And Kovalchuk biography

St. Petersburg 2nd Krasnoarmeyskaya St. One of the most successful and demanded Russian hockey players in the NHL. The childhood and youth Ilya was born in the spring of the year in the family of Lyubov and Valery Kovalchukov. Parents have already raised his older sister Arina, who is now engaged in the restaurant business in his hometown. Ilya Kovalchuk with her parents and sister Mom, Lyubov Nikolaevna, worked as a dentist, and was the head of the clinic.

Father, Valery Nikolaevich, in his youth played for the city basketball team, then became a coach, and later - the director of the school of higher sportsmanship. It was his father who called his son Ilya, believing that the name of Ilya Muromets, the hero of the Russian epics, would bring good luck to the boy. In childhood, Ilya Kovalchuk, Valery Nikolaevich, began to engage in the sports education of the child from the first years of his son's life.

Already at three years old, Little Ilyusha knew how to swim, engaged in acrobatics, began to play football. He was five when dad took him to his friend, a hockey coach Viktor Zhukov. The boys in the section were two years older, but Kovalchuk immediately showed the deposits of the leader and showed a sincere interest in the game, so he trained on equal terms.

In school years, Ilya Kovalchuk was not lazy to get up at six in the morning to go to training, he was happy to engage with his father additionally, working out a brush that later became a famous blow. A year later, the boy became the best player in the section. The hockey player recalled: my dad and I were like -minded people, he felt me ​​and could not make a mistake. I liked everything that he suggested: we were engaged in acrobatics, went down the river on kayaks, skiing, went to Gelendzhik in the summer ...

These were real adventures. I still remember these sunflower fields, seeds, I remember how we tied tents to the trunk of the car. Valery Nikolaevich, a fan of his namesake, hockey player Kharlamov, collected films with his games and watched with his son. Ilya noticed everything: strokes, throws, rack. The father insisted that his son take a 17 room if possible, under which Kharlamov always performed.

The father was the main person in the life of Ilya after the fifth grade Kovalchuk was transferred from a comprehensive school to a sports boarding school, and at 15 he was already studying at the Moscow School of the Olympic Reserve and was a member of various All -Russian tournaments. On one of these, Ilya managed to abandon 33 goals, then he was invited to the Dynamo hockey club.

The athlete told about moving to the capital: as I remember now, we discussed my move, sitting on the balcony of our apartment in Khrushchev in Tver. Dad told me that it was time to go to Moscow to grow professionally further. At first, of course, I had a shock, I did not know how I would be alone in a foreign city, but everything went smoothly. A few more guys of my age moved with me, with whom I have played hockey since childhood.

We lived in the same room on the basis in Sokolniki. Such funny times were. Kovalchuk admitted that at that time it was most difficult for him to save. He earned dollars, but the money diverged for days. Together with the other guys, he fried dumplings at the base and waited for the weekend when his parents would bring food. It was not easy for him to ask for money from dad and mother.

In the year, Kovalchuk moved to the Sports School of the Spartak hockey club to coach Yuri Borisov and was then recognized as the best scorer of the youth team at competitions in the American Minnesota, where he abandoned 22 goals into the goal of opponents. The sports career in the year Kovalchuk signed the first serious contract with Spartak for games in the main composition, automatically becoming the youngest athlete in the history of the High League.

He was assigned a salary of dollars, and the next year, after participating in the call Cup in Quebec, he was recognized as the best hockey player-junior of the championship. Ilya’s club became an exhibit in the Hockey Glory Hall of Toronto. Ilya Kovalchuk began his career in Spartak in the year Spartak becomes the leader of the Russian championship, largely thanks to Kovalchuk.

The hockey player was called the best scorer of the tournament and concluded a contract with him for three years. But Ilya, despite the persuasion of Russian coaches, chose to go abroad to play for the Atlanta Tracez NHL team. He recalled: I was chosen in the draft with the first number, and they chose from six hundred players from around the world. And this was the first time in the history of hockey, so that the player from Russia was chosen the first number.

There was another guy - Dani Khilly, Canadian, he was rifted a year earlier, but he did not immediately go, but appeared at the same time, when I was. I was lucky: Dani was two years older than me, we lived in the same room, he helped me in many ways - with the tongue, for example. At first, I couldn’t really order food in the restaurant ... Together with Khilli Kovalchuk, I worked on ice, playing with him in combination hockey, and not in a typical power for the NHL.

This contributed to a successful game, Ilya began to be called one of the most promising players in the NHL. Ilya Kovalchuk in his youth did not do without complaints.Bob Hartley, who heads Atlanta Tracheers, claimed that the hockey player was too fond of attacking moments and is delayed with a return to the defense. Nevertheless, in the year, Kovalchuk headed the list of the best snipers of the team and was awarded the prize "Maurice Richard Trophy", and before that, playing at the Olympics of the year for the Russian national team, he won a bronze medal.

