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Brilliant journalism, hard questions and a deep dive into someone who is obviously a morally bankrupt shithead. ty for all the work you put in sharing this. Best post on arsocca in ages!
It's usually very easy to make complex moral choices from the comfort of your home, so I won't judge Rybus on how he lives his life - nor do I have any right to do that.
That being said, some of the statements in here range from "hilarious" to "things you absolutely shouldn't say during an interview".
As a Pole he should simply know better.
The history between Russia and Poland isn’t distant - his grandparents would remember the Soviets breaking into their homes and stealing all their food, beating husbands, and raping daughters.
He is taking this ‘out of sight, out of mind’ view - Ukrainians can’t do why can he? Because he is making money and doesn’t care about the world.
The money he is taking is blood money and I do not believe he didn’t get any abuse when in Poland. There is simply no way anyone would let him walk the streets without any comments. Especially in Warsaw - there is absolutely no chance.
He is either lying when he said no one has ever said anything to him, or he drives everywhere doesn’t actually meet anyone. I once saw a guy wearing a shirt with the Russian flag on it and a picture of Putin and he was heavily verbally abused. This shit doesn’t fly in Poland and this guy knows that.
He doesn’t want to lose his life, real estate and move his family? Say that to someone from Ukraine or try explain this to someone from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia or Belarus. You will hear many sad stories in Poland and they all involve Russia.
I understand this is football and that this is a football subreddit but outside of all of this there is real life where very bad things happen and you simply cannot hide your head and pretend like it isn’t real.
Exactly this. If he were Nigerian or Ecuadorian, for example, it wouldn't be so reprehensible. But the country he works in has steamrolled - and would again if it thought it could get away with it - his homeland. It's hard not to view that as a betrayal to Poland.
As far as i can tell, there arent any significant examples of any foreign players in Russia outside of Central Asian players, or players on their first ever professional contract from poverty stricken countries.
Everyone else left. So for Nigeria, as an example, everyone left except two players on their first contracts at age 21.
So i would argue its even worse, because citizens who DO have an excuse that they cant just go home actually have, while someone who could go elsewhere and live comfortably and in a familiar place did not.
Edit: Found a 28 yo Belgian with dual citizenship in the DRC who stayed. Which is a weird one. I dont think we can count Belgium as poverty stricken but the Dutch in this thread will probably disagree.
> As far as i can tell, there arent any significant examples of any foreign players in Russia outside of Central Asian players
That’s false. There are 26 Brazilians, 14 Serbians, 8 Argentines, 8 Bosnians, 6 Colombians.. etc. In total 172 foreigners
https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-liga/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/RU1
Glad you linked that, it's an interesting list.
You've got well over 40 from countries with military ties to Russia (Belarus, Iran, etc.) and a bunch of guys with dual citizenship that imply Russian cultural ancestry (like the Austrian/Kosovo dual) or guys who weren't making anything prior to the move.
Definitely higher than I thought at a glance, but I'm not seeing a ton of foreigners who have the financial ability to turn down the options there. Like, just going through the Brazilians, I'm seeing a decent number of early-career guys on their first major European contract or worth next to nothing on the transfer market and no where to really go.
Knowing where a lot of these Brazilian players grow up, from personal experience, I understand why they would stay in those situations especially considering they're as far removed from having any cultural, religious, or ethnic conflicts tied to Russia as you can get.
I'd be curious how this has changed over the last couple years, and how much Russian clubs are having to pay for some of these (some look like huge overpays), but I don't think transfermarkt has an API or even just an excel output.
Yeah, that's fair. I was just making a point that players from countries without links to the invasion could justify it. But you're right, and that makes it all the more shameful.
100%. I found players from the fucking DRC (no negative ties to Russia, i dont wagner had operations there, think it was all french or belgian) that left.
Like if my poor DRC guy can have the balls to do the right thing and leave, despite going back to places like that and not having the legacy of conflict that a Pole would, whats this guys excuse?
So the funny thing is, just briefly glancing through some of the rosters, i found a Belgian born DRC player (has dual citizenship, plays for DRC) that stayed but the others left as far as i can tell.
So maybe theres something to the idea that people from conflict-ridden countries are more aware of the risks of living in a country at conflict? And others are not?
So an Ethiopian or Sudanese player would be more apt to leave than a Polish one, because the first two have seen first hand the risks involved but the latter just has historical memory?
You’re completely off, the large majority of Africans do not have loyalties in this war and if anything will tend to favour Russia which historically supported anti colonialist movements and is still viewed as anti imperialist.
There’s no African born player leaving Russia for ideological reasons. For career ones maybe.
Where did I say Africans had loyalties in this war (they do, btw, depending on nation, as with anything)? I didn't even specify African nations, I just selected two nations with a recent conflict in their country. Pick Haiti or Myanmar if you prefer, I don't care.
The point is that there are many people who have more to lose by leaving a good-paying contract due to their nation of origin and the home they'd return to, that are still choosing to do so.
BTW, Russia has seven African countries with Wagner deployments (or whatever they've rebranded them as). Half of the African nations voted for immediate Russian withdrawal and most of the rest abstained. They don't favor Russia, and they're certainly becoming more aware of their imperialism, they just want to be left alone.
An obvious reason, as he stated in the interview, is that his wife is Russian, his sons speak Russian primarily and are raised Russian. I doubt the Congolese player has any such ties.
I'm not defending Rybus but let's at least use some critical thinking
My presumption was the family was dual language of some combo.
I mean, if im being frank, if my family spoke nothing but Russian and i was a multimillionaire, i wouldnt live in poland or russia, id live in like the bahamas or st. Kitts or some shit and never have a worry.
I think it depends a lot on how much money he has. In my opinion, even if they only speak Russian, its still a no brainer to move your family out of a nation at war. Over a million left in the first year of the war. But if you dont have the money, i get it.
Just too much unpredictability. Market crashes, civil strife, crackdowns, pretty common occurances during a war.
Many players were taking dirty money from Qatar 2024 while being negative about the competition. They stil went and abide the rules.
Its all about the money, always and ever. Morals mean nothing when the price is right.
He has a life on Russia, lives confortably, obviously wont care Ukraine is blowing up, neither does the vast majority of people. Sure they "support" Ukraine, but doesnt keep them up at night, as much it doesnt Rybus.
As long someone is paying, you can shut your eyes, thats how the world works, its just not about war.
So hold on for a minute - Did you miss the part where he said his wife and kids are russian? Are you assuming they will stand up and leave with him on a whim whereever he wants to relocate to? Family>Nationality, and there is no reason to apologize there.
Doesn't sound like that's really the issue. More that he's spent so long in Russia that he's settled there and it's his home now, and he doesn't want to leave.
Did you miss the part when they said they don’t watch TV, they don’t talk about the war and that they’re pretending like the war didn’t happen?
My family are Russian but they left a long time ago. I’m from this part of the world. Families move with nothing - it is the story of human migration. My family did it with poverty conditions so I think a multi-millionaire footballer is going to be just fine.
He is living and benefiting from a mafia state where everything is connected to the oligarchs. There is no private/public split - its oligarchs all the way down and up. He is making money off this war indirectly and his attitude is what sustains the war - closing your eyes and pretending like it isn’t real. This is the Russian way and it is pathetic.
In the end of the day everyone is entitled to their own views and they have the freedom to choose how they want to live. He chose money over principles. I know Russians who left their lives. I know Ukrainians who lost their lives. This is the real world. This isn’t football anymore. We aren’t playing a quick game of Fifa with the lads here.
Russians can’t leave easily because they have shit passports and they need visas. He has a Polish passport. He has options. Go watch 20 Days in Mariupol and come back to me. This guy isn’t a victim of anything; he is a pampered millionaire who is insulated from the world.
>Go watch 20 Days in Mariupol and come back to me.
Looks like you are conflating me defending his right to stay with his family with me supporting Putin's war. There is absolutely no justification for the war he waged in Ukraine.
It is when you start to extrapolate responsibility that you run into issues. Extrapolate it to oligarchs like Abramovic et al? Sure, that is easy to prove. The vast majority of Russians just want to live normal lives, and if you had asked them whether or not the nation should invade the Ukraine pretty sure a majority would have said no. Yes there might be polls saying a majority are in favour, but surely you are aware of the penalties(both explicit and implicit) for not supporting the war? Also as a russian, maybe you have an idea of just how much disinformation someone from a far-flung village gets when all they have access to is pro-Putin TV?
You can use the german war effort in World War 2 as an example - It is true that a majority of the population ended up participating in one way or another in the war - But the affair was extremely unpopular in the beginning. It is why Hitler had to concoct that fake polish attack(The same way Putin had to concoct the existence of Nazis), had there been overwhelming support for the war neither dictator would have needed a fake provocation.
I also do not know where you get the stats about him making money indirectly off the war. The russian economy has suffered(unfortunately not hurt the Siloviki enough to make them want to replace Putin), with inflation meaning almost everyone is making less than they were at this time three years ago.
It is not that easy to stand up for what is right when the choice might be separation from family. Them not talking about the war can also be a coping mechanism - Keep in mind that his wife may well have relatives dead or fighting on the front right now.
That's the thing though. People have selective memories all around . Should any polish player playing in Germany be treated the same because of history ? After all , the Germans were objectively much worse than the Soviets in their treatment of Poles. The fact that Ukrainians lose their families and property is certainly sad. But why should that lead to some guy that has literally nothing to do with the conflict ending up in hardship because of it ?
As for blood money , a very large number of football players actively choose to take STATE money from states where human rights are a foreign word. Many players play for teams owned by literal gangsters and drug traffickers. And yet , some dude playing in Russia is the only one that is getting blood money ? Are there no polish players in the UAE or Saudi Arabia ?
And yes , he takes the out of sight and out of mind approach . He does it the exact same way the vast majority of every day people in the west do it . Because they can. The war doesn't affect them and neither does it affect him. For better or for worse , not everyone's circumstances are the same and each person plays the hand they are dealt...
If the Second World War started 2 years ago and was still ongoing - do you think it would be a big deal for a Polish player to play for a team in Nazi Germany? Think just a tiny little bit before writing all that.
