ambulances for their country, help for the Ukrainian army, visiting children with cancer who fled Putin’s invasion…
The 191cm tall iceberg, who barely celebrates having just become a Real Madrid hero, melts when he meets children with cancer. A twenty-year-old woman who got married in a tracksuit and sneakers didn’t break down when Bernardo Silva took the penalty, but he did so when he learned that his country was at war. Andrei Alekseevich Lunin has always been an exemplary football player, so much so that he seems cold, with an iron soul. They say it’s not spontaneous, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Ring. Ring. Ring. The Aladina Foundation, which brought almost a hundred Ukrainian children with cancer to Spain, receives a call. The Real Madrid goalkeeper introduced himself… He wants to help those kids who have already experienced the unspeakable. The horror of war. Distance from his parents, who are in battle. Chemotherapy that took away their hair…
“He called us. It was his initiative. “He’s a great guy,” is how the charity describes Lunin to us. He met with them. He gave them a smile he rarely remembers. More than when he saved Pep Guardiola’s second penalty against Manchester City. This happened in February, which would have been two years since the invasion of Putin’s Russia.
FROM PORTENTO TO ICON
Since the war, a lot has changed inside. He used to be a footballer whose career was everything to him. From 13 to 16 years old he played for Metalist Kharkov. was close to his hometown of Krasnograd is now devastated. From the 1999 generation, tall and thin, he stood out for his cat-like reflexes and calmness. He moved to Dnepr and Zarya Lugansk, and from there immediately to Madrid. His talent was so great that a transfer for the 19-year-old goalkeeper was set for 8.5 million euros. A few months later he became the world youth champion as part of Ukraine. He had just turned 23 when Russian troops wreaked havoc on his country.
It was always quiet. And it was Ancelotti, his coach, who explained what this meant for Lunin. “He doesn’t have the spirit he used to have.” “He’s worried because he has people near Kiev, he has his mother, friends…” He also explained how football helped him cope with the fiasco. “It naturally affects him, but I think training helps him not think about these things all the time. “He’s professional and serious, although it’s clearly affecting him.”
He definitely felt supported by the white coach’s words. “It’s very rare for something like this to happen in 2022, but unfortunately it is happening. We must think that our lives are changing… I personally experienced this before, because my grandfather was in the first war, my father in the second, and they told me a lot. It’s true and That’s horrible…. “I spoke with Lunin, who is also the president (Florentino Perez), just to show him our affection and the affection of his colleagues.”
The affection he needed as desolation came from all other fronts. Every call, every news… Even its discoverer, Ukrainian agent Oleg Smaliychuk, struggled. “He became another soldier defending his country,” recalled Jose Felix Diaz in Brand. Lunin had no intention of remaining with his arms crossed.
He called for help. “Dear Spaniards and all the people who want to help Ukraine now, in this difficult time. On Mendes Alvaro Street 8, Ukramarket you will need: canned food, cotton wool, elastic, bandages, hemostatic drugs, painkillers. Clothing: warm socks. Thank you very much for your cooperation,” Lunin wrote on Instagram immediately after the start of the war. His call took effect. Compatriots and Spaniards came out in droves to donate.
In March, the entire Madrid team posed with a giant blue and yellow flag and a T-shirt with the words “All for Ukraine.” Lunin’s despondency was noticeable. “We do what we can”, he blurted out. In addition to the news coming from the trenches – massacres, bombings, mass rapes… – he had to endure insults from the stands. In the derby between Atlético and Real Madrid, a disrespectful man snapped at him: “You play here, and your country cries.” Fortunately, the rival stadium silenced the madman.
He continued his special battle. I train hard. Thinking about yours. On December 9, 2022, he published a story in which He stood between the Kio towers and walked towards the camera: “I am Andrey Lunin and I support the project to raise funds for the Ukrainian community in Spain: “Ambulance for Ukraine.” Join us and let’s do this together. Lunin already personified the resilience of his people.
The war continued, and after an injury to Madrid’s starting goalkeeper, he was given the opportunity to participate in the 2023–2024 season. This season he played 27 games and kept 10 clean sheets. He helped win the Spanish Super Cup, beating Barcelona 4-1. He did this wearing symbolic gloves. The ones he uses on special occasions, the ones he alternates with others provided by Adidas and which were created during the war. They are called Brave goalkeeper(Brave goalkeeper). Part of the money raised by its founder Rustam Khudzhamov, goalkeeper coach of the Ukrainian national team, went to help the resistance and the wounded.
In this finale, another of his secrets was revealed. He is placed gloves like he’s a boxer. Surrounding the fingers with a kind of bandage. “I bandage my fingers to prevent injury. Almost all my fingers were broken, the tendons…,” he admitted. Their Brave goalkeeper signed along with sneakers, T-shirts autographed by all his colleagues, balls… they are being raffled off, he announced in February 2024, to continue cooperation with food and medicine for Ukrainian soldiers.
THAT POWER…
After everything he had suffered, after his heroism in Manchester, he laid his head on Florentino’s shoulder. He came out to talk and didn’t forget. They talked to him about fame and effort. But he knows that there is another reality in his world. “The only difficulty for me, to be honest, is the war in my country. There is my family, my friends, my city, my school… It’s not easy to go to training every day when the worst news comes. But I try to help, encourage them, do everything I can… They are the strongest people in the world, I am proud of them. “This will end and we will all live in peace.” Amen.