Ukraine star on his first week at the Kop
Exclusive by Ann Gripper 12/07/2007
ANDRIY VORONIN has given a revealing insight into what life is really like for an international player moving to a new club in a new country.
The £60,000-a-week striker has told how Liverpool are bending over backwards to make sure he settles in quickly - even paying the rent on his flat for the first six months.
Ukraine team-mate and former West Ham and Tottenham striker Sergei Rebrov told him how to cope with driving on the left, and Steven Gerrard told him what to expect from training.
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And Voronin, 27, also shared his first impressions of the city, the fans, the club - and the food - with Ukrainian newspaper Sport-Express after his free transfer from Bayer Leverkusen.
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS
'I've been really well looked after since I arrived at Liverpool. A bank worker was invited to the club office to set up an account for me, then all the police (immigration) and other registration papers were sorted out on site too.
They ordered me a telephone. They helped me find somewhere to live. We looked at three options, all nice flats in fashionable parts of the city and decided on the best.
The club's paying the rent for the first six months. There's a swimming pool and gym in the building itself. Gerard Houllier used to live there and Daniel Agger and Javier Mascherano will be my neighbours.
RAFA BENITEZ
I came into the training ground the same day I flew in because the manager wanted to see me. We sat and talked.
Rafa congratulated me and said 'Welcome to Liverpool!' We spoke briefly on Friday at the press conference. In the training sessions Benitez is always talking to me, telling me something. 'Don't be scared! If it's on - get forward'.
I'm still getting used to these training sessions. Benitez doesn't speak too quickly, he's clear and he hasn't got the local accent.
Generally, I understand what he says and what I don't understand he shows through gestures. At the moment I can't express what I'm thinking and say what I would like to. But I still try to talk to him and say a few words.
THE LANGUAGE BARRIER
My English isn't great at the moment so I'm not managing to talk to my team-mates as I'd like to. I'm sure once I get over the language barrier we'll get chatting.
You can see the players and all the other staff are friendly and want to find out where I'm from, where I played and so on.
But unfortunately at the moment I can only have short conversations.
The club are looking for an English teacher and when we get back from the two-week training camp, at the very latest, I'll work really intensively on the language.
I'm sure I'll be able to make myself understood given a couple of months.
TRAINING SESSIONS
Training starts at 10am so we meet at the training ground at 8.45am. At 9am we have breakfast together then we have free time.
Some people have a massage, others are on the internet.
You can watch TV, play pool, whatever you like. Then it's training. At 12 o'clock it's lunch - then we can go home.
The training sessions are really interesting. The pace just cannot be compared to Germany. I've seen on TV how quickly the ball travels around the pitch in the Premier League. And it's exactly the same in training. You have to make decisions a lot faster.
Training at Bayer, you could stop the ball, have a think, take two or three touches. Here that's not allowed even in training.
On the first day I asked Gerrard whether we had to do a lot of running. He said that almost all training sessions are 90 minutes, but with the ball.
It isn't like in Germany and Ukraine where you can spend two weeks just running. But working with the ball is even harder work than just running on its own.
THE CITY AND THE FOOD
A lot of people I know spoke badly of Liverpool, saying it was boring and there was nowhere to go. But I like it more and more each day.
I went to the Cavern to see where the Beatles started on only my second day here. I really wanted to go, and my dad said I absolutely had to visit this historic place.
Liverpool is a coastal city - somewhere I liked straightaway. It may be northern, but the sea is the sea. What I haven't really liked is the food.
It's unique. You either have to get used to it or eat at home - I think I'll go for the latter.
The food in the club restaurant is excellent and much better than in town.
DRIVING ON THE LEFT
I talked to Sergei Rebrov and he told me there's nothing to it, you get used to it, it's just on the left. And he was right.
I got in and drove. I looked where other people were going and followed them. There's nothing scary about it. I thought it would be worse...
..AND, OF COURSE, THE FANS
After the press conference and some photos of me being published, people are already recognising me. I don't know what it's like in other English cities, but you didn't come across this kind of excitement in Germany.
When we were in a shop two guys recognised me and one started rolling up his sleeve to show me a tattoo of the Liverpool crest.
It's obvious that people here really love the team - you can see it in their eyes.
Rafa Benitez told me 'If you can win the respect of the fans, then you've done half the job'. I'll try to do everything I can.'
Nice to see him settling in- shame he doesn't like the food!!
I really hope this guy proves all the doubters wrong and gets us goals!