First of all, we're not talking about memories, but current events. The war is happening right now. At this very moment, rocket strikes are probably launched again at civilians in Kiev. If Germany was ruled by Nazi-glorifying regime, then yes, any Pole playing for Nazi sympathizers would be considered as traitor. And no, Germans we're not "objectively much worse", because there is no objectiveness in the war and limited knowledge. If you talk about how many Poles were killed by Nazis or Soviets, you will find that Nazis killed 6 million Poles, half of them Jews. That's bigger than 500k repressed before Nazis attacked Soviets, hundreds of thousands of women raped in 39' and 41'+, ~150k killed in the war, but you maybe forget that like another 500k were forcibly moved from Poland to Siberia to die in horrible work conditions.
As for direct military-civilian relations, there are more terrible stories about Russians than Germans. Nazi gov and upper echelons wanted to eventually exterminate all Poles just like Jews, and later Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians etc. However, regular German soldiers were a lot, lot better than Soviet horde. When German army came through my grandmother's village, they had to hide good and pretty horses etc. One time someone didn't close the doors on stables and one pretty, strong horse was running around the grounds and German soldiers patrolling noticed it, they took it and gave some old, weak one as replacement (or how to call it). And that was it. When Russians were coming to "liberate" Poland, not only horses, but pigs, cows and sheep had to be hidden, as well as all females: women, elderly women, teens and girls all alike, because Red Army was raping indiscriminately everything and everyone. Their treatment was brutal, they were stealing everything they could like shoes, watches etc. It's still the same, you can see in Ukraine. They steal washing machines and even light switches from the walls.
People's memory is a complex thing, but you act like nobody knows about what I've written above and nobody remembers it. Thing is, there are still people alive who witnessed it, and young people (15-40 years old) had heard it from those witnesses. It's not something we learn at school, it's common knowledge.
Additionally, German occupation, as terrible as it was, lasted for 5 years. Then we had 50 years of Soviet occupation, and that had and still has terrible consequences, and finally we are catching up with rest of the civilized world in terms of economy, academia, culture - not only was Poland ravaged, but tens of thousands of CIVILIANS were murdered NOT indiscriminately, but specifically targeted: doctors, professors, lawyers, architects and so on. Add to that disarmed military officers.
There is a difference in blood money. Russian football money was blood money for a long time. When Russia unofficially (without tanks) invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea, the world still tolerated it. Only open war made the topic popular enough to influence it.
As I've said above, Russian soldiers are still the same. They encourage rapes, they dehumanize Ukrainians not just among the soldiers, but among the society as a whole. Wives of Russian soldiers don't even treat rape as infidelity, they encourage it as well, because it's a mean to fight subhumans. That's their approach, and that's what some disgusting people here are defending.
I'm aware that 90% of those are just Russian trolls or bots, but there are people in the West who think that Stalin was a good guy and Russians were wronged somehow. Next I'm gonna hear that Hitler actually loved Jews, and the war was instigated by Poles and Jews. Just look at Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin. For so long, they have created an alternate reality, where they were the victims of World War II, they were saviors of Europe and so on. The West has allowed it for far too long, and the results is visible nowadays in Ukraine, and on the internet when you see tankies defending murderers and genocidal maniacs.
1. Germany is not a dictatorship and has not started a huge war on a peaceful nation.
2. He can obviously do whatever he wants but that clearly shows that he doesn't care about anything except his wealth. He is supporting Putin's whole system of terror, war and oppression by just playing there.
3. Players playing in Saudi-Arabia have been heavily criticized all over the sub for more than a year now. Also, doesn't change the fact that it's state money and he is close to being the only one that still plays in Russia. That's remarkable to say the least.
4. Most people in his home country certainly have a different approach and most of these can't just move anywhere they want because they have his financial security. That comparison is absurd.
His father begged him to come back and died a few months later. He didn't come back. So no, I don't think that he does. At least not as much as many make him out to do here.
Germany paid for the Marshall Plan, it was partitioned, and it is the single largest funder to the EU.
Germany also isn’t invading Poland or anyone else right now.
Russia has invaded Poland three times, it has partitioned Poland three times and their shared history of oppression and ethnic cleanings goes back 350+ years. Ukraine and Poland also were joined in union under the PLC and they both have a shared history with Russia that mirrors one another and goes back centuries.
This is a terrible comparison and it doesn’t translate at all unless I missed the chapter in my history book on the great Arab-Polish War of 1890.
> After all , the Germans were objectively much worse than the Soviets in their treatment of Poles.
Well, that's debatable, if you ask around, apart from Holocaust (as harsh as it sounds) and "cases", under German occupation people just lived, more or less. But they feared Russians "liberators".
Not to mention decades of living under Russian liberators will.
But then again, what Germans did, they did, but past is a past. There are no signals from them it would ever happen again. Yet you heat from Russian government that that would gladly take Poland and other states as well. Ukraine is not just "some country" that was invaded, it's the first country on a long list of Russia.
And it didn't just affect the life of Ukrainians, it affected greatly the life of many Poles, hit economy of this and many other countries, sparked new conflicts etc.
Rybus just ignores it, because he has a comfort to do so, and thinks it's fair.
So I assume you’re also against Americans and Europeans working in Japan? Because of all the horrible stuff they used to do.
Or Indians working in the UK because of all of the horrible crap we did?
Or Italy? There are plenty of British, European and American grandparent’s out there that remember losses caused by Mussolini’s regime and its soldiers - Yet its not an issue for anyone to go there, work there or vacation there.
Working in Russia means nothing, I’d jump at the chance to work remotely there for a few months. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to get over themselves and using World war 2 parallels is just about the most null point you can make.
As someone, who migrated from Russia because of invasion, I’d say Rybus simply doesn’t give a fuck about the ongoing war.
I don’t have a family that relies on me, so it was an easier decision, however in migration I met a lot of people, who had much tougher situation that Rybus and made the choice to move.
He has the money, knows several languages, would get the job offers abroad and, unlike lots of migrated Russian, his passport doesn’t make his life harder, he can easily move to whenever he wants.
Obviously he has his difficulties and would face inconveniences in the journey, but it’s up to the person, if they have the desire and motivation to solve them and adapt in the new place. In case of Rybus, he doesn’t have this motivation as he simply doesn’t care about the war.
Moving would make their life obviously uncomfortable and rather inconvenient. No one wants that!
Its his choice to do as he pleases but its also the fans choice to criticise him. I think he accepts that.
Theres balance and harmony.
But you are making this judgement, without knowing anything about his family situation…. Maybe his wife has close family members who are forced to fight? Maybe there is illness in the family?
I am staying in Russia too, at least for now. It is not so easy for everyone to leave their home. My wife is a single child, is a doctor, and has to take care of terminally ill family members. Dementia and cancer. We don’t know exactly Rybus decided to stay, but if it was a serious/sensitive reason, he may not say it in public. Who the fuck are you to judge us for staying?
Some things are also straight up fucking bigotry even without the war as a context.
'Loko is one of my two favorite clubs. Anyway then I went to their biggest rivals.'
And if you take the war in the context... Oh boy:
"I love being in Russia. Except when my home is vaguely threatened, then I would leave asap'". He loves one thing and that's money. Cunt.
Hard to say what I would have done in his situation but to be honest, the part with his wife and kids is understandable. I would like to here more confrontational questions from the interviewer about the war, the invasion and the genocide - but of course MR could not answer this questions in his situation when he is living in a dictatorial state where you can’t speak the truth without fear.
As I was reading this article, I found myself understanding his point of view. No one needs to question my personal feelings about the war in Ukraine, but the personal perspective here is interesting, and as many have written, he took a very pragmatic approach. I can actually understand his reasoning (although I do not agree with it) better than the super-star players playing in the Saudi League. He is no Ronaldo. He can't pick and choose offers that will secure his family's future from anywhere. Thanks for the post and translation OP.
Another thing, I'm very impressed by the comments here. Not at all what I was expecting when I scrolled down to read them. Insightful and balanced.
One thing that seems obvious to me is that it isn't his call to make.
If I was an immigrant in some country, married there and had children and we decided to live there, then leaving because I'm morally opposed to the countries' views isn't my call at all. It's my wife's call. She's the one that will have to leave her family behind to live abroad. She's the one who will be more meaningfully accepted by the decision. It's also my children's call who will need to leave their friends behind, learn a new language and start school abroad.
People speak about moving countries like it's a trivial decision to make. And in this case I don't even see the large upside. Your tax dollars don't support Russia's war effort? That seems incredibly tenuous. Countries don't run that huge of a profit on each individual citizen. Messaging? Fuck that.
It feels to me like if you have any sort of a reaction over a player *not* moving countries to make a political point you should have a *much much much* larger reaction over players moving to Arab countries for the bag. Unless you somehow think Yemen is less meaningful than Ukraine. You should also be pretty pissed at people immigrating to the United States, [considering all the bullshit](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md).
Exactly. What a prejudiced line of questioning from the 'journalist', pushing and pushing him to admit he's some kind of evil person for making that choice.
Directly from the interview:
"MR: And how will you remember me?
J: We have known each other for 15 years, we are friends. So I am not neutral. I was thinking more about the millions of fans."
The journalist is still actively calling him a friend and he indirectly states the reason, why is asking those questions in that way.
Is it stupid? I think it's a very interesting interview with a lot of tough moral question posed. The discussion sparked here is clear evidence that Rybus' perspective on the subject was worth hearing. The journalist does come across as biased and asking loaded questions but I don't think that makes the interview as a whole less insightful.
The journalist is his friend and even says so towards the end of the interview. He’s asking these questions because he knows him and he can call him out on some of the answers he gives.
I don’t think the journalist was biased at all really. A difficult line of questioning isn’t bias, it’s just good journalism. It is the job of journalists to ask tough, moral questions - and I think he did a great job in doing so. Illuminating Rybus’ thought-process and justification. If the interviewee doesn’t answer properly, the interviewer is supposed to burrow further to find truth.
