Mykola Matviyenko spent the night of February 24 in Kiev with her husband and son in her car. “I heard an explosion and immediately jumped out of bed and kicked my family out of the house.“, Remember Shakhtar defense. He faced Shakhtar Dynamo that weekend but the war blew everything up. For Matviyenko, this was no new sensation. In 2014, at the age of 17, he was returning to Donetsk from a train vacation with friends when the city was bombed. “Hours after we arrived, the station was almost gone and we were evacuated to another city.” Since then, like Matviyenko, Shakhtar nomad wandering from stadium to stadiumcity to city, fleeing war.
eight years later
In these last eight years the team has not returned to play at home in Donetsk. Y For this Champions moved its headquarters to Warsaw, Polish police team to Legia stadium. While in the league, kyiv is split between Olympic and Lviv Arena. The outbreak of war is a Struggle in a team full of Brazilians, only one of them remained. There are no traces of historical players like Marco Antonio, Marlon or Dodo who fled to other leagues anymore. 20 players and coach Italian Roberto de Zerbi left.
Of the 29 players in the current roster, 25 are Ukrainian., and completed by a Brazilian (Taylor), a Croatian (Djurasek), a Nigerian (Kayode) and a Burkinabe (Traoré). Lassina Traoré broke her knee in the Champions League match between Ajax and Inter. Despite this, Shakhtar injured him and 399 days after leaving, Burkinabe made his debut in the Ukrainian champion jersey. Lassina wanted to stay with the team despite the war: “I owe them because they bet on me when I was injured and I want to repay that support with my determination on the pitch.”
There will also be one Special match for his coach Igor Jovicevic. Technician was a player real Madrid He arrived in the Spanish capital at the age of 17, where he signed for Castilla, where he met Raúl, Guti and Álvaro Benito, but Igor never played in the first team as a clause in his contract forced the club to pay. more money for him and give him a new contract if he makes his debut for Real Madrid. The coaching staff includes Spaniard Daniel de Castro, a physical trainer from the Canary Islands, and Curro Galán, goalkeeping coach who spent five years at Atletico de Madrid. On the other hand, the sports director is a football institution: Croatian Dario Srna. The winger wore the ‘miners’ jersey 536 times in the 15 seasons he played for the Donbas club.
Two young Ukrainian internationals stand out above all in the squad. The first is Maryan Shved, who was christened ‘Neymar the Ukrainian’ for his overflowing ability. He has three goals and one assist and refused to leave for a higher league. The second is Mykhaylo Mudryk, one of the diamonds of the last generation of Eastern football players. Arsenal’s high-bid winger added two goals and two assists in two Champions League games. He didn’t want to leave either.
Celebration of silence
Despite the difficult situation and setbacks, the Madrid trip lasted more than ten hours, with Shakhtar coming undefeated to the Bernabéu this season. He has 13 points in five league games, four wins and a draw, which puts him in the lead… And they surprised Leipzig in the Champions League (1-4) and drew with Celtic. When they got to the locker room the day they were beaten in Germany, the team got together and was quiet for a few minutes. The emotional silence that Jovicevic broke, a silence without the sound of sirens or bombs: “You are the heroes, you are the flag of Ukraine. Thank you for that“Still, they will jump on the field at the Bernabeu, not knowing whether Donetsk is still Ukrainian or not.