SKA Canadian wants to become Russian! Lipsik has already written a letter to Putin
Pavel Panyshev July 11, 2023, 13:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Brendan decided to follow the example of the American defender from Dynamo Moscow.
Today, SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg made an important statement regarding the limit of foreign players in the KHL and the naturalization of foreign players playing in Russia.
“Very soon, our team will have one more Russian citizen. SKA newcomer Brendan Leipsik expressed his desire to acquire Russian citizenship and wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In football, this is quite a common practice, more recently, Zenit players Malcolm and Claudinho received Russian passports, and Brazil in football is like Canada in hockey. Now we need to strengthen our championship as much as possible, and if such a strong hockey player like Brendan receives Russian citizenship, this will only fix his desire to play in the KHL.
Brendan has been living in Russia for three years, now he will play in St. Petersburg for SKA, and during this time he has traveled all over Russia, he has become his own here. It’s no secret that in North America he faced prejudice and injustice, while in Russia all these years he only felt the support of fans, coaches and partners. His favorite player is Alexander Ovechkin, and in Canada he grew up playing our great hockey players, like Pavel Bure. Perhaps Brendan himself will one day play in the form of the Russian national team.
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For SKA and all of our hockey, this is a significant story. We will do our best to help Brendan fulfill his wish and obtain Russian citizenship. This is a bold and responsible step on his part, which can only be welcomed,” Rotenberg said.
According to our information, there were talks about the naturalization of Leipsik in the last club of the Canadian, Metallurg Magnitogorsk. And now the American seems to have matured. Perhaps they pushed him a little into this decision, but in this case, once again a question arises for the people who lobbied in the KHL to tighten the limit of foreigners from five to three. It turns out that the main postulate of the passed law, designed to “promote the growth of our own youth”, is just a beautiful phrase and an ordinary screen. Purely logically it turns out that Lipsik will take the place of a young Russian talent?
For example, in the event that Leipsik obtains a Russian passport, SKA will have two more free places for foreigners (Swedish goalkeeper Mattsson has already been signed), and in fact there may be four legionnaires in the squad. Similar cases can be seen at Avtomobilist, where Jesse Blacker and Curtis Valk hold Kazakhstani passports that do not fall below the limit, as well as at Dynamo Moscow, where American defender Brennan Menell has already applied for a Russian passport.
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“The situation with Menell getting Russian citizenship? Everything is going in a positive direction for us. By the way, he will soon fly to Russia. Everything goes his way and his way. I think there will be news soon. But I repeat that everything is going according to a positive plan, ”said the sports director of the Muscovites, Alexei Sopin.
brennan menell
Photo: Vladimir Bezzubov, photo.khl.ru
In general, the situation is interesting and quite suitable for long disputes and discussions. On the one hand, it’s great that some foreigners really like Russia, especially since there are examples of legionnaires who left and began to actively pour their bile into the league. On the other hand, it is necessary to decide in which direction the KHL, the FHR and the Ministry of Sports want to develop, and what is the point of adopting laws in the regulations, which the clubs themselves artificially bypass.
