In “Real” – the third Russian! Daniil Stolbetsky is 15 years old, he was in CSKA and can grow up to 215 cm – Interception – Blogs
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It seems incredible, but over the past year and a half, three people have already left Russia in the youth team of Real Madrid. You know two: “Interception” spoke in detail about Yegor Demin and Vadim Vorontsov. Now the third Russian has turned out to be the same route – this is 15-year-old Daniil Stolbetsky.
When Daniil was in first grade, basketball coach Nikita Popov came to the lessons. He recruited guys for classes at the Gloria sports school, and since Stolbetsky had already grown to 158 cm, he was called in the first place. He began to study with Popov and immediately got into the main team by age.
A year and a half later, Gloria played a friendly match with CSKA. Danya’s parents, who came to watch the match, saw that at this age, the guys can not only engage in physical training, but also already have purely basketball skills – throws, plasticity, movement. In Gloria, the emphasis was on physical activity, and the boy wanted to play basketball. His parents supported him in this.
The family went to see several schools. Call every one, including Trinta. But Daniel conquered Vyacheslav Fedorchenko. A young coach from CSKA came out to meet the Stolbetskys in fashionable football and basketball sneakers, he was widely distributed and already by this he persuaded Danya to choose a sports school for the “army”. Moreover, several friends from Gloria also moved to CSKA, and the logistics for the family were convenient.
– The meeting, when he first joined the team, he was such a bear cub, differed in size and height, but was inactive, did not have any speed, – recalls Vyacheslav Fedorchenko. – But I, as a coach, immediately noticed his potential in him, because with all these features he took the ball, pulled it out in front, assuming that he even takes it out himself, despite the fact that this ball was knocked out on the basis of his constant. Of course, sometimes it looked quite ridiculous, but I never killed it in it.
It quickly became clear that Stolbetsky understood the game and “read” it. He handed out passes without any problems, complex and non-obvious, although he was very big in all his teams. Such guys usually picked up useful functions, finished off, but not him.
Daniel stood out for a long time. As a child, the endocrinologist predicted him 215 cm, but the center is ahead of this schedule and has already reached 206 cm. It happened that in a month he could grow by 3 cm – and this is a completely different coordination, completely different movements. Therefore, both Fedorchenko and the second coach Vitaly Sleptsov paid great attention to the work on physical fitness and coordination, so that the features of the body did not interfere with Stolbetsky playing basketball.
The work on oneself paid off in full: without a good reason, the center did not miss a single camp or a single competition, together with Fedorchenko they traveled all over the country and traveled beyond its borders, often bringing rewards with them. At the age of 11, Stolbetsky took the MVP title in the Baltic Basketball League tournament, and at the age of 12 he finally realized that it would not work without basketball. Then he got a knee injury and dropped out for four months – left without training, Danya was completely depressed, came to the crew and said that it seemed to be love.
– How many tears, how many injuries and how much we have experienced, – says Fedorchenko. – It was another test, because Dani has a low pain threshold. We experienced a lot of tears and injuries, disappointments, but he was always distinguished by his character. He spent five years with me, and we did not aggravate once again, if there were a certain number of times.
damage has occurred. Stolbetsky missed the final stage of the Russian championship in 2020 due to the fact that he fell ill with the coronavirus, and a year later he broke down at the training camp before the same final stage. Because of this, Daniil is a little-known Russian scouts and not at all from foreign foreign ones. The situation was unique: the unconditional starting center team, which withstood two of the last three Russian championships, was out of sight of almost all experiences. There was no chance to leave.
But there was an opportunity to participate in the travel team. Once this format led to Real Madrid another Russian Vadim Vorontsov. His dad, also Vadim Vorontsov, in social networks jumpball project published a message with an offer to participate in such a “traveling game”. Stolbetsky’s parents saw this, responded, and already in March, Danya and his mother went to Spain.
The tournament takes place in Catalonia, in Girona. Of the Russians, I didn’t go anymore, but for a travel team this is normal – there are rarely among players of several nationalities there. Danya got into a team called Next MVP, with him there were a Dutchman, a Brazilian, a Spaniard, a Lithuanian, a Swiss, a Macedonian. The guys tried a few workouts, got together a bit and started playing with the built-in commands. There were 16 of them in total. Usually, club scouts sit at such tournaments and study which of the not yet attached players could be invited to their structure.
