Daniil Abeldiaev: Phygital football is here to stay

Daniil ABELDOS Abeldiaev, champion of Russia in interactive football, played his debut phygital-match as a member of Lokomotiv lineup. He shared his impressions from the new format and gave a high appraisal to the level of his opponents from New Russian.

— Commentators were delighted with your goaltending skills. Are you pleased with yourself? Can you, please, share your impressions from the match?

— I can’t be pleased with myself because at the end of the day our team lost. What we achieved in FIFA (4:0 lead – author’s note) went down the drain in mini-football as we let slip that lead. I am a FIFA gamer, I’ve had a great time, we almost won. I thought a miracle was possible, but there are no miracles. Other than that, well, it was a cool tournament, many thanks to Kazan for such a warm reception, I am really delighted.

— How hard is it to switch from the digital to the physical part in phygital football? And what can you say about the match?

— Since I played football till age 18 when I got injured, it was rather easy for me. We had a problem, not all team members got into the game, so we conceded two quick-fire goals within three minutes. Which is sad, of course. If we were match-tough and focused from the outset, I believe we would have made it. Thanks to the opponents for the game. A very good mini-football team.

— As far as we know, Ufenok got you all together. How did you react when you heard for the first time about such format?

— At first, I didn’t understand anything. But later he explained it once more and I agreed that it would be cool to give it a shot, because such a tournament is held for the first time. It’s great to get a new experience. It’s superb. So, I didn’t even think about refusing.

— How useful do you think the phygital format can be if integrated into education? The phygital format is here to stay?

– It is here to stay if you develop it right, then I believe it will be great. It would be cool if we had played an 11×11 match and then all the players from the 11×11 format would move to the real football pitch. Mind you, almost every one of us came from the big football. For example, I played mini-football for the first time.