In the year, Kovalchuk became an alternative captain of the Atlanta Tracheers. It was bright for Ilya of the World Cup in Canada. It was his puck in overtime with the Canadian national team brought the Russian national team victory in the championship. In the year, the hockey player concluded a contract with the New Jersey Devils club for a summer period of millions of dollars. Ilya Kovalchuk’s victorious goal for the World Cup was difficult for Kovalchuk: the adaptation was difficult, he played unevenly, the team did not get into the playoffs, but the next year he became the third in the list of the best bombers of the league and headed the list of team snipers.

After three seasons spent at New Jersey Devils, the hockey player broke the contract with the club, and, surprising everyone in the NHL, announced that he was returning to Russia.

He signed for four years an agreement with the St. Petersburg club SKA, who promised Kovalchuk a salary of more than ten million dollars a year. He was also appointed captain of the team. But the team failed to achieve the triumphal victory that the fans awaited so much, it was in fifth place. It was believed that in many ways this result was associated with the injury of the knee Kovalchuk, who admitted that the defeat at the Home Olympic Games was the most difficult for him in a sports career.

The performance at the Sochi Olympics turned out to be unsatisfactory a year later, the Russian team, which Ilya became the captain, won the second place at the World Cup in the Czech Republic, but the precipitate from the loss at the Olympics in Sochi persecuted for a long time. The hockey player did not get into the team in the year at home World Cup - it seemed that he had lost his shape and began to play below his capabilities even for SKA.

He did not become part of the national team and on the World Cup, but he was enrolled in the Olympic team. The hockey player’s plans were violated by the knee injury to win the Olympic gold Ilya, according to his admission, dreamed from five years old. And in Pyeongchang, his dream came true. As part of the national team, despite the fact that the team performed without the flag of the country, Kovalchuk became the Olympic champion.

Ilya devoted the victory to his untimely departed father. For Russia, the golden Olympic medals became the first grand victory over the past quarter century. The Russian hockey team at the Olympics of the year in the same year hockey player signed a three-year contract with the American club "Los Angeles Kings" worth almost 19 million dollars. Kovalchuk explained the amount, not by the rank of a modest rank by the fact that he left not so much to earn as to be able to fulfill the dream and win the Stanley Cup.

The player’s game in two seasons caused criticisms, and a year later he got to the draft of refusals. After that, he concluded a contract with Montreal Canadiens for a year. The transaction value amounted to only thousands of dollars. In February, Kovalchuk was exchanged at the Washington Capitals club. With this team, he got into the playoffs of the Stanley Cup, where he scored 4 points.

At the end of the year, Ilya returned to Russia and began to play for the Omsk Vanguard. Bright blonde Nicole Ambzaitis was at that time the soloist of the popular Mirage team and immediately liked the hockey player. He managed to find a girl’s phone number and made an appointment in a cafe. Kovalchuk attracted the attention of the singer to be modest for the sports star with behavior and upbringing.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Nicole Ambzaitis in their youth soon they began to meet, then live together. In the year they had a daughter of Carolina, and in the summer of the year a hockey player and singer got married. The ceremony was held twice - in Moscow and Tver, and a year later the couple married in the Novodevichy Monastery. From show business, a woman left to be able to engage in children.

The third child - Artem - was born in the year, and a little Eve was born in the year. Ilya Kovalchuk with his wife and children, large parents try to devote time to each of the children and are considered with their interests. Nicole is actively engaged in fitness and attracts a family to classes. In the year, Kovalchuk’s wife even won the Mrs. Fitness Bikini title. The hockey player is happy in family life and considers it his duty to help those who have not developed so well.

He became one of the founders of the “Pure Heart” action, which collects in games on the ice of the KHL stars. Hockey players transfer funds from these games targeted to orphanages, rehabilitation centers, needing families. Kovalchuk - about a conversation with Putin, money in SKA and friendship with Amiran Sardarov In addition, after Olympic gold in Pyeenchan, Kovalchuk sold a prize car for 7 million rubles to his NHL comrade Artemia Panarin, after which the money was transferred to children and another needy family.

Ilya Kovalchuk now in April of the year a hockey player for the third time in a sports career became the owner of the Gagarin Cup.Being an alternative captain of the Omsk team, Avangard, Kovalchuk, according to the club’s leadership, seriously influenced the outcome of the championship and Omichi for the first time in the history of hockey became the owners of the cherished award. After this victory, Ilya, who dreams of winning Stanley's Cup, left the Vanguard and again left behind the ocean.

It is still unknown which team will play one of the best NHL attackers and whether to take part in the Olympic Games of the year. Kovalchuk prefers not to guess and says: who could imagine that some incomprehensible virus would fight the whole world. Now I want to live today. All thoughts that it ends as soon as possible, and we can do business that we can do best. Then the newspaper Soviet Sport recognized the hockey player the best Russian player in the NHL and awarded him the Harlam Trophy prize.

Kovalchuk was disqualified four times for the wrong angle of the bend bend, which is clearly regulated by the rules. His throw became much more powerful in this position. In the Western press, Ilya was called the Captain Hook.