Meet and greet at Joker shopping mall was more than successful
Shopping mall Joker in the centre of Split was full on Tuesday, December 8,2015 and it wasn’t because of the Christmas sales or holiday shopping. Croatian football club Hajduk was presenting their brand new 2016 calendar and it seemed everyone and their dog wanted to take a photo with Hajduk players. Kids, teenage boys and girls, pensioners, babies, housewives, they were all waiting in line to catch a glimpse of their favourite football team, showing us once again just how popular and important football is in Split. Even coach Damir Burić patiently accepted every photo request while his players were signing their photos in the calendar.
Presentation was a great opportunity to talk to some of the foreign Hajduk stars before the last games of the winter part of the championship and before they head home for the holidays. First one to stand in front of our recorder was Maksym Bilyy, 24 year old defense player, originally from Ukraine.
Have you adjusted to Split yet and what are your impressions?
Split is a great city, it lives for football so it ws very easy to get into the swing of things. I must say, I was surprised by the level of professionalism, mentality here is very different than back home. Coach Burić makes us work hard, and if we have a bad game then he REALLY makes us work hard (laughter).
You are heading home for the holidays, what will you take home from Split as a present?
My mum asked for some Croatian delicacies, but since the food is very similar here and back home, I will bring her some traditional cakes. No posciutto, kulen or anything like that, you can never go wrong with sweets.
Do you miss Ukrainian winters?
I love the weather here in Split but I do miss the snow around the holidays but I will have more than enough of it while I’m on my break to have that real holiday feel. Give me the sun and sea any day.
Our next guest is used to the sun, sea and warm climate. Jefferson Jesus Santos, 22 year old player from Brazil was one of the most photographed persons of the evening, and even though he doesn’t speak a word of English, thanks to The translator, my ability to “falo um puoco Portugues” and a lot hand gestures, I managed to get my answer:
“I am very happy here in Split and I must say I am very impressed with your young players. Vlašić, Tudor…they all have the attributes of great players and I can say that there’s a bright future ahead of them. And I already knew about the fasn here in Split so I wasn’t at all surprised so many people turned up”. said Santos
Now back to the calendar. 15 000 of them were released today and they will be sold at 40 kuna each. You can purchase them in Tommy supermarkets and official Hajduk Fan Shop until next Thursday after which they will be offered by other outlets too. According to Hajduk’s marketing director Aljoša Bašić, they are planning to make 600 000 kuna from the calendars and he is expecting them to sell out in record time.