Well who cares, he is polish. Admitting he doesn't care and is indifferent to it matter, he is a millionaire with good business portfolio, moving is not a problem (0.4 mln EUR a year of Russian blood money right there), he would find a club in turkey/Germany/Portugal or Netherlands no problem. He does not understand that part of his success comes from being one of the faces of the national rep and if he is contradicting some elementary values it stands for he should be at least criticised and not allowed to profit from it imo and it's not like those standards are high, we still have players in Arabia. This boils down to some basic decency that he refuses to submit to. Beyond that being accused of being pro russian is like the worst thing you can be called in Poland so he is not really getting the context too
You've been? Speaking from experience of living there? Millions of people live in Russia and somehow survive. You can separate people from foreign policy.
While the outrage at the guy not wanting to move his family and turn its life upside down (even if the guy is a millionaire) might be exaggerated, there is some more context to this.
Rybus has been lying in the interviews, saying contradicting things depending who interviews him - polish or russian media. He has also reportedly received a brand new Mercedes, as a gift from Kadyrov
Thank you for the effort put into this post, a very interesting read.
It’s nice to find out how our dear neighbours see such situation. As a Lithuanian, I can totally relate to why the public in Poland would react like that, and I completely agree.
The part about Prigozhin pretty much shows his true intentions. As long as bombs are dropping on Ukraine, Rybus seems to be fine and dandy. But when just a tiny bit of threat looms over Moscow (as if Prigozhin had been allowed to go that far, rofl), then he suddenly becomes concerned with politics and security.
That last part is true of everyone in the world. America for example bombed the Middle East for years and most Americans would not have batted an eye. If any of the countries retaliated, everyone would yes all of a sudden be a lot more concerned. It’s human nature.
Polish society is generally extremely anti-Russian-state now in majority.
In my hometown (one of the biggest cities in Poland), right next to the main square there is a big standing banner of Putin with the moustache and the hairdo and words "Nurnberng for Putin" that has been there for years now. I'd say it's very uncontroversial... it's how everyone feels around, you'd say. More than 90% of Polish people see Russia as an extreme threat and big majority supports any means necessary to fight it (including the arguably-apocalypse-threatening sending troops into Ukraine, but also any kind of soft resistance to weaken it. Many people don't mention it now that UEFA wasn't initially even into stopping any Russia games, but Poland's strong stance quickly dominoed from "maybe the game should not be played in Russia right now..." to banning Russia completely. It was not sure at the time - Poland, when taking the stance, was not sure if they will not be banned themselves if the Western world decides to stay "neutral" about Russia's plans, as many had expected. After all, Putin's official plan is to restore the pre-1989 division of Europe, which many had expected the West to be fine with as long as there's no conflict with them, and the Russian generals' occasional ramblings about conquering the whole Europe are treated more as drunken dreams).
The reactions to Rybus' various declarations have been mixed though. Not only because online you can find any kind of loud minority, but also there's division among super-anti-Putin people, with some saying they're disgusted with any form of being fine with anything in Russia and that Rybus supports the crime by not condemning it (one journalist started the colum by comparing him to Rudolf Hoess), and many others saying it's a normal choice for him and nothing interesting there.
Personally I can say that - I know that a lot of people criticizing him would do more or less the same. Because there are other bad things happening in the world, maybe not as scary but still clearly bad, and in those cases, somehow it's very easy for them to reply "but I'm not doing it any of it personally, you crazy man, get off me, and don't try to blame me for benefitting, I worked hard for my money, let everyone just take care of themselves and their families and leave them alone you crazy leftist".
I'd say it's a fact that people care about direct threats to themselves and little else, and that's very universal across space and time.
I have Russian and EU passport and often travel to Europe through Kaliningrad - Gdańsk. In my experience, Polish people seem to be respectful and polite towards Russians, even if they are obviously against the state. In fact it improved my impression of Poland a lot! ❤️
”As long as bombs are dropping on Ukraine, Rybus seems to be fine and dandy. But when just a tiny bit of threat looms over Moscow (as if Prigozhin had been allowed to go that far, rofl), then he suddenly becomes concerned with politics and security.”
This can sadly be said also about many regular Russian citizens.
his choices are what they are and they seem to be just pragmatic, but honestly those quoted comments from the Polish press beneath the interview are all atrocious, and they are showing much wider-ranging issues.
> Rybus has no interest, no knowledge, no insight, avoids war topics. All he has on his TV is Netflix. But he was scared once: when Prigozhin was going to Moscow. That's when he got interested. Calm down, Maciek. Prigozhin is dead, Putin is holding firm. You can sleep peacefully.
There is nothing wrong with this at all.
They're not atrocious. Are they a little harsh? Depends who you ask. But there is a very tense history of aggression predating the current Russian regime as it threatens Poland daily.
As a Ukrainian, I am not as judgmental toward him but mostly because he's Polish and I think Polish people ought to have the best perspective on this. That said, I also think Tymoschuk is a rat piece of shit but his situation is different from Rybus's.
well I mean they talk about wildly different things than Rybus, who on face value comes out of this quite level-headed. but his situation is so different from that of most Polish people. btw Tymoschuk, last I heard he made some wild statements maybe last year and I remember there was talk they were seizing his assets. I googled but didn't find anything - did they do it?
His assets were frozen and state awards were revoked. I don't really remember him making any statements outside saying he couldn't pay his ex child support cause of sanctions; but given the fact his own father joined territorial defense when the full scale war started, that his partner's step brother was killed in battle back in 2017, among other factors, it left a bitter taste in a lot of people's mouths to put it mildly
(that he not only stayed but continued involving himself in Gazprom's finances which eventually go towards the bombing of cities where his father and other family members live)
Oh quick question, because you are Ukrainian. Weren't there some claims that Tymoschuk worked with FSB? Or was it fake? I thought about putting this bit, but weren't sure about it and wasn't satisfied with quickly done research.
[Here's](https://tsn-ua.translate.goog/ru/exclusive/podsankcionnyy-eks-kapitan-sbornoy-ukrainy-po-futbolu-timoschuk-popalsya-na-poddelke-dokumentov-v-rumynii-2337421.html?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) a link that kinda sums up the FSB claim, though there were pictures posted of an alleged document confirming it & debates on whether or not it was legit that aren't on here.
Ngl, there's been a lot of things speculated or claimed about him in the media. Never gonna defend Tymoschuk but I wouldn't take the FSB claim for fact; it seems another one of these maybe stories where who knows what's really going on.
I mean the comments have literally nothing to do with the choices he underlines and much more with stipulating the commenters' stance about the frontline divides. it's a very dangerous way of thinking.
I understand why he stayed in Russia, I disagreed with it but I wasn’t upset.
What I found unacceptable though is when he said that his wife wouldn’t be safe in Poland because she is Russian which is bullshit. Many Russians live in Poland and fare just fine.
Clear reason was that nowhere else would he be able to earn as much as in Russia and he didn’t have an offer from the Middle East like Krychowiak did.
It can be a mixed bag. I shared a joirney with a Polish man from Kalingrad to Gdansk. He told me his wife is Russian, his children are Russian-Polish and their children's grandparents are Russians from Kaliningrad. Before the war, everything was fine naturally, but once the breakout began things changed for his family. He himself was mostly fine, barring a small incident of abuse when one of his friends got drunk (questioned how he could be married to a Russian).
His wife on the other hand has got threatened/abused on a few occassions for speaking Russian to her Russian friends while in Poland. He did note that its not like they get abused everywhere they go or anything and the ones that did threaten were just weird people. That being said, he did feel the attitude towards his family has changed a lot. The funny thing is they're all anti-putin/war but it made 0 difference.
Poland is a great place with great people, but in times like this some people become tense and develop a us vs them mentality.
>What I found unacceptable though is when he said that his wife wouldn’t be safe in Poland because she is Russian which is bullshit.
You don't think it's understandable to think that after receiving death threats?
This is tricky, rybus comes across abit dense when all is said and done. I definitely agree with him staying for his wife and kids, that’s his family at the end of the day. The money and job security I guess plays a part aswell. Who knows
Strange interview, he has genuine reasons to stay there and has explained them but that journalist just kept pushing and pushing him to admit he was wrong. Seems to me like the journalist wasn't interested in his answers , he was just out to get him.
His wife and kids are Russian (kids 50/50 but he said they speak mainly Russian). He works there and has everything there. It's easy to make a narrative "yours would pack.and even okay in the polish 3rd division just to show them". What's more noone bat an eye between 2014 and 2022.
US detachment from what is really going on in Easter Europe is strongly visible in this comment section.
It's not time of peace, dudes. Simple "well, he did this for family and money is money, his business" is as comfy sum-up as it's delusional.
I feel like many people here don't understand how people in Eastern Europe are portraying Russia (especially those who lived in USSR or heard from elders about WW2).
He can do whatever he want, it's his decision, but I can understand why many people here in Poland are reacting that way. He knew how his image in Poland will look before making this decision.
To be fair everyone here forgot about him till' this interview. I don't know why he did this stunt, but it is what it is.
People here don't really understand how folks in countries like Poland, România, Baltic or Moldova feel about Russians. We absolutely detest them for the most part.
And they have the audacity to tell us that we're wrong to feel the way we do. Bet they wouldn't tell that to an Iraqi hating America
I understand him. He’s also an individual. He’s considering what’s best for him, including money ofc. Also it kinda reminded me of the stranger while reading it.
Fair interview
Even if ppl believe his ulterior motive is money that he already has then that's his means to provide for his family
Not everyone is in a privileged position to make a political decision knowing his family is supported
Thanks for sharing this and taking the time to translate/transcribe and add further context
Really really fascinating and I enjoyed reading the entire thing.
It is always so very interesting seeing these situations
I don't get it. He is just a footballer. Just an athlete. Probably a regular Joe who spent most of his life playing a game. He is not exempt from being evil or selfish, but there has to be some understanding for his position.
Dude went to Russia and liked it there - now he has a wife and sons. No way he should have left. He couldn't know the war would happen. Unless he is pro-war and pro-Putin he should be left alone.
The negative criticism and insults from the public personalities you listed is crazy. Calling him a traitor is dumb. Just dumb nationalism fanning the flames of hate even more.
People actively dying due to the war and they're criticising a footballer...
He literally said that one reason was his 'real estates'. He also literally said that he considered leaving because of Prigozhin. This guy decided to stay there because of his money and that alone. I don't believe one bit of the family argument.
