THE RUSSIAN M URINHO
HE’S known in his home country as the Russian Mourinho – and now Leonid Slutsky is out to cause England a Special problem or two when the nations clash in Marseille on Saturday.
Slutsky already has the Russian league title tucked safely under his belt having last month led CSKA Moscow to their third championship in four years.
Now he’s looking for further cause to celebrate by leading Russia to a famous win over Roy Hodgson’s side in the south of France.
The match pits one of the youngest coaches at Euro 2016 against the oldest – but Slutsky is unlikely to be fazed having already achieved something of a miracle in guiding Russia to the tournament in the first place.
The 45-year-old succeeded Fabio Capello as boss of the national team last summer. He took the reins of a side that had crashed out of the World Cup in Brazil at the group stages and had won just two out of their first six matches in Euro 2016 qualifying.
Under Slutsky, Russia then won their next four matches to finish second behind Austria in Group G.
Slutsky has dismissed any comparison between himself and new Manchester United manager Mourinho (below).
But having delivered success for club and country – he is still boss of both the national team and CSKA – his stock is clearly on the rise.
“Mourinho is a truly great coach,” Slutsky said.
“He has won many big titles.
“A l m o s t anywhere he w en t he achieved success.
“A s for myself, I could only dream of having even half of what he’s got.” One similarity between the pair is the fact that neither Slutsky nor Mourinho had notable playing careers before becoming coaches. Slutsky, though, was a promising goalkeeper for Zvezda Gorodishche in the Russian Second Division before a fateful attempt to try to rescue a cat from a tree for a neighbour at the age of 19. A fall left him with a shattered knee and ended his career. “I spent a year in hospital,” he said. “They told me it wouldn’t bend at all again. “For a long time I worked hard to get better. I tried to return to playing football but it didn’t work out.” From a botched pet rescue to a successful salvation of his country’s football fortunes – now he’s out to make Hodgson the f a ll guy in Marseille.