Former midfielder of Kyiv "Dynamo-2" and "Dynamo-3" Denys Skepsky recalled the period of his career in the capital club.
— You started your career in Chernihiv, but later you ended up in the structure of Dynamo Kyiv. How did you get the offer from there?
— Scouts from Kyiv noticed me when I played for the Chernihiv team in DUFLU. Also, at the age of 13, I had an invitation from Shakhtar Donetsk, went with him to a tournament in St. Petersburg. But he did not want to go to Shakhtar. Firstly, far away - all the way to Donetsk, and secondly, I did not like the attitude towards children at that time.
Kyiv is next to Chernihiv, "Dynamo" is closer to my heart. I was invited to the "Dynamo" academy even earlier, but I was under contract with "Desna" and could not transfer to any other club until I was 16. When that training contract ended, I moved to the capital.
— You said that you did not like the attitude towards the children at Shakhtar. Explain what was in mind?
— There was an odious sports director, I don't remember his name. We lost one game and he yelled at me and the whole team. We were still kids then, and I didn't like an adult yelling obscenities at a 13-year-old. I believe that this is wrong and it should not be like this.
— Dynamo, after Shakhtar, was not disappointing?
- All was well. I even signed such a contract with Dynamo, where it was not specified in which team I would play. Although I was 16 years old at the time, I played at DUFL already occasionally - except for one game in the spring when I was asked to play for the boys, because there was a strong opponent, and I also went to the final part in the summer. And in general, I, a schoolboy at that time, immediately got into Dynamo-3 and had the opportunity to play in the second league of the PFL against adults.
And six months later, I was already taken to "Dynamo"-2, where the coach was Volodymyr Onyshchenko (legendary winner of the Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup, ed.). I lived at the base on Koncha-Zaspa, I was already in the first league. All this in such a short period of time.
— What were the bonuses for the "Dynamo-3" player then?
— 150 hryvnias for a victory. There were already good bonuses in "Dynamo-2" — 200 dollars.
— Well, it would seem that your affairs in the grand club structure were going well. Why did you leave Dynamo-2?
— I had a bad relationship with Onyschenko. He didn't trust me, I didn't play much for Dynamo-2. I appeared in the starting line-up several times, mainly appeared on the field as a substitute - and sometimes I was even dropped into the third team.
At the age of 18, I signed a five-year contract with "Dynamo" - and it turned out that there was a dead end. There was no chance to break into the main team, there are 40 foreigners under contract. In "Dynamo-2" they wouldn't have kept me for a long time either - a year at the most, and they would have started renting me out somewhere else, and I didn't want that. So I told the agent that I had to go because I didn't see any prospects for myself.
— Why didn't the relationship with Onyshchenko develop?
— There were five schools, five teams of the same age under the leadership of "Dynamo" at that time, that's about a hundred people, and a maximum of ten of the strongest should be selected from them. I made it to the top ten, but it was very difficult because of a lot of competition. Maybe I didn't make it, although I felt good, because I was constantly called up to the youth national team of Ukraine.
And for the last qualifying tournament, national team coach Anatoliy Buznyk didn't call me because I didn't have playing practice in Dynamo-2. Losing a place in the national team was the last straw - I decided to change my position. And just imagine, when I left, Onishchenko was fired.
— How many times did you communicate with Igor Surkis?
- None. He did not have separate conversations with the young men. None of the "Dynamo-3" and "Dynamo-2" football players [of my generation] talked to him. Ihor Mykhailovych has already communicated with the main team.
There was a moment when Surkis raised a big "boocha": why is there such a big children's school, academy, so many teams - and there are no Ukrainians in the main team? The president of the club decided to completely rebuild the system. As a result, Onyshchenko left, and in the future they began to let Oliynyk, Mandzyuk, Dopilka, Dedechek and others into the first team.
— Were you satisfied when you found out that Onishchenko was released?
— I was not angry, I just understood that Surkis did the right thing. Due to the fact that there were many people in the first team, young people did not have the opportunity to show themselves. So many foreigners were bought that it became impossible even to break into the Dynamo main team. No matter how talented you are, this was unreal.
Foreigners received high salaries, serious money was invested in them - they needed game practice. Not everyone could fit into the main team, so sometimes the legionnaires were dropped into the youth team. Then the "Champions League" played in the double. Imagine: in Shakhtar, young 18-year-old boys play for a double, and in Dynamo - Havrancic, Peev, Ninkovich, Chernat and others. There was simply no chance to get there. Because they had to play, and we had to wait.
— Were you not sorry that this was happening?
— It was unfortunate, but we couldn't do anything. We couldn't come to Surkis and tell him not to buy players! Such were the realities, so many young people simply went with Dynamo.
— "Dynamo" has sold its best players in recent years: Tsygankov, Zabarny, Mykolenko. Your generation also had talents, but none of them revealed themselves to the end. Why?
— Incorrect club policy. The main mistake is that they kept the stars they should have sold earlier. For example, Yarmolenko was the leader of the team, but stayed at Dynamo.
It was not the first time Andrii was accepted into the Dynamo academy. At first he was rejected because he was so small, fragile, and most boys his age are stocky. When Yarmolenko played for Dynamo, there were big requests from clubs for him, but Surkis did not want to give up his leader. He was detained. Here, Shakhtar sells its players on time, while Dynamo does not.
— Ruslan Rotan recently said that the current generation is more professional than the previous one. Do you agree?
— Yes, I completely agree with that. Now a more European approach, a younger generation of coaches has come to Ukraine. For example, foreigners have come to the academies of Shakhtar and Dynamo, who are trying to convey the European mentality to children. Accordingly, revelries and parties take a back seat. Young guys, looking at European football players, strive for something else. In our time, children's football was a mess, so it was different.
— A whole galaxy played with you in Dynamo-2. Let's talk about them. Aliyev and Milevsky also grew up next to you. Why, given their talent, did they not rise to such an expensive transfer as Mykolenko or Zabarny?
— They were very talented guys, but they took a long time to make their way into the base. Although it was possible to let them into the first team much earlier. If at that time Dynamo had attracted young people to the base as it is now, Aliyev and Milevskiy would have played in the first team since the age of 17 and already at 20-22 such offers as for Ilya or Vitalik would have come.
— In 2006, you moved to Dynamo Moscow, how did the offer come from Russia?
- We went to the 17-year-old tournament in Moscow with the Ukrainian national team, we lost only in the final - to Russia. After that, many guys were drafted to different Russian teams. I had offers from Zenit and Dynamo.
— Why did you choose "Dynamo" instead of "Zenith"?
— When "Zenit" wanted to take me, "Dynamo" offered a very high compensation, as for a pupil of the club. It was 240-270 thousand dollars for a 17-year-old player. Zenit then refused to pay such an amount.
And I had to extend the contract with Kyiv for five years. But a year later, I realized that I was losing my perspective there, and then Dynamo Moscow took an interest in me. They offered me to come for an inspection and I decided.
Artem Zhilinskyi