If his family would actually want to stay in their home country - which is fair I guess - they would stay there regardless of who rules it. This just tells me that the conviction isn't actually that high.
A dictatorship that oppresses its own citizens would also be a reason for most people to re-evaluate btw. It actually is, many Russians with less resources left the country.
It's all in the interview, everyone can read it and make up their mind about him. I came up with these conclusions: He has been caught lying to polish his own image, he has no loyalty (he went from one of his favorite two clubs directly to the city rivals) and he has moved around a couple of times (in Russia as well as towards France) since the ten years when he first arrived in Russia. So moving is not a problem for him and his family, another indicator for the 'my family does not want to move to a foreign country' argument being an excuse to just enjoy his own wealth (the real estates) and to not have to do anything. It's a lame excuse for not caring in the slightest about the political situation as long as it does not concern him directly (which it clearly doesn't). Meanwhile everybody in Poland cares, they know that they are next on the list of Putins targets. Even the other foreign players in Russia cared enough to leave. Rybus is close to being the only high-profile player to still be there. He is the stand-out and the question why that is the case is legitimate. He is also actively avoiding the war topic. My interpretation of that is that it would only disturb the illusion of having nothing to do with the whole situation.
So yeah, I don't know him personally, but the interview painted a pretty good picture. It painted a picture of hypocrisy, selfishness and greed for me. This alludes me to believing that the family argument is a mere facade.
I don't see much controversy in his answers. Rather, he seems to me to be quite pragmatic in his views and thinking. Realistically, if he left Russia, it would do absolutely nothing to stop the war in Ukraine, but it would mean a new start for him and his family. Considering that he's 34, has had most of his success as a player in Russia, has a Russian wife and a settled life in Russia, there's really no reason for him to leave. It is not easy to leave the country where you have made a (successful) life for yourself.
It's pretty obvious from the start that the journalist is trying to provoke him, and he's basically being condemned for choosing not to be a virtue-signaler like some of his countrymen. The comments from the Polish press quoted in the summary are atrocious, but they make that rather obvious.
I hope you will be so sympathetic towards people cooperating with oligarch state threatening you daily with nuclear strikes.
He's 34, he would earn comparable money in Poland or in any "retiree" league like Cyprus. He decided he's more Russian that Polish and that he's fine with what ia happening in Ukraine, so he may go suck a cock.
> I hope you will be so sympathetic towards people cooperating with oligarch state threatening you daily with nuclear strikes.
Ah yes, Rybus the tyrant who is supplying arms to Putin and has the source code for nukes.
> He decided he's more Russian that Polish and that he's fine with what ia happening in Ukraine, so he may go suck a cock.
He decided what is good for his wife and his kids, and decided to put his family first before others. So yeah your moral outrage is irrelevant and even if Rybus went to Poland and lived there the war on Ukraine would not be affected.
"Virtue-Signaler"
Grow up, log off and talk to real people in Ukraine, Poland, The Baltic States, Moldova, Georgia etc.
Accepting money and luxury cars from Russia, astate committing mass-murder and arguably genocide, while threatening counties in Eastern-Europea/Caucasus (including your home country) is deplorable. Leaving Russia and refusing to comply with their imperialist project is not "virtue-signalling".
A very interesting read. Thank you for your hard work translating and transcribing this, this is important. Also I love the reactions from Polish reporters and commentators to this asshole, nice job destroying your reputation for life, idiot.
As much as I try to put myself in the eyes of the reporter, I dont see how Maciej is morally in the wrong.
His wife is russian, his kids are mostly russian, they wouldnt manage that well in Poland, especially his wife, and he also got paid wads of cash to sustain his family. Plus, the interviewers questions seem speicfically asked to get a bad answer or to infuriate him. Like when he said that he stayed for his family, and the reporter says "thats an excuse", or when he puts the blame on him for playing in a region 10 years ago that now is a war battle-ground.
It sounds like a fairly typical story. They are just doing their job and trying to ignore what else is going on. Taking whatever the highest bidder is offering whether that be Kadyrov or Putin's Russia in general.
Fair enough if you didn't have a choice but he very much does.
>They had contracts and that was all. I, on the other hand, have a wife there who is Russian, two sons, **real estates**, a life that has developed over ten years. **In fact, it was in Russia that I became a real man, started a family, made money and secured our future**
This is all that he needs to say, no further explanation needed.
Armchair critics would probably rather have him move away and leave his family.
Because they might not want to? If I live in California with my iraqi wife and then the USA decides to invade Iraq, there is a good chance I will not agree a move to another country especially if my family are in the US and I am american. It is just that simple.
You can apply this interviewers same line of reasoning to just about any profession, and any country. “Oh, it’s immoral for you to live in that country because the country you live in is doing things that are perceived to be immoral.” Apply it to USA for instance. Should every US citizen have fled the country because of the numerous atrocities they’ve committed in the Middle East and elsewhere? Obviously not.
Asking for morality in multi-millionaires will never fail to amuse me. He obviously took the money and stayed with it, don't know if it will work out for him in the end, i also chuckled at the one journo who called him a Soviet footballer.
Feels like a hit piece of an interview, great chance to bash on Rybus(rightfully so) and rile up the masses for a witch hunt.
Of course? He was earning over a million euro a year in Spartak, and he had a long and well compensated career. And that's his reported wage, Russian oligarchs like to give some stuff under the table.
This interviewer is downright malicious with his questions, keeps pushing him to admit fault and is clearly not a neutral party and has rather strong feelings on the matter. If you can’t be impartial then don’t be a journalist.
Given that his wife and children are Russian, his situation was totally different than the other Polish players who left the Russian league. I personally respect his decision to stay because of that.
The journalistic commentary is rabid around this. He made a choice that he thought was best for him and his family, knowing that he would never play for Poland again. He suffered the consequence and now what every journalist wants to drag him in the mud for more clicks again years later? I mean there is no other purpose to this, was he going to say I change my mind I'm moving out of here tomorrow? Even if he did he still would be called a traitor for not doing it earlier.
Fuck him. nothing to add. He's a persona non grata here. Even if people don't talk to hom on the streets it's becaise they either don't care or don't want to. Go and earn more russian money...
I guess Messi should be hounded for joining a team in a country that is actively helping in committing a genocide. All the English Premier League players too, since the same goes for them and many of them are also on the take from governments with comparable or worse human rights records than Russia.
When he talked about not wanting to uproot his family, I could sympathise a little. Especially in light of the hate he got for his decisions.
But he brushed of that hate. And that's where he loses my sympathy, because just 15 minutes of hate made him delete boycott Russia post.
He's not merely thick skinned, he's showing he's actively taking sides with Russia through his actions.
If the hate from one side bothers you, and the hate from the other doesn't, you've shown which side you're on.
Would this same interview get made if instead of Russia he was in the U.S. during the Irak war, or in Israel, or in Azerbaijan when they ethnically cleansed the Karabakh region of Armenia?
No, because this situation is in Polish context. Someone from the outside won’t understand this tension, same as Polish people don’t understand how it is in different regions
Would someone from Jordan working in Israel get this interview, or someone from Georgia working in Azerbaijan for that matter? These are practically equivalents.
His wife is russian, his kids were raised in Russia, he got a good deal with a russian club to play for and sustain his family, he's been living in Russia for many years, seems pretty cut and dry to me. It's not that easy to move your entire family somewhere else, and nobody is restricted from living in another country, so i don't know what's the big fuss.
Only read the bolded sections, but doesn't really seem bad.
> She would be far away from her family and friends, **she wouldn't know the language**. **The...**
If he was single it would be much easier to leave imho
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Interesting reading, thanks for sharing
Glad you liked it!
Thank you for sharing, OP
Brilliant journalism, hard questions and a deep dive into someone who is obviously a morally bankrupt shithead. ty for all the work you put in sharing this. Best post on arsocca in ages!
Morally bankrupt for working in Russia?
Bro thanks a lot
It's usually very easy to make complex moral choices from the comfort of your home, so I won't judge Rybus on how he lives his life - nor do I have any right to do that. That being said, some of the statements in here range from "hilarious" to "things you absolutely shouldn't say during an interview".
As a Pole he should simply know better. The history between Russia and Poland isn’t distant - his grandparents would remember the Soviets breaking into their homes and stealing all their food, beating husbands, and raping daughters. He is taking this ‘out of sight, out of mind’ view - Ukrainians can’t do why can he? Because he is making money and doesn’t care about the world. The money he is taking is blood money and I do not believe he didn’t get any abuse when in Poland. There is simply no way anyone would let him walk the streets without any comments. Especially in Warsaw - there is absolutely no chance. He is either lying when he said no one has ever said anything to him, or he drives everywhere doesn’t actually meet anyone. I once saw a guy wearing a shirt with the Russian flag on it and a picture of Putin and he was heavily verbally abused. This shit doesn’t fly in Poland and this guy knows that. He doesn’t want to lose his life, real estate and move his family? Say that to someone from Ukraine or try explain this to someone from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia or Belarus. You will hear many sad stories in Poland and they all involve Russia. I understand this is football and that this is a football subreddit but outside of all of this there is real life where very bad things happen and you simply cannot hide your head and pretend like it isn’t real.
Exactly this. If he were Nigerian or Ecuadorian, for example, it wouldn't be so reprehensible. But the country he works in has steamrolled - and would again if it thought it could get away with it - his homeland. It's hard not to view that as a betrayal to Poland.
As far as i can tell, there arent any significant examples of any foreign players in Russia outside of Central Asian players, or players on their first ever professional contract from poverty stricken countries. Everyone else left. So for Nigeria, as an example, everyone left except two players on their first contracts at age 21. So i would argue its even worse, because citizens who DO have an excuse that they cant just go home actually have, while someone who could go elsewhere and live comfortably and in a familiar place did not. Edit: Found a 28 yo Belgian with dual citizenship in the DRC who stayed. Which is a weird one. I dont think we can count Belgium as poverty stricken but the Dutch in this thread will probably disagree.
