The Ukrainian defender of the London Arsenal Oleksandr Zinchenko spoke about the beginning of his football career in an interview with the club website.
“I was born in a very small town with only 12,000 people (Radomyshl, Zhytomyr region, - ed.). He started his career in football with the local team Karpatia. I was then six or seven years old. And at the age of 11, I moved to another academy called "Monolith Ilyichevsk", which was located 550 kilometers from my city and home.
So I left my house at the age of 11. And for the first few months I cried into my pillow. At the very beginning, it was very hard for me, it was hard for my family. But my coaching staff there helped me a lot. I needed this coaching support when I was so far from home at that age. That's why I still say that your football team is your family too.
I remember how one of my partners at the academy was talking to his mother on the phone in front of me. He cried and said: "Mom, please take me home." Guess what I did after I saw this? I called my mom too! But he said these words: "I'm sorry, I can't do that." This experience made me stronger. He helped me a lot when I moved to England at the age of 19. Everything was much easier - precisely because of what I did at the age of 11, ”said Zinchenko.