ITV pundit Karen Carney admitted she was “emotional” and had to apologise after listening to Plymouth defender Maksym Talovierov’s interview following their 3-1 defeat away to Manchester City. Talovierov, who scored the opening goal of the FA Cup tie, revealed that he has not seen his Ukrainian father in over three years due to the ongoing war with Russia but dad was still sending him clips of opposing strikers to help prepare for matches.
Once Talovierov had stopped speaking to the broadcaster, Carney was asked for her thoughts but struggled to get any words out and could only say: “It was [a great moment when Talovierov scored], I’m sorry I am just a little bit emotional from that, that was tough to hear because it is a magical moment and you want all your family to see, you want them to be here and the circumstances are different, but they will be very proud of him and that goal would have meant so much to them, they will be replaying that for a long, long time.”
Speaking moments after he stepped off the pitch, Talovierov shared: “He [dad] sends me a lot of information about the strikers. He really helps me. We worked a lot with him this week. It really helped me. We didn’t speak a lot about scoring and set pieces but he helps me a lot. He spends a lot of time doing it.
“It’s around three and a half years since I’ve seen him. We have [a] really hard situation right now, but these few hours we have just to focus on the game and football helps us to forget it and for our warriors and supporters in Ukraine they try to watch and forget things. I’m really proud of them, hard situation but we will try to help our people and win this war as fast as possible.
“Happy to play here against the best team in the world against really fantastic players. We are a bit upset because of the result but I hope our fans will be proud of us because we tried to do our best and we gave 100 per cent. We really appreciated the fans, around 10,000 of them and we appreciated it so much. We tried to do our best.”
It was a moving conversation that drew plenty of praise and warm-wishes on social media, in more troubling times for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky got into a shouting match with Donald Trump and their White House talks broke down.
ITV host Mark Pougatch and Carney’s co-pundit Michael Brown both shared their sentiments that there are more pressing matters in the world than football, with the ex-City and Tottenham midfielder adding: “That takes you back doesn’t it?
“What a wonderful interview, I thought he spoke exceptionally well and how proud he was having that moment, he started by saying just by being here and playing in this stadium. And can you imagine his father, when he is watching those clips, how proud he would be right now.”