Daniel very quickly began to sit down by representatives of different teams. They showed how a woman tells her son in Russian, and easily perceive her mother as a player. The scouts were interested in where Danya came from, what his plans were, if he wanted to come to the screening. By the end of the tournament, interest had just begun: Stolbetsky watched everything, and when he went on the floor against another team, he already knew what the joints could do, and knew that it could be countered.
Scouts and agents asked to show them a video cut, but there was none – the family had never been in this business and did not know that a cut of moments was needed. However, even this did not become a serious problem.
Daniil and his mother returned to Russia, where CSKA – already with Stolbetsky, who finally reached the final stage – a well-deserved championship of Russia in a week. Danya closed this gestalt, and the family began to think – not even about whether to go to the screenings for a document, but about the sequence in which to go. Several Spanish clubs were called in training, including Valencia, Joventut and Barcelona.
But there were no Real Madrid scouts at the tournament, and this was depressing. It was important for the Stolbetskys that their son was educated in English, only the “creamy” ones in Spain have such an opportunity, who send all their pupils to a private school in Madrid. Vadim Vorontsov sent the video to Real Madrid just in case, but he did not expect a quick response and no response at all.
To his surprise, Real Madrid responded in just two days, and contacted the Stolbetskys on Daniil’s birthday, April 21. At the end of May, Vorontsov Sr. and Daniil flew to Madrid, where the player spent a couple of training sessions. Real Madrid also invited the players of their system to this viewing – Yegor Demin, Declan Duru, Isma Ismail and others. It was quite difficult for Daniil under the basket, against him there were migrants from the top 3 Eurohopes rating in three age groups. After training with them, Stolbetsky worries and said, “Damn, they’re monsters.”
All that evening, Danya and Vadim Vorontsov sat in the stands of the football stadium and talked about how to spend the second day of training. Whether this worked or something else is not clear, but the Real Madrid coaches promised in the morning they saw in a completely different player. It was easy for the club to bring in an African who would have been more physically gifted, guys from the coastal islands, who would not be considered a Spanish legionnaire; but Stolbetsky took them with his movements, with his view of the playgrounds. Everyone is now looking for a new Jokic – and Real Madrid will not disappear.
Daniil was offered a non-standard contract for such cases – a three-year contract at once, without any options – and they said that they were expected in September.
– I am insanely proud, despite the fact that many specialists in Russia, including scouts, and so on, do not recognize him, they believe that he has many shortcomings, he says – Fedorchenko. – But I, as his coach, who worked throughout his childhood and the temporary period of formation as a player, I can say that he has great potential, and with a conversation, all this can be realized. I believe that he can ride them.
Stolbetsky has been in Madrid for several months now. Try it, he lived in the same room with Demin and Gonzalez, but the rules of residence are such that in places of team building the guys are moved from time to time. Now Denmark lives with a Pole born in 2005 and with a Frenchman born in 2010, goes to school and in parallel every day one and a half to two hours studies with a Spanish tutor. At Real Madrid, Stolbetsky had a no entiendo nada level of Spanish consciousness, and now he passed the exam at school with 7 points out of 8 and basically has no problems at school.
The center plays in the U16 game, but is sometimes seen in the U18 lineup. If, by age, Daniil is in the top 3 of the team in terms of minutes played, points and utility factor, then the seniors have to compete with the entire top of the Eurohopes rating – and this motivates him.
Physical activity Stolbetsky adds – thanks to his point load, the body becomes more basketball-like. Plus, working with coach Sergey Nagorny (aka Action), Denmark has been working with animals for the last two years in Moscow. Increased limitations were revealed there due to complexion and rapid growth, but it was important to continue working taking into account the characteristics of the body – and Nagorny watched the longitude. Now in Real Madrid it is much easier for Stolbetsky to turn to similar exercises.
Daniil Stolbetsky, already the third Russian to join the Real Madrid system since September 2021 and the second to move to Madrid thanks to a travel team, was again helped by Vadim Vorontsov and his jumpball project. It seems that this phenomenon should be monitored a little more closely.
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• New Russian in Madrid: Vadim Vorontsov is the youngest legionnaire in the history of Real Madrid
• Yegor Demin moved to Real Madrid at the age of 15. Experts consider him the best player born in 2006
• The Russian guy gets advice from LeBron and plays in the same game as Bronnie. Meet Timofey Rudovsky
Photo: VK; personal archive