Igor Akinfeev is the best goalkeeper we have ever had

Like ten-year-old James Smith, who featured in Tuesday’s Panorama article, eight-year-old Russian expat Andrey Bykov also lives in Walchwil and is equally mad about football, though naturally he supports his own country’s team.

“Igor Akinfeev is the best goalkeeper Russia has ever had,” he said, and this was speaking before that historic save in the nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out last Sunday which meant Russia was able to defeat Spain.

In recent days, Bykov has been collecting photographs of his national team to stick in an album, though other than Akinfeev, he is not so familiar with the other members of the team.

Andrey’s parents Mikhail and Natalia Bykov, along with his four-year-old sister, Katia, came to Switzerland from Moscow three years ago. In the meantime, Andrey speaks very good German and also plays in defence for the junior team of FC Walchwil, training once a week. Indeed, it is through football he has met a lot of friends and could well imagine being a professional footballer one day “or a programmer,” he added, computers and robots among his other hobbies.

In a few days’ time, Andrey and his family will be returning to Tambow, where his father, who works for company which operates internationally, comes from. This is some 400 kilometres south-east of Moscow. “We always spend the summer holidays and the New Year with relatives at home,” explained his mother.

Might Russia defeat Croatia on Saturday? Will Andrey be able to see his home team win the World Cup on home territory? These are the big questions.