Oleksandr Ishchenko, director of the Sports and Youth Sports School of Dynamo Kyiv, spoke about the stay of two Dynamo teams of the U15 and U16 age categories (players born in 2008 and 2007) in German Cologne and plans for the near future.
Alexander Ischenko- Tell us how Dynamo ended up in Cologne? How did the idea and the opportunity to bring them here come about?
— Many things are decided by friends and acquaintances. The situation that has developed in our state made us turn to many of our friends for help so that we could take out the Dynamo teams and ensure the safety of the children, and with it the opportunity to train and play games.
I am very glad that we have such friends, thanks to them, our teams of guys born in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 were in Hungary for three months, and then we had the opportunity to go to Germany with three teams of football players. 2007, 2008 and 2009 years of birth, and players born in 2010 are located in Poland, in the small town of Sosnowiec near Katowice, where they also train and take part in matches and tournaments.
Our guys have already been in Cologne for three months, but due to the fact that the war in Ukraine continues, the question arose of extending this period of stay. That is why I came here with the permission of the club management. On November 4, we had a meeting with representatives of FC Cologne and the city, at which I spoke about the situation that has developed in Kyiv at the moment. It was nice that everyone reacted warmly and with understanding to our request, we realize that they are doing a lot to ensure that we save children - our future, including football.
I am glad that we have reached an agreement that our two teams will remain in Germany and beyond, until June 30, 2023, and in addition, we were allowed to increase our delegation by four players. When peace comes to Ukraine and we can return home, we will do it right away, but for now it is important for us that the children remain safe.
In addition, we discussed plans for competitions. In particular, I applied with a request to include our teams in the German regional championship, so that each of them would play with rivals a year older, since we already play in friendly matches with rivals who are a year older than our guys. The performances of Zorya U19, for which all Dynamo players play, showed that it takes a little time for the guys to adapt to games with older opponents. Now they look good, and such an experience will be an incentive for them to quickly improve in technique, tactics and physical terms.
- In Germany, our teams hold test matches with local teams every week, how useful is this for the guys?
— I haven’t seen all the matches, but judging by the information I get from coaches and players, I can say that at first they had a certain fear that we were playing against older opponents and would not achieve a result. But we need to look a step ahead, because games with such opponents will allow us to quickly raise the level of training of our football players.
The fact that German teams play in the regular season does not prevent them from going against us and showing their best qualities. Remember what interesting and intense games were with Borussia (Dortmund), Bayer (Leverkusen), FC Cologne, Bochum, Stuttgart. In addition, the team left for Belgium, where they also played a serious game with Standard. There is no point in talking about the high level of these fights. Unfortunately, we have no such rivals in Ukraine.
This is confirmed by the fact that the players born in 2009 who returned to Kyiv and their parents again ask to consider the issue in order to go abroad. It was morally difficult for them, because they are the smallest and, in fact, still children, so it is not surprising that it was not easy for them to leave their parents for two months, so we brought them back. Now they play in the championship of Kyiv and hold friendly matches in which they win with a score of 7:0 or 9:0.
It is clear that such games do not give anything to football players, and they themselves understand this. But in order to go abroad, there are certain difficulties, and in relation to Germany they are very great. The state lives according to the laws, we don’t understand much, but as they say, you don’t go to a foreign monastery with your charter. Coaches and football players need to understand this, so I held a meeting so that there are no more problems and misunderstandings that were at the beginning. We must be grateful to the German side for the conditions that we have.
- How can you assess the living conditions of our teams? How do football players feel morally, being far from home and relatives?
- Now the teams live in a three-star hotel, but when our delegation just arrived in Germany, the organizers settled everyone in a five-star hotel, so moving, of course, was a certain surprise, because the difference was felt. But we must understand that the state treats all categories of people from Ukraine equally, for it there is no difference, it is a football team or a mother with a child, so we are here on a common basis. This is strictly monitored by the relevant organizations. After moving to a new hotel, there were great difficulties, especially with food. The food was not suitable for children, for several weeks they hardly ate first courses.
We are grateful to FC Köln, who promptly resolved the issue of purchasing kitchen equipment and provided us with a separate kitchen. We managed to arrange with two chefs who came from Kyiv to cook for the children, and they could feel at home. You should have seen how the guys rejoiced at the borscht, having eaten several servings at once. Now they can eat like in their families or at the base on Nivki, where the chefs also cook delicious food. We are helped with the purchase of products, and the charity organization Ukrainehilfe Salchendorf, headed by Yuriy Dulenchuk, also provides support. So, fortunately, we have closed this issue.
I note that we also managed to agree that our teams could return to Ukraine for at least three weeks and stay with their families. If the situation in Kyiv allows, we plan to do this at the end of December so that the children can spend the New Year holidays with their parents. And in January they will return to Cologne again.
Given the situation that has developed in Ukraine, I am sure that our teams in Cologne have excellent conditions to be safe, prepare, study, train, play and relax.
- The President of the Ford Niehl football club, who provided the fields and created all the conditions for training, said that he was ready to help the Dynamo team as much as needed. Is it nice to receive not only practical help, but also moral?
“Almost the whole world is emotionally worried about what is happening in Ukraine, and we feel it every day. Everyone wishes us a speedy victory. They say that the states that help us have begun to get tired of the war. Believe me, this is not so, I felt it, in particular, in Poland and Germany during a meeting with many people, leaders who sincerely worry and root for Ukraine. At first glance, everything is simple, but if you go deeper, there are a lot of difficulties with accommodation, documents, registration, obtaining a residence permit and residence permit, food, etc., and I am grateful to our German friends who help resolve all issues and create excellent conditions for us for productive work in the future.
