The midfielder of the Russian “Wings of the Soviets” Alexander Kovalenko told Sport-Express that the decision to refuse to play for the Armenian national team was very difficult.
“We accepted him with his parents at the family council. I thought that throwing Russia in such a difficult period is not an option. Otherwise it would look like I threw here everyone who believed and supported me and left for Armenia. It would be wrong, ”the Russian media quoted the football player.
According to Kovalenko, he receives a lot of insults in social networks because of this: “I now write a lot of things on social networks, they call a traitor! I really do not like to read this … My grandfather played for the USSR, and not for the Armenian national team” .
Kovalenko believes that he did the right thing. “I have been brought up in Russia all my life. I’ve been training here for ten years, I have a Russian football education, I played for a youth team. I thought that I need to play for Russia,” he concluded.
According to Kovalenko, his mother is an Armenian, his father is half an Armenian, half a Ukrainian. At the same time, the football player himself was born and raised in Russia. His grandfather Alexander Kovalenko is the champion of the USSR of 1973 as part of the Yerevan Ararat.