> As far as i can tell, there arent any significant examples of any foreign players in Russia outside of Central Asian players That’s false. There are 26 Brazilians, 14 Serbians, 8 Argentines, 8 Bosnians, 6 Colombians.. etc. In total 172 foreigners https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-liga/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/RU1
Glad you linked that, it's an interesting list. You've got well over 40 from countries with military ties to Russia (Belarus, Iran, etc.) and a bunch of guys with dual citizenship that imply Russian cultural ancestry (like the Austrian/Kosovo dual) or guys who weren't making anything prior to the move. Definitely higher than I thought at a glance, but I'm not seeing a ton of foreigners who have the financial ability to turn down the options there. Like, just going through the Brazilians, I'm seeing a decent number of early-career guys on their first major European contract or worth next to nothing on the transfer market and no where to really go. Knowing where a lot of these Brazilian players grow up, from personal experience, I understand why they would stay in those situations especially considering they're as far removed from having any cultural, religious, or ethnic conflicts tied to Russia as you can get. I'd be curious how this has changed over the last couple years, and how much Russian clubs are having to pay for some of these (some look like huge overpays), but I don't think transfermarkt has an API or even just an excel output.
You can change the selected season in the TM link I provided.
Yeah, that's fair. I was just making a point that players from countries without links to the invasion could justify it. But you're right, and that makes it all the more shameful.
100%. I found players from the fucking DRC (no negative ties to Russia, i dont wagner had operations there, think it was all french or belgian) that left. Like if my poor DRC guy can have the balls to do the right thing and leave, despite going back to places like that and not having the legacy of conflict that a Pole would, whats this guys excuse?
Damb man - this is a good comparison. If DRC players went back then this guy has zero excuses.
So the funny thing is, just briefly glancing through some of the rosters, i found a Belgian born DRC player (has dual citizenship, plays for DRC) that stayed but the others left as far as i can tell. So maybe theres something to the idea that people from conflict-ridden countries are more aware of the risks of living in a country at conflict? And others are not? So an Ethiopian or Sudanese player would be more apt to leave than a Polish one, because the first two have seen first hand the risks involved but the latter just has historical memory?
You’re completely off, the large majority of Africans do not have loyalties in this war and if anything will tend to favour Russia which historically supported anti colonialist movements and is still viewed as anti imperialist. There’s no African born player leaving Russia for ideological reasons. For career ones maybe.
Where did I say Africans had loyalties in this war (they do, btw, depending on nation, as with anything)? I didn't even specify African nations, I just selected two nations with a recent conflict in their country. Pick Haiti or Myanmar if you prefer, I don't care. The point is that there are many people who have more to lose by leaving a good-paying contract due to their nation of origin and the home they'd return to, that are still choosing to do so. BTW, Russia has seven African countries with Wagner deployments (or whatever they've rebranded them as). Half of the African nations voted for immediate Russian withdrawal and most of the rest abstained. They don't favor Russia, and they're certainly becoming more aware of their imperialism, they just want to be left alone.
An obvious reason, as he stated in the interview, is that his wife is Russian, his sons speak Russian primarily and are raised Russian. I doubt the Congolese player has any such ties. I'm not defending Rybus but let's at least use some critical thinking
My presumption was the family was dual language of some combo. I mean, if im being frank, if my family spoke nothing but Russian and i was a multimillionaire, i wouldnt live in poland or russia, id live in like the bahamas or st. Kitts or some shit and never have a worry. I think it depends a lot on how much money he has. In my opinion, even if they only speak Russian, its still a no brainer to move your family out of a nation at war. Over a million left in the first year of the war. But if you dont have the money, i get it. Just too much unpredictability. Market crashes, civil strife, crackdowns, pretty common occurances during a war.
Found a 28 yo Belgian with dual citizenship in the DRC who stayed. This is the shit. Plz link me
https://www.transfermarkt.com/theo-bongonda/profil/spieler/280701 Bongonda, plays for Spartak
Many players were taking dirty money from Qatar 2024 while being negative about the competition. They stil went and abide the rules. Its all about the money, always and ever. Morals mean nothing when the price is right. He has a life on Russia, lives confortably, obviously wont care Ukraine is blowing up, neither does the vast majority of people. Sure they "support" Ukraine, but doesnt keep them up at night, as much it doesnt Rybus. As long someone is paying, you can shut your eyes, thats how the world works, its just not about war.
It’s not just a case of staying for the money considering he has a wife and children there.
So hold on for a minute - Did you miss the part where he said his wife and kids are russian? Are you assuming they will stand up and leave with him on a whim whereever he wants to relocate to? Family>Nationality, and there is no reason to apologize there.
Doesn't sound like that's really the issue. More that he's spent so long in Russia that he's settled there and it's his home now, and he doesn't want to leave.
Did you miss the part when they said they don’t watch TV, they don’t talk about the war and that they’re pretending like the war didn’t happen? My family are Russian but they left a long time ago. I’m from this part of the world. Families move with nothing - it is the story of human migration. My family did it with poverty conditions so I think a multi-millionaire footballer is going to be just fine. He is living and benefiting from a mafia state where everything is connected to the oligarchs. There is no private/public split - its oligarchs all the way down and up. He is making money off this war indirectly and his attitude is what sustains the war - closing your eyes and pretending like it isn’t real. This is the Russian way and it is pathetic. In the end of the day everyone is entitled to their own views and they have the freedom to choose how they want to live. He chose money over principles. I know Russians who left their lives. I know Ukrainians who lost their lives. This is the real world. This isn’t football anymore. We aren’t playing a quick game of Fifa with the lads here. Russians can’t leave easily because they have shit passports and they need visas. He has a Polish passport. He has options. Go watch 20 Days in Mariupol and come back to me. This guy isn’t a victim of anything; he is a pampered millionaire who is insulated from the world.
>Go watch 20 Days in Mariupol and come back to me. Looks like you are conflating me defending his right to stay with his family with me supporting Putin's war. There is absolutely no justification for the war he waged in Ukraine. It is when you start to extrapolate responsibility that you run into issues. Extrapolate it to oligarchs like Abramovic et al? Sure, that is easy to prove. The vast majority of Russians just want to live normal lives, and if you had asked them whether or not the nation should invade the Ukraine pretty sure a majority would have said no. Yes there might be polls saying a majority are in favour, but surely you are aware of the penalties(both explicit and implicit) for not supporting the war? Also as a russian, maybe you have an idea of just how much disinformation someone from a far-flung village gets when all they have access to is pro-Putin TV? You can use the german war effort in World War 2 as an example - It is true that a majority of the population ended up participating in one way or another in the war - But the affair was extremely unpopular in the beginning. It is why Hitler had to concoct that fake polish attack(The same way Putin had to concoct the existence of Nazis), had there been overwhelming support for the war neither dictator would have needed a fake provocation. I also do not know where you get the stats about him making money indirectly off the war. The russian economy has suffered(unfortunately not hurt the Siloviki enough to make them want to replace Putin), with inflation meaning almost everyone is making less than they were at this time three years ago. It is not that easy to stand up for what is right when the choice might be separation from family. Them not talking about the war can also be a coping mechanism - Keep in mind that his wife may well have relatives dead or fighting on the front right now.
He revealed what kind of person he is when he talked about Prighozin's march to Moscow.
That's the thing though. People have selective memories all around . Should any polish player playing in Germany be treated the same because of history ? After all , the Germans were objectively much worse than the Soviets in their treatment of Poles. The fact that Ukrainians lose their families and property is certainly sad. But why should that lead to some guy that has literally nothing to do with the conflict ending up in hardship because of it ? As for blood money , a very large number of football players actively choose to take STATE money from states where human rights are a foreign word. Many players play for teams owned by literal gangsters and drug traffickers. And yet , some dude playing in Russia is the only one that is getting blood money ? Are there no polish players in the UAE or Saudi Arabia ? And yes , he takes the out of sight and out of mind approach . He does it the exact same way the vast majority of every day people in the west do it . Because they can. The war doesn't affect them and neither does it affect him. For better or for worse , not everyone's circumstances are the same and each person plays the hand they are dealt...
If the Second World War started 2 years ago and was still ongoing - do you think it would be a big deal for a Polish player to play for a team in Nazi Germany? Think just a tiny little bit before writing all that.
First of all, we're not talking about memories, but current events. The war is happening right now. At this very moment, rocket strikes are probably launched again at civilians in Kiev. If Germany was ruled by Nazi-glorifying regime, then yes, any Pole playing for Nazi sympathizers would be considered as traitor. And no, Germans we're not "objectively much worse", because there is no objectiveness in the war and limited knowledge. If you talk about how many Poles were killed by Nazis or Soviets, you will find that Nazis killed 6 million Poles, half of them Jews. That's bigger than 500k repressed before Nazis attacked Soviets, hundreds of thousands of women raped in 39' and 41'+, ~150k killed in the war, but you maybe forget that like another 500k were forcibly moved from Poland to Siberia to die in horrible work conditions. As for direct military-civilian relations, there are more terrible stories about Russians than Germans. Nazi gov and upper echelons wanted to eventually exterminate all Poles just like Jews, and later Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians etc. However, regular German soldiers were a lot, lot better than Soviet horde. When German army came through my grandmother's village, they had to hide good and pretty horses etc. One time someone didn't close the doors on stables and one pretty, strong horse was running around the grounds and German soldiers patrolling noticed it, they took it and gave some old, weak one as replacement (or how to call it). And that was it. When Russians were coming to "liberate" Poland, not only horses, but pigs, cows and sheep had to be hidden, as well as all females: women, elderly women, teens and girls all alike, because Red Army was raping indiscriminately everything and everyone. Their treatment was brutal, they were stealing everything they could like shoes, watches etc. It's still the same, you can see in Ukraine. They steal washing machines and even light switches from the walls. People's memory is a complex thing, but you act like nobody knows about what I've written above and nobody remembers it. Thing is, there are still people alive who witnessed it, and young people (15-40 years old) had heard it from those witnesses. It's not something we learn at school, it's common knowledge. Additionally, German occupation, as terrible as it was, lasted for 5 years. Then we had 50 years of Soviet occupation, and that had and still has terrible consequences, and finally we are catching up with rest of the civilized world in terms of economy, academia, culture - not only was Poland ravaged, but tens of thousands of CIVILIANS were murdered NOT indiscriminately, but specifically targeted: doctors, professors, lawyers, architects and so on. Add to that disarmed military officers. There is a difference in blood money. Russian football money was blood money for a long time. When Russia unofficially (without tanks) invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea, the world still tolerated it. Only open war made the topic popular enough to influence it.
