Football news

Andriy Lunin had a breakthrough season in 2023/2024. He won a place in Real Madrid's first team after Thibaut Courtois was injured, demonstrating his quality to the world.

"Real Madrid is not ready to let the 25-year-old goalkeeper go as a free agent, so they offered two options - an extension of the agreement or a transfer, with the first of them being a priority for Madrid. Andriy Lunin has been thinking about the future for a long time and has decided on the option that is best for his career.

It is reported that the cream of the crop are already aware of the goalkeeper's decision to continue his career elsewhere. The Ukrainian's agent, Jorge Mendes, has now started working on the transfer of Andriy Lunin.

It is noted that the goalkeeper can continue his career at Manchester United. The English club has already contacted Real Madrid, and both the Red Devils and Andriy Lunin are interested in such cooperation.

The parties have agreed to start concrete negotiations on the Ukrainian's transfer after the Champions League final on 1 June.

It will be recalled that in the current campaign, Andriy Lunin played 31 matches for Real Madrid in all competitions, in which he conceded 32 goals and scored 12 goals.

Shakhtar's sporting director Dario Srna has revealed which players from Dynamo Kyiv he would invite to join the Donetsk club.

"Shaparenko, Vanat and Brazhko. Don't let Yarmolenko be offended," Srna said in an interview with the TaToTake YouTube channel.

Earlier, Srna confirmed the information that Feyenoord is interested in Shakhtar's coach Pushic.

As Sport.ua has learned, Pavlo Taran, who was Karpaty's physical training coach this season, has accepted an offer from Chernivtsi and is returning to Bukovyna, where he will join Valeriy Kryventsov's staff.

For the 35-year-old specialist, this will be his third visit to the Chernivtsi club. In the spring part of the 2020/21 season, and then throughout the 2022/23 season, Pavlo Taran (son of the famous Ukrainian coach Oleh Taran) worked at Bukovyna as an assistant head coach.

Taran Jr. also worked at Chornomorets-2 (as a coach), Peremoha (as an assistant and head coach) and VPK-Agro (as an assistant and then a fitness coach).

By the way, one of the candidates to replace Pavlo Taran at Karpaty is Yevhen Baryshnikov, who has been working as a physical training coach at Dnipro-1 since 2017.

Earlier, Myron Markevych's coaching staff was left by his son Ostap, who went to live with his family in Spain.

British journalist Ben Jacobs has named the English Premier League club that is most interested in the services of Shakhtar midfielder Georgy Sudakov and is currently considered the main contender for his signature.

According to the journalist, Sudakov is keen to continue his career in the Premier League, and it is in one of the London clubs that actively offered him some time ago.

Today, Tottenham is the main contender for Sudakov, where they are actively studying the possibility of signing the Ukrainian. But the interest from Chelsea and Arsenal, which was also reported by the media earlier, seems to Jacobs to be overly exaggerated.

"Georgii Sudakov can be one example of a player who is sent to London clubs. At the moment, I've been told that only Spurs have a specific interest in Sudakov. The Chelsea rumours are mostly coming from Mudryk, Arsenal are not involved in this conversation at the moment," Jacobs said.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois commented on the situation with the team's goalkeepers ahead of the Champions League final.

"It's amazing for me to be able to play in the final, but I feel very sorry for Lunin," Real Madrid Exclusivo quoted Courtois as saying.

As a reminder, the Champions League final will take place today in London at Wembley Stadium. The match starts at 21:45 Kyiv time.

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes may leave the club this summer.

According to journalist Fabrizio Romano, the player's agent Miguel Pinho is exploring other options for his client to continue his career.

"Bruno Fernandes' agent Miguel Pinho met with several top clubs in Europe this week. Bruno is fully focused on United, but a final decision on his future is yet to be made," Romano wrote on his Twitter page.

As a reminder, Fernandes has 2 years left on his current deal with Manchester United.

"Bukovyna has outlined its immediate transfer targets. All of them are the wishes of the new head coach Valeriy Kryventsov.

