kremlin.ru
Russian President Vladimir Putin met the world football stars in the Kremlin. Among the guests were owners of the awards of the European and World Championships such as Mexican player Jorge Campos, German footballer Lothar Matthaus, Marco van Basten from Holland and many others. A member of the Croatian team of 1998 Zvonimir Boban came to the meeting as well. The Croatian team will compete with the Russians for the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup already tomorrow, TASS reports.
The Head of State called the sportsmen experts of the world class and joked to provide him with a briefing of who was going to win the FIFA World Cup 2018.
In his words, though he is not well aware of all the football peculiarities, he loves this kind of sports pretty much. Vladimir Putin has mentioned that the competitions are conducted on the top level and fans and sportsmen will get many pleasant surprises.
Another important trait of this championship, according the Russian leader, is that it gives great motivation for development of football and sports in the country overall.
Russians love football, he added. President said that the authorities made everything possible in order to create the most modern and most convenient infrastructure for the football development.
Besides, as per Putin, foreign fans were able to destroy many stereotypes about Russia by means of social networks. The Head of State mentioned about friendly attitude to the foreign fans by the hosts of the tournament: thousands of guests who came to watch the FIFA World Cup are creating their own atmosphere of trust and holiday.
“It is not just development of football for us, this is development of mass kinds of sports,” President summoned up. He also hopes that it would help the young generation to develop physically and spiritually.
Russkiy Mir