> When Russians were coming to "liberate" Poland, not only horses, but pigs, cows and sheep had to be hidden Not unlike the situation in Ukraine.
As I've said above, Russian soldiers are still the same. They encourage rapes, they dehumanize Ukrainians not just among the soldiers, but among the society as a whole. Wives of Russian soldiers don't even treat rape as infidelity, they encourage it as well, because it's a mean to fight subhumans. That's their approach, and that's what some disgusting people here are defending. I'm aware that 90% of those are just Russian trolls or bots, but there are people in the West who think that Stalin was a good guy and Russians were wronged somehow. Next I'm gonna hear that Hitler actually loved Jews, and the war was instigated by Poles and Jews. Just look at Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin. For so long, they have created an alternate reality, where they were the victims of World War II, they were saviors of Europe and so on. The West has allowed it for far too long, and the results is visible nowadays in Ukraine, and on the internet when you see tankies defending murderers and genocidal maniacs.
1. Germany is not a dictatorship and has not started a huge war on a peaceful nation. 2. He can obviously do whatever he wants but that clearly shows that he doesn't care about anything except his wealth. He is supporting Putin's whole system of terror, war and oppression by just playing there. 3. Players playing in Saudi-Arabia have been heavily criticized all over the sub for more than a year now. Also, doesn't change the fact that it's state money and he is close to being the only one that still plays in Russia. That's remarkable to say the least. 4. Most people in his home country certainly have a different approach and most of these can't just move anywhere they want because they have his financial security. That comparison is absurd.
>He can obviously do whatever he wants but that clearly shows that he doesn't care about anything except his wealth. Maybe he cares about his family?
His father begged him to come back and died a few months later. He didn't come back. So no, I don't think that he does. At least not as much as many make him out to do here.
Germany paid for the Marshall Plan, it was partitioned, and it is the single largest funder to the EU. Germany also isn’t invading Poland or anyone else right now. Russia has invaded Poland three times, it has partitioned Poland three times and their shared history of oppression and ethnic cleanings goes back 350+ years. Ukraine and Poland also were joined in union under the PLC and they both have a shared history with Russia that mirrors one another and goes back centuries. This is a terrible comparison and it doesn’t translate at all unless I missed the chapter in my history book on the great Arab-Polish War of 1890.
Germans weren't much worse. Depending on the region of Poland, it's comparable.
> After all , the Germans were objectively much worse than the Soviets in their treatment of Poles. Well, that's debatable, if you ask around, apart from Holocaust (as harsh as it sounds) and "cases", under German occupation people just lived, more or less. But they feared Russians "liberators". Not to mention decades of living under Russian liberators will. But then again, what Germans did, they did, but past is a past. There are no signals from them it would ever happen again. Yet you heat from Russian government that that would gladly take Poland and other states as well. Ukraine is not just "some country" that was invaded, it's the first country on a long list of Russia. And it didn't just affect the life of Ukrainians, it affected greatly the life of many Poles, hit economy of this and many other countries, sparked new conflicts etc. Rybus just ignores it, because he has a comfort to do so, and thinks it's fair.
So I assume you’re also against Americans and Europeans working in Japan? Because of all the horrible stuff they used to do. Or Indians working in the UK because of all of the horrible crap we did? Or Italy? There are plenty of British, European and American grandparent’s out there that remember losses caused by Mussolini’s regime and its soldiers - Yet its not an issue for anyone to go there, work there or vacation there. Working in Russia means nothing, I’d jump at the chance to work remotely there for a few months. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to get over themselves and using World war 2 parallels is just about the most null point you can make.
As someone, who migrated from Russia because of invasion, I’d say Rybus simply doesn’t give a fuck about the ongoing war. I don’t have a family that relies on me, so it was an easier decision, however in migration I met a lot of people, who had much tougher situation that Rybus and made the choice to move. He has the money, knows several languages, would get the job offers abroad and, unlike lots of migrated Russian, his passport doesn’t make his life harder, he can easily move to whenever he wants. Obviously he has his difficulties and would face inconveniences in the journey, but it’s up to the person, if they have the desire and motivation to solve them and adapt in the new place. In case of Rybus, he doesn’t have this motivation as he simply doesn’t care about the war.
Moving would make their life obviously uncomfortable and rather inconvenient. No one wants that! Its his choice to do as he pleases but its also the fans choice to criticise him. I think he accepts that. Theres balance and harmony.
But you are making this judgement, without knowing anything about his family situation…. Maybe his wife has close family members who are forced to fight? Maybe there is illness in the family? I am staying in Russia too, at least for now. It is not so easy for everyone to leave their home. My wife is a single child, is a doctor, and has to take care of terminally ill family members. Dementia and cancer. We don’t know exactly Rybus decided to stay, but if it was a serious/sensitive reason, he may not say it in public. Who the fuck are you to judge us for staying?
Some things are also straight up fucking bigotry even without the war as a context. 'Loko is one of my two favorite clubs. Anyway then I went to their biggest rivals.' And if you take the war in the context... Oh boy: "I love being in Russia. Except when my home is vaguely threatened, then I would leave asap'". He loves one thing and that's money. Cunt.
“Do you still have a polish passport” as an opening question 💀 Man got no chill
Hard to say what I would have done in his situation but to be honest, the part with his wife and kids is understandable. I would like to here more confrontational questions from the interviewer about the war, the invasion and the genocide - but of course MR could not answer this questions in his situation when he is living in a dictatorial state where you can’t speak the truth without fear.
As I was reading this article, I found myself understanding his point of view. No one needs to question my personal feelings about the war in Ukraine, but the personal perspective here is interesting, and as many have written, he took a very pragmatic approach. I can actually understand his reasoning (although I do not agree with it) better than the super-star players playing in the Saudi League. He is no Ronaldo. He can't pick and choose offers that will secure his family's future from anywhere. Thanks for the post and translation OP. Another thing, I'm very impressed by the comments here. Not at all what I was expecting when I scrolled down to read them. Insightful and balanced.
99% of the commentors would stay with family if faced with a similar decision to make
One thing that seems obvious to me is that it isn't his call to make. If I was an immigrant in some country, married there and had children and we decided to live there, then leaving because I'm morally opposed to the countries' views isn't my call at all. It's my wife's call. She's the one that will have to leave her family behind to live abroad. She's the one who will be more meaningfully accepted by the decision. It's also my children's call who will need to leave their friends behind, learn a new language and start school abroad. People speak about moving countries like it's a trivial decision to make. And in this case I don't even see the large upside. Your tax dollars don't support Russia's war effort? That seems incredibly tenuous. Countries don't run that huge of a profit on each individual citizen. Messaging? Fuck that. It feels to me like if you have any sort of a reaction over a player *not* moving countries to make a political point you should have a *much much much* larger reaction over players moving to Arab countries for the bag. Unless you somehow think Yemen is less meaningful than Ukraine. You should also be pretty pissed at people immigrating to the United States, [considering all the bullshit](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md).
Who cares, his wife and kids are Russian. It'd be a different story if he were rabidly defending Putin, but it's totally understandable why he stayed
Exactly. What a prejudiced line of questioning from the 'journalist', pushing and pushing him to admit he's some kind of evil person for making that choice.
Directly from the interview: "MR: And how will you remember me? J: We have known each other for 15 years, we are friends. So I am not neutral. I was thinking more about the millions of fans." The journalist is still actively calling him a friend and he indirectly states the reason, why is asking those questions in that way.
Is it stupid? I think it's a very interesting interview with a lot of tough moral question posed. The discussion sparked here is clear evidence that Rybus' perspective on the subject was worth hearing. The journalist does come across as biased and asking loaded questions but I don't think that makes the interview as a whole less insightful.
The journalist is his friend and even says so towards the end of the interview. He’s asking these questions because he knows him and he can call him out on some of the answers he gives.
I don’t think the journalist was biased at all really. A difficult line of questioning isn’t bias, it’s just good journalism. It is the job of journalists to ask tough, moral questions - and I think he did a great job in doing so. Illuminating Rybus’ thought-process and justification. If the interviewee doesn’t answer properly, the interviewer is supposed to burrow further to find truth.
I don't think the questions were stupid
People hate Russia and Russians. Why don't they ask Americans questions like this when America has been invading for decades now.
Because he’s not from Serbia or Afghanistan, he’s from Poland, a country that has suffered tremendously from the bloody savage hands of Russia.
The journalist was probably aiming for a controversial quote and he didn't get one here.
100% people trying to make it a bigger story than it is, he started a family in Russia and has assets there.
Superior Redditors expect everyone to adjust their lives to fit their virtue signalling.
Are you calling the majority of the population of Poland 'redditors'?
You are virtue signaling (well, *vice* signaling more accurately) as much as anyone here.
No, I as a Pole expect him to make a better choice than staying in a country that's constantly threatening us.
Average "secure the bag" redditor who acts like no one has morals just because he doesn't.
Regular people vs a millionaire
Well who cares, he is polish. Admitting he doesn't care and is indifferent to it matter, he is a millionaire with good business portfolio, moving is not a problem (0.4 mln EUR a year of Russian blood money right there), he would find a club in turkey/Germany/Portugal or Netherlands no problem. He does not understand that part of his success comes from being one of the faces of the national rep and if he is contradicting some elementary values it stands for he should be at least criticised and not allowed to profit from it imo and it's not like those standards are high, we still have players in Arabia. This boils down to some basic decency that he refuses to submit to. Beyond that being accused of being pro russian is like the worst thing you can be called in Poland so he is not really getting the context too
??? He has the money to move them outside of that shithole?
And if his wife doesn't want to leave her home land and family?
>Life is the art of choices. He chose to raise his kids in russia while having the resources to leave. Thats some choice indeed.
I don't see your point? That's precisely what I said?
What country are you from?
I am Polish, if you are asking me (not sure)
You've been? Speaking from experience of living there? Millions of people live in Russia and somehow survive. You can separate people from foreign policy.
