Former Volyn head coach Vitalii Kvartsianyi recalled how he tried to attract the famous Ukrainian midfielder Andrii Yarmolenko to his team.
- Were there any players you failed to sign for Volyn, and then they became stars?
- At one time, I wanted to take Mykhalyk, but my coaches missed him, and Taras ended up in CSKA Kyiv. I know who was involved, but I won't say. Then Grigorovich (the former CSKA manager - ed.) asked for 150 thousand for Mykhailyk, and a year later - 300 thousand. As a result, Demyanenko took him to Dynamo's training camp in the UAE, and he played there.
I also wanted to take Yarmolenko away from Desna. I talked to him, coach Tomakh and Desna president Chaus. I had already agreed on everything, the transfer fee was to be $50,000, and then Surkis called me: "Why do you want to take him, what did you see in him? We watched Yarmolenko, but he didn't impress us". I don't know why he didn't like him then, he's a brilliant footballer.
I sent my coach after Yarmolenko, and he also said: "I watched him, he played badly in the last match". I told him: "Take him anyway! I see that he is a future national team player". But Dynamo outbid us and paid about 300-400 thousand for Yarmolenko. There were many players who were intercepted by other clubs from Volyn just because Kvartsianyi wanted to take them.
- Who else was there?
- I wanted to take young Artem Fedetskyi at the age of 15, but the agents took him to Donetsk. A private company received compensation for him.
I also invited Anatolii Bezsmertnyi from Dynamo. Tolik is such a vicious dog - like a pit bull terrier. I also invited Stepan Betsa, may he rest in peace, from Horlivka. But Dynamo intercepted them too.
Andrii Piskun