Before the national team game in Geneva, Andris Vanins is doing what the silent man from the Latvian village of Ilükste does best: not talking.
Sorry, but he told all Latvian journalists weeks ago that he would not be giving any interviews before the game in Geneva on March 25, says Andris Vanins (36). That's all the FCZ goalie has to say about the national team. In other words: nothing. And that is of course not spectacular - and certainly not unusual.
Interviews with him are an ordeal. Every word has to be pulled out of his nose. Even with an interpreter, because Vanins speaks little English and, despite eight years in Valais, little French. It is difficult to say why he says little, he revealed in the NZZ a month and a half ago. "When I was younger, I gave interviews in which my words were twisted. So I stopped doing them," is how he explains his silence.
Yet there was so much to say before the international match against Switzerland, the country where Vanins has been working since 2008. He owes his commitment to an international match against ... Switzerland. That was on October 11, 2008, the first game after the decade-long embarrassment against Luxembourg. "It was either the very strong Latvian goalkeeper Vaninsdran, or a defender saved on the line," wrote SonntagsBlick about the game at the time, which Switzerland won 2:1 by the skin of their teeth. The first serious match victory of a certain ... Ottmar Hitzfeld.
Vanins becomes a crowd favorite
Christian Constantin is also sitting in the AFG Arena. He remembers: "The goalkeeper in the Latvian goal was omnipresent and yet very calm. A typical East goalie. He made a huge impression on me." A few days later, CC picked up the phone and called Vanins, whom he had never heard of before. "I asked him if he wanted to make a career in Europe. I needed a goalkeeper." Vanins wanted to. And signed for Sion.
"He made a huge impression on me." - Christian Constantin
He had a few outstanding seasons there and became a crowd favorite. Until the former goalkeeper CC was no longer satisfied with his discovery last season. In the winter, he spent a lot of money on Russia's U21 national team keeper Anton Mitryushkin. The demotion of Vanins is fast approaching. Soon the Russian is in goal, no longer the Latvian. An unpleasant end. "Oh where," says CC. "Andris recently congratulated me on my sixtieth birthday. And back then he came to me and said he would lose his regular place in the national team if he was just a substitute. Could I help him? That's how I found FCZ for him." The transfer was completed quickly. "I even waived a transfer fee," says CC. "It's only due when FCZ is promoted." So soon.
And Vanins also impresses in Zurich. Said weeks ago that the game in Geneva might be special. Of course it will be, no question. It's his 80th international match. And somehow a full circle.