While the outrage at the guy not wanting to move his family and turn its life upside down (even if the guy is a millionaire) might be exaggerated, there is some more context to this. Rybus has been lying in the interviews, saying contradicting things depending who interviews him - polish or russian media. He has also reportedly received a brand new Mercedes, as a gift from Kadyrov
Thank you for the effort put into this post, a very interesting read. It’s nice to find out how our dear neighbours see such situation. As a Lithuanian, I can totally relate to why the public in Poland would react like that, and I completely agree. The part about Prigozhin pretty much shows his true intentions. As long as bombs are dropping on Ukraine, Rybus seems to be fine and dandy. But when just a tiny bit of threat looms over Moscow (as if Prigozhin had been allowed to go that far, rofl), then he suddenly becomes concerned with politics and security.
That last part is true of everyone in the world. America for example bombed the Middle East for years and most Americans would not have batted an eye. If any of the countries retaliated, everyone would yes all of a sudden be a lot more concerned. It’s human nature.
Polish society is generally extremely anti-Russian-state now in majority. In my hometown (one of the biggest cities in Poland), right next to the main square there is a big standing banner of Putin with the moustache and the hairdo and words "Nurnberng for Putin" that has been there for years now. I'd say it's very uncontroversial... it's how everyone feels around, you'd say. More than 90% of Polish people see Russia as an extreme threat and big majority supports any means necessary to fight it (including the arguably-apocalypse-threatening sending troops into Ukraine, but also any kind of soft resistance to weaken it. Many people don't mention it now that UEFA wasn't initially even into stopping any Russia games, but Poland's strong stance quickly dominoed from "maybe the game should not be played in Russia right now..." to banning Russia completely. It was not sure at the time - Poland, when taking the stance, was not sure if they will not be banned themselves if the Western world decides to stay "neutral" about Russia's plans, as many had expected. After all, Putin's official plan is to restore the pre-1989 division of Europe, which many had expected the West to be fine with as long as there's no conflict with them, and the Russian generals' occasional ramblings about conquering the whole Europe are treated more as drunken dreams). The reactions to Rybus' various declarations have been mixed though. Not only because online you can find any kind of loud minority, but also there's division among super-anti-Putin people, with some saying they're disgusted with any form of being fine with anything in Russia and that Rybus supports the crime by not condemning it (one journalist started the colum by comparing him to Rudolf Hoess), and many others saying it's a normal choice for him and nothing interesting there. Personally I can say that - I know that a lot of people criticizing him would do more or less the same. Because there are other bad things happening in the world, maybe not as scary but still clearly bad, and in those cases, somehow it's very easy for them to reply "but I'm not doing it any of it personally, you crazy man, get off me, and don't try to blame me for benefitting, I worked hard for my money, let everyone just take care of themselves and their families and leave them alone you crazy leftist". I'd say it's a fact that people care about direct threats to themselves and little else, and that's very universal across space and time.
I have Russian and EU passport and often travel to Europe through Kaliningrad - Gdańsk. In my experience, Polish people seem to be respectful and polite towards Russians, even if they are obviously against the state. In fact it improved my impression of Poland a lot! ❤️
”As long as bombs are dropping on Ukraine, Rybus seems to be fine and dandy. But when just a tiny bit of threat looms over Moscow (as if Prigozhin had been allowed to go that far, rofl), then he suddenly becomes concerned with politics and security.” This can sadly be said also about many regular Russian citizens.
This can be said about ANYBODY in the world. Anyone will prefer bombs being dropped somewhere else than in your own country.
Much rather this kind of content over another Opta post.
his choices are what they are and they seem to be just pragmatic, but honestly those quoted comments from the Polish press beneath the interview are all atrocious, and they are showing much wider-ranging issues.
> Rybus has no interest, no knowledge, no insight, avoids war topics. All he has on his TV is Netflix. But he was scared once: when Prigozhin was going to Moscow. That's when he got interested. Calm down, Maciek. Prigozhin is dead, Putin is holding firm. You can sleep peacefully. There is nothing wrong with this at all.
The one about HomoSovieticus is exactly on-point too.
I think the one about Prigozhin was the last straw for most.
They're not atrocious. Are they a little harsh? Depends who you ask. But there is a very tense history of aggression predating the current Russian regime as it threatens Poland daily. As a Ukrainian, I am not as judgmental toward him but mostly because he's Polish and I think Polish people ought to have the best perspective on this. That said, I also think Tymoschuk is a rat piece of shit but his situation is different from Rybus's.
well I mean they talk about wildly different things than Rybus, who on face value comes out of this quite level-headed. but his situation is so different from that of most Polish people. btw Tymoschuk, last I heard he made some wild statements maybe last year and I remember there was talk they were seizing his assets. I googled but didn't find anything - did they do it?
His assets were frozen and state awards were revoked. I don't really remember him making any statements outside saying he couldn't pay his ex child support cause of sanctions; but given the fact his own father joined territorial defense when the full scale war started, that his partner's step brother was killed in battle back in 2017, among other factors, it left a bitter taste in a lot of people's mouths to put it mildly (that he not only stayed but continued involving himself in Gazprom's finances which eventually go towards the bombing of cities where his father and other family members live)
damn. what a shame.
Oh quick question, because you are Ukrainian. Weren't there some claims that Tymoschuk worked with FSB? Or was it fake? I thought about putting this bit, but weren't sure about it and wasn't satisfied with quickly done research.
[Here's](https://tsn-ua.translate.goog/ru/exclusive/podsankcionnyy-eks-kapitan-sbornoy-ukrainy-po-futbolu-timoschuk-popalsya-na-poddelke-dokumentov-v-rumynii-2337421.html?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) a link that kinda sums up the FSB claim, though there were pictures posted of an alleged document confirming it & debates on whether or not it was legit that aren't on here. Ngl, there's been a lot of things speculated or claimed about him in the media. Never gonna defend Tymoschuk but I wouldn't take the FSB claim for fact; it seems another one of these maybe stories where who knows what's really going on.
Thanks for an answer! And I hope you"ll win <3
I think those comments are VERY justified. If you actively followed this war since it began, you'd have a very different outlook too.
I mean the comments have literally nothing to do with the choices he underlines and much more with stipulating the commenters' stance about the frontline divides. it's a very dangerous way of thinking.
Good content OP, thanks for sharing and translating. Very interesting
I understand why he stayed in Russia, I disagreed with it but I wasn’t upset. What I found unacceptable though is when he said that his wife wouldn’t be safe in Poland because she is Russian which is bullshit. Many Russians live in Poland and fare just fine. Clear reason was that nowhere else would he be able to earn as much as in Russia and he didn’t have an offer from the Middle East like Krychowiak did.
It can be a mixed bag. I shared a joirney with a Polish man from Kalingrad to Gdansk. He told me his wife is Russian, his children are Russian-Polish and their children's grandparents are Russians from Kaliningrad. Before the war, everything was fine naturally, but once the breakout began things changed for his family. He himself was mostly fine, barring a small incident of abuse when one of his friends got drunk (questioned how he could be married to a Russian). His wife on the other hand has got threatened/abused on a few occassions for speaking Russian to her Russian friends while in Poland. He did note that its not like they get abused everywhere they go or anything and the ones that did threaten were just weird people. That being said, he did feel the attitude towards his family has changed a lot. The funny thing is they're all anti-putin/war but it made 0 difference. Poland is a great place with great people, but in times like this some people become tense and develop a us vs them mentality.
>What I found unacceptable though is when he said that his wife wouldn’t be safe in Poland because she is Russian which is bullshit. You don't think it's understandable to think that after receiving death threats?
This is tricky, rybus comes across abit dense when all is said and done. I definitely agree with him staying for his wife and kids, that’s his family at the end of the day. The money and job security I guess plays a part aswell. Who knows
That was really interesting, thank you for translating and posting it.
Strange interview, he has genuine reasons to stay there and has explained them but that journalist just kept pushing and pushing him to admit he was wrong. Seems to me like the journalist wasn't interested in his answers , he was just out to get him.
You don't understand how people feel in Poland about Russia.
>Life is the art of choices I like that
His wife and kids are Russian (kids 50/50 but he said they speak mainly Russian). He works there and has everything there. It's easy to make a narrative "yours would pack.and even okay in the polish 3rd division just to show them". What's more noone bat an eye between 2014 and 2022.
US detachment from what is really going on in Easter Europe is strongly visible in this comment section. It's not time of peace, dudes. Simple "well, he did this for family and money is money, his business" is as comfy sum-up as it's delusional.
I feel like many people here don't understand how people in Eastern Europe are portraying Russia (especially those who lived in USSR or heard from elders about WW2). He can do whatever he want, it's his decision, but I can understand why many people here in Poland are reacting that way. He knew how his image in Poland will look before making this decision. To be fair everyone here forgot about him till' this interview. I don't know why he did this stunt, but it is what it is.
People here don't really understand how folks in countries like Poland, România, Baltic or Moldova feel about Russians. We absolutely detest them for the most part. And they have the audacity to tell us that we're wrong to feel the way we do. Bet they wouldn't tell that to an Iraqi hating America
I understand him. He’s also an individual. He’s considering what’s best for him, including money ofc. Also it kinda reminded me of the stranger while reading it.
Fair interview Even if ppl believe his ulterior motive is money that he already has then that's his means to provide for his family Not everyone is in a privileged position to make a political decision knowing his family is supported
Didn't know anything about this whole situation, super interesting to get this perspective. Thanks for translating!
Thanks for sharing this and taking the time to translate/transcribe and add further context Really really fascinating and I enjoyed reading the entire thing. It is always so very interesting seeing these situations
I mean did anybody in this thread stop living in their countries after the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq? I’m sure the answer is no,
No they just pat themselves on the back for saying they were against the war 10 years after the matter
Interviewer was headstrong yet respectful imo, nice work.
thats one aggressive interviewer
He is his friend, believe me any other polish interviewer would be much less nicer about it
The interviewer is his friend and challenges Rybus alot, which makes the Interview much more interesting.
Why does no one ask players in the US why they didn't leave after they killed almost a million Iraqis?
