Smiley Dzyuba lights up Russia's media day
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
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Striker Artem Dzyuba proved to be an expert in cheering up his team-mates at Russia's media day on Tuesday, but England be warned: his football is better than his Chinese.
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An imposing 1.96m tall, striker Artem Dzyuba cuts a daunting figure from a distance, but as EURO2016.com discovered at Russia's official media day on Tuesday, he has been branded the team's joker by colleague Oleg Ivanov with good reason.
Always looking on the bright side, the gentle giant ensured the event flew by with his excellent sense of humour. Not the world's greatest linguist – though he told EURO2016.com he was eager to improve his English – he bravely stepped up to attempt a few phrases of phonetic Mandarin for the Chinese version of this website.
Team-mates who had finished getting their photos taken and video clips recorded for use on TV graphics during the tournament, watched on with considerable interest as the 27-year-old tried wrapping his tongue around sample phrases in Mandarin, to accompanying howls of laughter. If it took a few goes, he got there in the end.
The Zenit forward believes a light-hearted approach to life helps bring cheer during training sessions, but when it comes to Saturday's Group B meeting with England in Marseille he is very serious. If all goes well, the totemic attacker will once more be smiling at the final whistle.