"Vanat will make his national team debut soon," - Dynamo and Ukraine forward's children's coach

Viktor Zalisnyi, the children's coach of Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine striker Vladyslav Vanat, spoke about his former ward's first steps in football.

In 2008, Vanat came under the guidance of the aforementioned Viktor Zalisnyi. Once a graduate of the Kyiv School of Olympic Reserves, and then the main goalkeeper of Ratusha (Kamianets-Podilskyi), he is now the coach of the Forward children's team at the same Kamianets-Podilskyi Sports School No. 2.

- Children come to the section with or without abilities. Vlad had them, but this is only 10% of success. The rest is work on oneself. He worked hard, and his father played a little football. It all came together: talent, dedication, family support and my guidance as a coach. That's why he is now the main footballer in the history of the city. Once upon a time, our fellow countryman Volodymyr Kaplychnyi was also successful, but it was a long, long time ago.

- Vladyslav comes from a fairly well-to-do family - his father is the owner of Avant-Agro, a company that specialises in bakery products. Did his family try to speed up his progress? Maybe with extra training...

- Overtime, no. But I can say that Vladyslav's family members travelled with us to all the competitions. And it was understandable and justified. Vlad showed himself well and started playing in the team with the older boys - born in 1999. He was already a scoring striker, and no one had taught him how to do it.

There are philosophers, inventors or mathematicians who have all this in their heads from birth. It's the same here.

- What did your training process look like?

- I went to a sports boarding school once and clearly understood that progress requires consistency and stability in training. Even if you get sick for a week, you drop out and have to catch up with your teammates. That's why the training process included three sessions a week, and when we were preparing for competitions, every day except Saturday and Sunday.

However, we didn't start participating in tournaments right away. From my experience, it takes three years to form a children's team from scratch. The first year is spent working on technique. The second year is spent on technique and combination work, and the third year is spent on competitions and achieving results.

- Do you remember the first competitions of that team?

- Of course I do. In February 2011, we went to Lviv. It was an international futsal tournament, the Friendship Cup, which took place as part of the country's preparations for Euro 2012. "Forward immediately took 2nd place and I was very surprised. By the way, even in the photo you can see that Vladyslav is still small here. The smallest of all.

And while we were travelling, he became the best scorer everywhere. He had the feel and a good shot from his left foot. And this is among guys a few years older than him.

- In terms of psychology, did you need to find an individual approach to him?

- No. But your students are like your own children. First of all, they need to see justice. If someone proves themselves, you praise them. And when they do something wrong, you point out their mistakes clearly and honestly.

Sometimes there are guys who demonstrate good abilities in training, but during competitions they have no confidence and can't show anything. But this was never the case with Vlad. He was always ambitious and hungry for goals.

- Nowadays, a striker can sometimes get an extra yellow card or a disqualification. Did he have similar incidents back then?

- They were still children. An adult can break the rules somewhere. Kids aged 9-11 don't have this anger yet.

- What moment with Vladyslav do you remember the most?

- Once we went to Lviv for another tournament. "Forward was playing Karpaty at the time. We had a home-made set-piece for the ball. During its implementation, Vanat first cut off several opponents with a pass, then received the ball, made a pass and scored. He beat almost half the team. The Lviv team was surprised. They have an academy, and here we are - we came from Kamianets-Podilskyi and beat them.

- And how did Vanat, at the age of 9, withstand the strain and physical struggle against 12-year-olds?

- That's the thing, he could handle it. Only later, when he wanted to join Dynamo's academy, did I give him advice on how to improve his physical training. It was necessary, because you have to be better than the others at the viewing. Then Vladyslav and his parents went somewhere to the sea, and on my instructions he ran along the shore knee-deep in water. And it was very difficult.

- Did Vanat need to join Dynamo's academy so early?

- It is difficult to give a confident answer. Probably, if he succeeded, yes. But the fact is that 9 years old is still a very young age. And it could have been difficult for him because of that.

Maybe it made sense to stay in Kamianka for another year, but it was his decision. I can judge by myself. In the 5th grade, I went to a sports boarding school in Kyiv because I wanted to. It was the right thing to do. It's the same with Vladyslav. It wasn't his father or mother who wanted him to go to Dynamo, but he wanted to. That's why he started to progress.

- The future striker went to the capital's club for a viewing. But, presumably, there were academies willing to take him without a viewing...

- There are indeed selectors at tournaments. He was offered to go to different teams. For example, to Karpaty and Metalist.

I think that his desire to join Dynamo deepened in 2010, when Dynamo veterans came to us to play a friendly game against the local Fortress. The late Andrii Bal, Oleksandr Hatskevych, Vitalii Kosovskyi, and Viktor Leonenko were running at the city stadium at that time. This gave me the impetus to try out for the Dynamo Academy.

- In the current UPL season, your pupil has 11 goals and is in first place in the scoring list. Are you surprised by this?

- I am pleased with it. After leaving for the capital, Vlad, as before, became the top scorer in almost every tournament. When a forward is really scoring, he feels confident. And those around him who give him a chance feel it too. Now we are on the sidelines, but Dynamo's coaching staff is close by. I think they are well aware of Vladyslav's capabilities and potential. Therefore, I believe that in a little while he will shoot in matches for the Ukrainian national team.

Yevhen Chepur