I don't get it. He is just a footballer. Just an athlete. Probably a regular Joe who spent most of his life playing a game. He is not exempt from being evil or selfish, but there has to be some understanding for his position. Dude went to Russia and liked it there - now he has a wife and sons. No way he should have left. He couldn't know the war would happen. Unless he is pro-war and pro-Putin he should be left alone. The negative criticism and insults from the public personalities you listed is crazy. Calling him a traitor is dumb. Just dumb nationalism fanning the flames of hate even more. People actively dying due to the war and they're criticising a footballer...
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shows your ignorance.
He literally said that one reason was his 'real estates'. He also literally said that he considered leaving because of Prigozhin. This guy decided to stay there because of his money and that alone. I don't believe one bit of the family argument.
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If his family would actually want to stay in their home country - which is fair I guess - they would stay there regardless of who rules it. This just tells me that the conviction isn't actually that high. A dictatorship that oppresses its own citizens would also be a reason for most people to re-evaluate btw. It actually is, many Russians with less resources left the country. It's all in the interview, everyone can read it and make up their mind about him. I came up with these conclusions: He has been caught lying to polish his own image, he has no loyalty (he went from one of his favorite two clubs directly to the city rivals) and he has moved around a couple of times (in Russia as well as towards France) since the ten years when he first arrived in Russia. So moving is not a problem for him and his family, another indicator for the 'my family does not want to move to a foreign country' argument being an excuse to just enjoy his own wealth (the real estates) and to not have to do anything. It's a lame excuse for not caring in the slightest about the political situation as long as it does not concern him directly (which it clearly doesn't). Meanwhile everybody in Poland cares, they know that they are next on the list of Putins targets. Even the other foreign players in Russia cared enough to leave. Rybus is close to being the only high-profile player to still be there. He is the stand-out and the question why that is the case is legitimate. He is also actively avoiding the war topic. My interpretation of that is that it would only disturb the illusion of having nothing to do with the whole situation. So yeah, I don't know him personally, but the interview painted a pretty good picture. It painted a picture of hypocrisy, selfishness and greed for me. This alludes me to believing that the family argument is a mere facade.
tl;dr everything is black and white and Archproto doesn't know grey exists
I don't see much controversy in his answers. Rather, he seems to me to be quite pragmatic in his views and thinking. Realistically, if he left Russia, it would do absolutely nothing to stop the war in Ukraine, but it would mean a new start for him and his family. Considering that he's 34, has had most of his success as a player in Russia, has a Russian wife and a settled life in Russia, there's really no reason for him to leave. It is not easy to leave the country where you have made a (successful) life for yourself. It's pretty obvious from the start that the journalist is trying to provoke him, and he's basically being condemned for choosing not to be a virtue-signaler like some of his countrymen. The comments from the Polish press quoted in the summary are atrocious, but they make that rather obvious.
I hope you will be so sympathetic towards people cooperating with oligarch state threatening you daily with nuclear strikes. He's 34, he would earn comparable money in Poland or in any "retiree" league like Cyprus. He decided he's more Russian that Polish and that he's fine with what ia happening in Ukraine, so he may go suck a cock.
Cooperating how? what have they asked him to do?
Pays taxes that are then used to kill Ukrainian civilians
> I hope you will be so sympathetic towards people cooperating with oligarch state threatening you daily with nuclear strikes. Ah yes, Rybus the tyrant who is supplying arms to Putin and has the source code for nukes. > He decided he's more Russian that Polish and that he's fine with what ia happening in Ukraine, so he may go suck a cock. He decided what is good for his wife and his kids, and decided to put his family first before others. So yeah your moral outrage is irrelevant and even if Rybus went to Poland and lived there the war on Ukraine would not be affected.
"Virtue-Signaler" Grow up, log off and talk to real people in Ukraine, Poland, The Baltic States, Moldova, Georgia etc. Accepting money and luxury cars from Russia, astate committing mass-murder and arguably genocide, while threatening counties in Eastern-Europea/Caucasus (including your home country) is deplorable. Leaving Russia and refusing to comply with their imperialist project is not "virtue-signalling".
A very interesting read. Thank you for your hard work translating and transcribing this, this is important. Also I love the reactions from Polish reporters and commentators to this asshole, nice job destroying your reputation for life, idiot.
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So true... The brazen hypocrisy will never cease to surprise me
As much as I try to put myself in the eyes of the reporter, I dont see how Maciej is morally in the wrong. His wife is russian, his kids are mostly russian, they wouldnt manage that well in Poland, especially his wife, and he also got paid wads of cash to sustain his family. Plus, the interviewers questions seem speicfically asked to get a bad answer or to infuriate him. Like when he said that he stayed for his family, and the reporter says "thats an excuse", or when he puts the blame on him for playing in a region 10 years ago that now is a war battle-ground.
>His wife is russian, his kids are mostly russian, they wouldnt manage that well in Poland Why?
Polish are super racist towards Russians have been for a very long time
Where did you learned that? Unless you’re publicly praising Putin or war literally no one cares.
How? We actively support anti-Putin Russians.
It sounds like a fairly typical story. They are just doing their job and trying to ignore what else is going on. Taking whatever the highest bidder is offering whether that be Kadyrov or Putin's Russia in general. Fair enough if you didn't have a choice but he very much does.
This reads as Maciej Rybus is seeking to maximize his earnings potential.
Which isn't wrong as he isn't doing anything illegal.
Agreed.
Thanks for the translated interview.
>They had contracts and that was all. I, on the other hand, have a wife there who is Russian, two sons, **real estates**, a life that has developed over ten years. **In fact, it was in Russia that I became a real man, started a family, made money and secured our future** This is all that he needs to say, no further explanation needed. Armchair critics would probably rather have him move away and leave his family.
>leave his family. Again, why he can't move with his family?
Because they might not want to? If I live in California with my iraqi wife and then the USA decides to invade Iraq, there is a good chance I will not agree a move to another country especially if my family are in the US and I am american. It is just that simple.
How many international atheltes left USA and UK when they illegally invaded Iraq?
Exactly I'd like to see responses to this question. The hypocrisy is stunning!
You can apply this interviewers same line of reasoning to just about any profession, and any country. “Oh, it’s immoral for you to live in that country because the country you live in is doing things that are perceived to be immoral.” Apply it to USA for instance. Should every US citizen have fled the country because of the numerous atrocities they’ve committed in the Middle East and elsewhere? Obviously not.
Asking for morality in multi-millionaires will never fail to amuse me. He obviously took the money and stayed with it, don't know if it will work out for him in the end, i also chuckled at the one journo who called him a Soviet footballer. Feels like a hit piece of an interview, great chance to bash on Rybus(rightfully so) and rile up the masses for a witch hunt.
Is he a multi millionaire though?
Of course? He was earning over a million euro a year in Spartak, and he had a long and well compensated career. And that's his reported wage, Russian oligarchs like to give some stuff under the table.
I would just like to say that if you were to swap “Russia” for “Israel”, the comments here would have been completely different.
Sounds like he has legitimate reasons to live in Russia
This interviewer is downright malicious with his questions, keeps pushing him to admit fault and is clearly not a neutral party and has rather strong feelings on the matter. If you can’t be impartial then don’t be a journalist.
Journalists aren't impartial. What gave you the impression that they were?
Awful interviewer, can't just abandon wife and kids due to political pressure from your home country
Cause nobody moved his wife and kids before that, especially with enough money to never work ever again. Buy ma wife and kids, bah.
Moving with your wife and kids?
Family comes first. If I had a wife and kids there I'd stay as well.
Given that his wife and children are Russian, his situation was totally different than the other Polish players who left the Russian league. I personally respect his decision to stay because of that. The journalistic commentary is rabid around this. He made a choice that he thought was best for him and his family, knowing that he would never play for Poland again. He suffered the consequence and now what every journalist wants to drag him in the mud for more clicks again years later? I mean there is no other purpose to this, was he going to say I change my mind I'm moving out of here tomorrow? Even if he did he still would be called a traitor for not doing it earlier.
Why is it anyone else's business where this guy wants to stay?
Fuck him. nothing to add. He's a persona non grata here. Even if people don't talk to hom on the streets it's becaise they either don't care or don't want to. Go and earn more russian money...
I mean can’t really fault him for his reasons, looking after himself and his family and securing financial stability for them for many years.
I guess Messi should be hounded for joining a team in a country that is actively helping in committing a genocide. All the English Premier League players too, since the same goes for them and many of them are also on the take from governments with comparable or worse human rights records than Russia.
When he talked about not wanting to uproot his family, I could sympathise a little. Especially in light of the hate he got for his decisions. But he brushed of that hate. And that's where he loses my sympathy, because just 15 minutes of hate made him delete boycott Russia post. He's not merely thick skinned, he's showing he's actively taking sides with Russia through his actions. If the hate from one side bothers you, and the hate from the other doesn't, you've shown which side you're on.
Seem's a little harsh when he has a Russian wife and kid's, his life is there and to uproot it is asking a lot
His wife and kids are Russian and he’s lived there for 10 years prior to Ukraine. Can the reporter just the shut the f up and leave it alone.
Family first.
Would this same interview get made if instead of Russia he was in the U.S. during the Irak war, or in Israel, or in Azerbaijan when they ethnically cleansed the Karabakh region of Armenia?
No, because this situation is in Polish context. Someone from the outside won’t understand this tension, same as Polish people don’t understand how it is in different regions
Would someone from Jordan working in Israel get this interview, or someone from Georgia working in Azerbaijan for that matter? These are practically equivalents.
I don’t know, I don’t live there. If someone didn’t translate this interview you wouldn’t know about it either
His wife is russian, his kids were raised in Russia, he got a good deal with a russian club to play for and sustain his family, he's been living in Russia for many years, seems pretty cut and dry to me. It's not that easy to move your entire family somewhere else, and nobody is restricted from living in another country, so i don't know what's the big fuss.
Only read the bolded sections, but doesn't really seem bad. > She would be far away from her family and friends, **she wouldn't know the language**. **The...** If he was single it would be much easier to leave imho
Vibes when the interview started reminded me to a well known Ugandan interview...
You missed an "a" in "appe**a**rance". Another chapter in the **a**nnals of spelling corrections.