Intervjun med Ivan från Sports.md

Foto: Per Magnusson Värnamo Nyheter

Ivan Lacusta about a career in Europe: “What is missing in Sweden is home-made borsch!

Remember Ivan Lacusta? Forward from Balti, who was one of the youngest ND debutants in Olimpia, who later played for Zarya and the Moldovan youth team.

In 2018, the football player decided to try his hand in Europe, even if he had to start from the bottom. First, Ivan moved to the office from the 3rd division of Poland - FC Steel (Brzeg), for which he played for 6 months. After the Polish experience, the 24-year-old football player went to Sweden, also to the team from the 3rd league - FC Andershtorp.

The SPORTS.md correspondent spoke with Lacusta about why it is better to leave the National Division, even if you leave for the lower European leagues.

Recall that ND Lacusta held 85 official matches and scored 10 goals, playing for such clubs as Zarya, FC Ungheni and Spikul (Kishkeren).

- Ivan, you have already left the championship of Moldova for two years. After that he played in Poland, and now in Sweden.

First, tell me why I decided to leave for Europe and try my hand there?

- I decided to leave because I wanted to try to play somewhere abroad, I think everyone wants to try their hand at Europe. Everything here is much more stable than ours. Plus I want to develop, go forward.

Looking back, I think I made the right decision, because, at a minimum, life has become more interesting.

- Tell us about your experience in Poland? You managed to score many goals, considering that you are a center forward?

- In Poland, I played in the 3rd league, in the Steel team (Brzeg). He scored a couple of goals, but there were difficulties. At first with the application, then they could not make me documents so that I could continue to play there, so it turned out somehow crumpled.

There were problems, and this made it a little difficult to play there calmly and focus only on football, but then it went easier.

- How did it happen that you ended up in Sweden? And how do you like the level there?

- In Sweden, I also play in the 3rd league, but this league is not the only one from the third, there are several of them. The level is not bad, I thought it would be worse. There are good teams and to be honest - all games are interesting, smooth championship.

- How did it happen that you went to Europe and found these teams?

- It turned out thanks to the agent, he helped me first with Poland, and then with Sweden.

- In addition to playing for this club from Sweden, are you still working at the same time or are you completely focused on football? Your club with professional status?

- Here I focus only on football, I play. I want to try my hand at a stronger club, but first you need to show yourself well in this team in which I am now. Professional level - club, league, and attitude.

- What is the difference between the lower leagues of Poland and Sweden and the National Division? Where is better, what do you think?

- Of course, the National Division would be a little stronger level, but there would be stability in Moldova, I think the players would not leave so often to try themselves somewhere. And so - almost any player wants to leave somewhere faster from our championship simply because in any other country everything is more stable, more organized and people are more honest.

- What surprised life in Poland and Sweden? What is the difference between life in these countries and people?

- In Poland, everything is quite similar to Moldova, except that the country itself is more beautiful and cleaner. The language is not so heavy, if you understand Ukrainian at least a little, then you will quickly begin to understand everyone and speak slowly.

But in Sweden, people, of course, are completely different. Here, many work in factories, factories, wake up at 5-6 in the morning and move to work immediately. Work somewhere up to 4. Since I do not live in a very big city, here in the evening, if you go outside, there are no people at all, generally empty (smiles). Everyone is sitting at home, resting. Well, they behave in a completely different way - all people are kind, polite, calm, do not worry too much, in short ...

The work is stable, the salary is stable, why should they be nervous? In short, not like ours - people are tormented.

- In terms of football, how? Pay on time or how in Moldova?

- Everything on time, everything is very serious. You feel different and you can concentrate on training, matches, and not think about where to get food, treat yourself injuries or the like ...

- In European countries, even the most modest clubs always have good infrastructure. Tell me about your club. Have a base, your own stadium?

- In Poland there was generally a chic base, a game stadium, a training field and artificial, and all of very good quality. Plus there was a gym, in short, there was everything that football players needed right at the base where they live. We even had the “youth team” of Poland playing a game at our stadium, and some rivals trained at our base.

Now in Sweden it is a little more modest, but still better than in Moldova. We have four fields, in-kind training and one game. There is a small indoor playpen. In this regard, everything, of course, is much better than ours. That's how many games have already been, I have never seen a field of poor quality.

- Has it ever happened that experienced or perhaps well-known footballers played with you on the team?

- When I played in Poland, there was one football player, quite famous as I understood, everyone called him Small. But I don’t remember his name at all. The guys said that he supposedly played for the national team of Poland, there were a lot of games on the “tower”, he scored, gave, he was good, in short. When I arrived, he was already finishing, but it was still visible that he was very experienced.

- Tell me some unusual situation that happened to you in Europe?

- I don’t remember something very unusual. The only thing I can say here in Sweden is very strange for me is that they don’t eat soups, borsch at all. I don’t know how they can live without it (smiles). I like borscht, I was always not averse to eating a plate of homemade, but here we never heard of such a thing (smiles). Of course, this is not enough here. Maybe there are some soups, but there are definitely no soups like ours.

- Do you follow the situation in your own "Dawn"? What do you think about the future of the club?

- I follow the “Dawn”, of course, but there, after the departure of Usatii, everything turned in a bad direction. I don’t know what will happen there, but now everything looks very bad. One hope is that a normal sponsor will appear and revive the team, but no one wants to get into Moldavian football, it's just a big waste without the ability to at least earn something, return it.

But you can’t leave Balti without football, where people love football very much. I am sure that this is the most football city in Moldova, because the biggest attendance has always been in Balti.

I hope everything works out.

Source - MOLDOVA.sports.md