Oleksandr Yermachenko: "I saw Zinchenko being made into a football player. We "pulled ointment" for him

Former player of Kyiv "Arsenal" Oleksandr Yermachenko recalled how he played with Oleksandr Zinchenko in the "Monolith" from Illichivsk (now Chornomorsk).

— Oleksandr Zinchenko was with us, with whom I communicated very well. I saw how he was made into a football player. He certainly had talent right away, but it was only right that he ended up at the Monolith, which gave him a big step into the future.

Zinchenko is a few years younger than me, but we all lived together on a small base. There were no computers or telephones then, so everyone went out to play football in the evening. We studied in a normal school - there were many clashes with the locals. I was the captain in my age category, so the younger guys, including Zinchenko, always came to me when there were some scrimmages. We always "pulled the ointment" for the younger ones and solved problems when it was necessary. At that time, we had a really cool team at Monolith, everyone was friends as families, Oleksandr said.