Former Dynamo player Nazariy Rusyn has been called up to the Ukrainian national team. The Zorya striker will replace the injured Roman Yaremchuk and will prepare for the national team's June matches. This will be Rusyn's first call-up to the senior national team.
Nazariy Rusyn. Photo - zarya-lugansk.comI am very personally happy for Nazar. He really deserves it. This season, he became one of Zorya's leaders and one of the best players in the entire championship.
Is it worth regretting Rusyn's departure from Dynamo? Of course not. So often in football it happens that a player stays in the system of one team for a long time, but fires in another. Ruslan Malinowski, for example, was not a good fit for Shakhtar and Sevastopol, but he made a career for himself in Europe. We just need to be happy that the Ukrainian national team has become stronger and that we may have another footballer in Europe. Only Ukrainian football will benefit from this.
Rusyn is a graduate of the FC Lviv school. He moved to Kyiv together with Roman Vantukh (now both play for Zorya). Although he had offers from other Ukrainian giants, he chose Dynamo. He became widely known in football circles thanks to the UEFA Youth League. In the first match of the 2016/17 season, he scored a double against Napoli. Back then, Yuriy Moroz had a great team: Makhankov - Tymchyk, Popov, Mykolenko, Dubinchak - Alibekov, Smirnyi (Buletsa), Shaparenko - Lednev, Shaparenko, Yanakov - Rusin. Almost all of these players managed to find themselves in adult football.
At Dynamo, Nazariy failed to play for Khatskevych, Mykhailychenko or Lucescu. Similarly, nothing happened with Mikhnevych at Legia and Jovicevic at Dnipro-1. The only breath of fresh air was Skrypnyk's stint at Zorya. If you're in your 20s, sooner or later the club decides to part ways with the player. You can't be promising all your career.
Rusyn is such a person that he needs an individual approach. If you can do that (Moroz and Skrypnyk), then the player can really play at a very high level. There must be complete trust in the player. Here Rusyn is very similar to his countryman Roman Yaremchuk, who also needs coaching trust, is not ready to compete and is not ready to be pressured.
There is a lot of talk about Patrick van Leeuwen's ability to work with young players and find an approach to his players. It is true that the Dutch coach is able to find an approach to the players and develop them. For example, Vladimir Brazhko has become one of the main discoveries of the championship. There is no doubt that Patrick helped Nazariy. But I would also like to mention another coach here - Roman Hryhorchuk. Rusyn worked with Chornomorets at the training camp in the winter and summer of 2022. He became a Zorya player only in August. Roman Yosypovych knows how to work with footballers. He knows how to teach them. There is a lot of talk about Volodymyr Selyuk now, although not so long ago he played only for Balkans. Danylo Alifirenko scores a lot, although he was no match for Patrick at Zorya. I can assume that Rusyn's work with Hryhorchuk was very important for the former in terms of his development.
Another important factor was the full forgiveness with Dynamo. You no longer have a contract that allows you not to think about the well-being of your life. You have to come out and prove yourself. Everything depends directly on your performances and the quality of your game. If you prove yourself at Zorya, you have a chance to move to a stronger club and the championship. If not, it's the other way round.
Nowadays, football has become younger. People are already playing at the highest level at the age of 17-18. Players of African descent are physically fit earlier. One can be psychologically and physically ready at 18, and the other opens up after 20. This is physiology. It's not for nothing that Dinamo Zagreb keeps a second team in the first league, because not everyone opens up at the age of 18. The Croats know exactly how to educate players. Rusyn "matured" closer to 25 years old.
I don't know how Nazariy's future will develop, in which team he will play next season. I really want to believe that next season will be no worse than this one. I just want to wish him to continue in the same spirit!
Sergey Tishchenko
