Greek club PAOK will not exercise the option to buy out Tomasz Kędziora's contract. The Polish defender returns to Dynamo Kyiv on 1 July. The Pole has another year of contract with the capital's club.
Tomasz KendzeraTomek is already 29 years old. If Dynamo says that it wants to rely on young players and the club is undergoing a generational change, then the Polish defender has no future in Kyiv. But there are certain nuances that allow the cooperation to continue for another season.
"Dynamo was ready to sell Kędzier before. If there was no interest in the player at the peak (playing in the Champions League, at the Euros with Poland and winning all tournaments in Ukraine in 2021), then after a serious decline (the first part of last season), there was little hope. Tomek began to lose in sharpness, one-on-one combat, and positional play.
It's good that PAOK came to the rescue in the winter. I think it was not without Mircea Lucescu. The club from Thessaloniki lost their main right-back due to injury. The team is coached by Razvan Lucescu. The sporting director is Jose Botu, who was once involved in the selection process at Shakhtar and should know the Ukrainian market.
The loan to Greece did not convince anyone. Two matches in the Cup and two matches in the league in six months. With such statistics, no one will buy out the contract. I'll say more - it will be very difficult to find a team for Tomek in Europe this summer. Despite the fact that his affairs are handled by a very cool Polish agency, Fabrika Futbol, which has great connections in Europe. Especially in Italy. If in 2021, when Kendziora was on a horse (Champions League, national team and victory in the UPL and Cup) they could not make any offer, then now there is no need to hope.
The fact is that Kendziora has very good personal conditions at Dynamo. The Polish media mention the figure of 800-850 thousand euros a year. No one else will give him such a salary now. He is not a young player anymore, who had a very poor last season and was not included in the Polish national team's application for the World Cup in Qatar. Therefore, it makes no sense for him to refuse a year of his contract. With a high degree of probability, he will return to the Polish championship in a year's time. Unless some newcomer to Serie A rents him in the summer and takes over part of the Polish team's salary.
On the other hand, Tomek can still bring some benefit to Kyiv. Oleksandr Tymchyk, despite his advanced football age, continues to be unstable. In a positional attack, when you need to work with the ball and you are under pressure, problems arise (matches for the national team showed this). Oleksandr Karavayev's contract has not yet been extended. It is not clear whether it will be extended at all. Oleksiy Gusev is hardly ready for adult football yet. He still needs to play for the U-19 for a year. Let's not forget that Kędziora can play centre-back (in his last match for the Polish national team, he played in this position against the Germans). He can become the team's fourth centre-back, who will insure the main three - Denys Popov (who is prone to injury), Oleksandr Syrota and Maksym Dyachuk. Anton Bol and Kristian Bilovar can gain experience on loan to come back stronger in a year's time.
Serhiy Tyshchenko
