pretoria. After graduating from high school, he moved to the capital of the country Johannesburg and began playing for the local Lions team, playing at the level of the Curry Cup and Super Rugby. The Curry Cup is the South African Provincial Championship, which also features teams from Australia and New Zealand. Super Rugby is a championship in which teams from Australia, New Zealand, my native South Africa also take part. A little later, Argentina and Japan join it, not the national teams of the provinces, but the club teams play in it.
Besides my rugby studies, I started studying at the University of Pretoria. We study online, so I am deprived of the joys of life that are usual for students, but I can combine training with a professional career. The specialization I study in is teaching, I am preparing to become an Afrikaans language teacher. Such a choice cannot be called usual for a professional athlete (specifically, a rugby player), but also not so difficult to combine, let’s say. Some of my teammates studied to be doctors, which is much more difficult.
In the hundred of the greatest South Africans in history, the footballer Theophilus Kumalo, whom the whole world knows under the nickname Doctor – he just also studied to be a doctor. Although, in fairness, Kumalo devoted his whole life to football, starting a coaching career after his playing career.
“Pretoria City of Purple Trees”
Pretoria and Johannesburg are only 60 kilometers apart. My weekly routine was so that on Monday and Tuesday I lived in Johannesburg, trained. On Wednesday I had a day off, I returned home, rested, on Thursday, I again left to train, and for the weekend I returned home. I moved to Lions right after school, signing my first professional contract.
I understand that apart from rugby, Russians may be interested in other issues. I’ll start by describing my hometown. Pretoria is a small city, especially in Kazan. But it is very populous. At the same time, people do not live, as in Kazan, in high-rise buildings – they prefer their houses. People call Pretoria the city of purple trees, because there grows a tree under a pencil with purple leaves.
My parents are teachers by profession, while both went in for sports. Dad played rugby, became interested in karate – and grew to the level of sensei. Since childhood, he taught me both rugby and karate. At the age of 15, I chose playing sports (not only rugby, but also cricket), and thanks to karate I disciplined myself. It will not help much to stand out especially among classmates. We have a highly developed crime, and no karate will help to avoid conflicts.
Speaking about high crime, I can characterize it as class and, oddly enough, regional. We have separate areas where very poor people live. As a result, they simply go to other areas for the things they need, where they can profit from something.
“I haven’t heard anything about Sibaya”
Mom was engaged in track and field athletics – she ran 400 meters with hurdles, played for the national team of our province. If you are a native South African, then rugby will definitely be present in your life. Even my classmates and I played football, perhaps during breaks, with a special focus on rugby.
Football took over my homeland only in 2010. When we hosted the World Cup, it was an unforgettable atmosphere of a football festival. I got carried away with it, having bought a soccer ball for the first time in my life. It’s a pity that we don’t have the strongest national football team, and I don’t even know a player like Macbeth Sibaya, who means a lot to your Kazan Rubin,
Now, as a spectator, I can watch my Premier League, the English support for Manchester United, but after the last match between Manchester United and Liverpool, I don’t even know how I can continue to live with it (smiles bitterly, remembering how “ Manchester United “” Lost to Liverpool 0: 5, – approx. ed.).
Based on the fact that I have not heard anything about Sibaya, you probably already understand that I knew nothing about Kazan either. I first heard about her only after talking with Arrow’s coach, JP. After that, I began to google facts related to Kazan, saw beautiful photographs – and decided to move here. This happened this year (then, by the way, the last team in South Africa, Southern Kings, was liquidated, which went bankrupt without surviving the problem with the covid). In fact, I was left without a job. At that time, I even took on such a job as a teacher’s assistant. My responsibilities included printing out some documents needed for the lesson, looking after the children when the teacher left the class, even making coffee. Like an office manager. Teachers in the future.
“I want to try my hand at skiing”
But for now this prospect has moved aside for the future: Arrow first offered me a short-term contract.
Returning to the topic of covid, not only teams, but also people died in South Africa. Alas, our country found itself in a difficult situation. She was completely in the red zone when any movement between cities was prohibited. Now it is summer there, the danger has subsided, but still South Africa continues to remain at the second level in the distribution of covid. This level makes it possible to move around the country, visit each other, buy alcohol.
It is clear that we do not have a winter in the Russian sense. We perceive temperatures below ten degrees Celsius as cold. Even now, despite the +10 outside the window, I feel chilly. True, to really feel the Russian frosts, since I flew here at the end of March, and to the Krasnodar Territory, in the south of the country.
And I have to get acquainted with the real winter next year, since I will spend at home, I will return to Kazan at the end of January. Since I want to take a chance and go for a ride on regular cross-country skiing. Our coaches are generally avid lovers of alpine skiing, and even more – snowboarding, and they spend their weekends on Sviyaga, which interested me very much. However, I will clarify whether we are not forbidden by the contract to engage in extreme sports.
By this time, it will be necessary to tighten up Russian. While I get by with the phrase: “I do not understand Russian” (pronounces it in Russian, – approx. ed.) when I need to call and clarify where it arrived. For the rest, I manage with gestures or words – left, right (also pronounces in Russian, – approx. ed.), but in general I avoid situations where I would have to talk a lot. Even while walking, if I hear English, I immediately strive to communicate with this people.
Jaudat Abdullin, photo: instagram.com/ed10ludick12
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