The controversial former Russian national football player Roman Shirokov was fascinated by life in the USSR and Soviet propaganda about the ideals of socialism. The bronze medalist of the 2008 European Championships was not embarrassed by the fact that he lived under the communist regime for only 10 years.

Shirokov said this in an interview with the RB Sport portal. The former Zenit, Spartak, CSKA and Krasnodar player criticized "American and European civilization", which allegedly put business interests first, while in Russia "they are always poor".

"The country in which we were born. THE USSR. It was a country where everyone was for each other. They taught us that everyone should be loyal to the country, to the team... Now life has changed. It's hard to be poor all the time, you have to earn money. Everyone is looking for a better job. We have been brought up like this for the last 25 years. American and European civilization say that money is the most important thing," Shirokov said.

Earlier, he spoke insultingly about Ukraine, calling it a non-existent country, and dreamed of Russia's victory in the war, after which "we should dictate our terms to international organizations."

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As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the head coach of the Russian national football team Valery Karpin was called a traitor to the country after he called on the players to go to Europe.

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