Alex Ovechkin was back out on a soccer field on Friday as a special guest at Dynamo Moscow’s soccer training facility (FC Dynamo Moscow’s VTB Training Ground) in Novogorsk. Dynamo Moscow, the team Ovechkin’s late father Mikhail once played for, is training in preparation for a Moscow derby against FC Lokomotiv Moscow on Sunday.
The Great Eight trekked out onto the turf with a signed hockey stick and a puck, looking more ready to score his 823rd career goal than kick around a soccer ball.
“Ovi arrived at the training base with the usual attributes, but we forgot to fill the rink,” Dynamo joked on their Telegram account and translated via Google Translate. “We are inspired by the skill of the legend before the Sunday derby.”
Ovechkin mingled with Dynamo’s players as they took the field. He chatted a good bit with forward Fedor Smolov, who grabbed the assist on the goal Ovi scored for Dynamo last summer in a friendly match.
Later in the training session, Ovi revealed why he had brought the signed stick with him. He gifted it to midfielder Arsen Zakharyan as a birthday present, as Zakharyan turned 20 on Friday.
Ovi’s generosity wasn’t done there though–he also presented forward Konstantin Tyukavin with a team-signed, Eastern Conference All-Star jersey from this past season’s All-Star Game.
It has been rumored that Ovechkin could play in another friendly match with his favorite childhood club this summer. In an interview with Russian outlet TASS, Dynamo CEO Pavel Pivovarov revealed that the two parties have been working on setting something up.
“I have just arrived from America,” Ovechkin told Match TV previously in late April. “So what is football? Of course, I would love to. But we must discuss this topic in detail and think about what will happen next.
“I need to think, look at everything, and weigh it,” he added. “You have to at least be physically fit!”
Dynamo Moscow’s Russian Premier League campaign ends on June 3 with a match against FC Orenburg, so any friendly match scheduled that Ovi joins in on will come after that date.
Screenshot via @fcdynamo/Instagram