Fair play to young Oleksandr (that spells ‘Alexander’, by the way) Zinchenko.
Not only did the 21-year-old Ukrainian put in a decent shift as he stepped up to the Manchester City first team at Leicester on Tuesday night, he also did more than any professional footballer *ever* when it came to presenting a teammate with their man of the match award.
Zinchenko accompanied Bernardo Silva in a post-match interview following the penalty shoot-out victory at the King Power Stadium. As the interview came to an end, he was asked to present his teammate with the Man of the Match award. Now, normally, such a ‘presentation’ consists of a “well done mate”, a handshake and nothing more. Zinchenko, bless him, took the request a little too literally, deciding to say a few words on Silva’s performance.
“Yeah, of course,” he replied having been asked to present the award. “Bernardo was unbelievable today,” he added, continuing to say something we can’t quite make out on his teammates energy levels in the game. Lovely stuff.
A lot of time for Zinchenko actually giving a speech as he presented Bernardo Silva with the man of the match award. More of this please. https://t.co/uReLbvc3bo
— Si Lloyd (@SmnLlyd5) December 19, 2017
On the whole, those watching appeared to appreciate the trouble he’d gone to.
https://twitter.com/Ratings_Mike/status/943250463469854725
Zinchenko turning MOTM presentation into a wedding speech! Bless him.#mcfc
— Lisa R (@Lis2808) December 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/davidhall1987/status/943249958806925313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.givemesport.com%2F1219556-what-oleksandr-zinchenko-did-before-handing-bernardo-silva-the-motm-award
Zinchenko thought he had to give a speech when giving Bernardo the man of the match award 😭😭😭
— Joe Knott (@joeknott_) December 19, 2017
