Former Shakhtar and Dynamo head coach Mircea Lucescu has revealed what he is most proud of in his career and named the factor that he sees as more important in football than titles and trophies won.
Mircea Lucescu"For me, players have always been friends. I've had extraordinary relationships with players, absolutely all of them. It fills my life with everything they have achieved and the fact that they always remember the time they spent with me.
Smart guys understand everything right away. With me, they went to another level. I helped them a lot when they were 18-19 years old, when boys are more reserved, more shy. In each of them there is a piece of me as a spirit, as a gift. The greatest satisfaction remains all of that. The fact that you were able to bring them up and teach them to be human beings.
Fernandinho is 37 years old and he is still playing. He doesn't want to retire. He is the captain of the Atletico Paranaense team and he plays at an exceptional level. But it's not just him. All of mine are still playing. Luis Adriano is 37 years old. Willian is 36 and he's playing superbly for Fulham. Douglas Costa is too. Taison is PAOK's best player, Razvan [Lucescu] has. "They had the chance and talent when they were 17-18 years old to realise what professional football is.
It takes a certain level of preparation. School helped me, college helped me, my curiosity helped me in everything. The need to learn some foreign languages to get along with people. I felt it was absolutely necessary to pass on this way of thinking, behaviour and development to my players.
That means a special kind of altruism: when you give a lot of what you have. I'm more proud of the relationship between me and my players than the titles I've won. Some of the kids we've turned into people who have supported themselves and their families for a very long time. The most important thing for me is to see them happy when I talk to them.
It's nice to see that the world doesn't forget you for what you've done. That's Turkey, that's Italy.... Where you've had success, the world doesn't forget that. Especially because the success you achieved was for the people there," Lucescu said.