According to journalist Ihor Burbas, the Chernivtsi team's shortlist includes experienced Vitaliy Koltsov from Ingults, as well as four representatives from the UPL - Oleksandr Filippov (who is finalising his deal with Dnipro-1), Vladyslav Vakula from Minaya, and Vladyslav Naumets and Serhiy Shestakov, both of whom represent LNZ.

Bukovyna is ready to offer competitive market conditions at the UPL level to all of them. For the next season, the club aims to be promoted to the elite division of the Ukrainian championship from first place.

Journalist and commentator Viktor Vatsko spoke about the possible transfer of Dnipro 1 midfielder Oleksandr Pikhalenok to Dynamo or Shakhtar.

"As far as I know, Dynamo Kyiv were now very interested in acquiring Oleksandr Pikhalenok. Dnipro 1 have financial problems, Dnipro 1 really need money, so Dnipro 1 are forced to sell off their leading players.

We are not talking about 10, 15, 150 million for Pihalenka. The sum of 2.5 million was mentioned. I do not know whether it was dollars or euros. It doesn't matter. 2.5 million in some hard currency. But. Pikhalenok once moved to Dnipro-1 from Shakhtar and in the agreement between the clubs there was a clause that in case of a transfer offer for Pikhalenok, which would suit Dnipro-1, Dnipro should inform Shakhtar. And if Shakhtar are ready to repeat the offer, then it is Shakhtar who will have the right of "first night" for the player's transfer.

"Shakhtar did not consider Pikhalenok as an option. In principle, they have enough players in the centre of the pitch. Sudakov, Bondarenko, Kryskiv, Marlon Gomez, Pedrinho. Therefore, I would not say that the centre midfielder is a critical position. Pihalenka has not been considered by Shakhtar.

But according to my WhatsApp, as soon as Akhmetov learnt that Pikhalenok could move to Dynamo, the situation changed dramatically and Sasha became dramatically needed by Shakhtar," Vatsko said.

Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine goalkeeper Heorhii Bushchan jokingly answered the UAF press service's questions about his age. Recently, our goalkeeper turned 30 years old.

"Jokes about old age? I'm still young, this is the beginning of an older life, so to speak. Does something hurt? Yes. This morning I woke up - neck, knee. Everything made itself felt. Probably the weather. And my joints hurt (laughs)," Bushchan said.

Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih players handed over UPL bronze medals to the families of the fallen ultras.

Immediately after the players and staff of the Club were presented with the awards for the third place in the UPL championship of the 23/24 season, the players made a special offer. They decided to hand over the medals to the families of Kryvbas fans who gave their lives for our freedom and independence. It is symbolic that immediately after the award ceremony, the players approached the Heroes' Stand of the Girnyk Stadium and hung the medals on the silhouettes of the fallen soldiers.

"The players made an offer that I could not refuse, but could only accept. They expressed a desire to hand over the awards to 18 families of the Red and White ultras who gave the most valuable thing in this war - their own lives. Because without their feat, there would be no success today," the club's official website quotes Artem Gagarin, the club's vice president, as saying.

Many thanks to all the defenders of Ukraine! A low bow to you. Glory to Ukraine!

On Monday, 3 June, a friendly match between the national teams of Germany and Ukraine will take place at the Max Morlock Stadium in Nuremberg.

According to UEFA's official website, the match will be officiated by a refereeing team from Austria.

Walter Altmann has been appointed as the chief referee. He will be assisted by assistants on the lines: Maximilian Kolbich and Andreas Wichtnigg. The fourth referee is Harald Legner. All the referees are from Austria.

The match will also feature the VAR system. VAR referee: Julian Weinberger. Assistant VAR referee: Andreas Heiss (both from Austria).

It will be recalled that the friendly match between Germany and Ukraine will take place on Monday, 3 June. The match starts at 21:45 Kyiv time.

On 31 May, the Ukrainian national team, which is preparing for the start of Euro 2024, held two training sessions at its German training camp. In the afternoon, La Liga's top scorer Artem Dovbyk joined the national team. The newly minted Pichichi arrived in Munich on a flight from Barcelona and immediately joined the team.

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