Mykola Neseniuk: "Now everyone has become a Real Madrid 'fan'. Isn't it funny?"

The well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk spoke out about the growing sympathy of Ukrainian fans for Real Madrid, where the Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin is currently playing.

"I'm sure that in this terrible time of war, football is one of the best ways to keep your sanity. I'm not the only one who thinks so - a lot of people in Ukraine spend their free time watching football matches. People not only watch football, they cheer! At least, they think so, not realising that their feelings are quite distant from real cheering. To illustrate this point, I have a serious and almost eternal argument, as far as our lives are concerned.

Do you still remember how in the early 2000s, the majority of Ukrainians who were interested in football, about 73 per cent, passionately "cheered" for the Italian team Milan, where the outstanding Andriy Shevchenko played? But as soon as Shevchenko left Italy, the million-strong Ukrainian "torso" of Milan "fans" dissolved without a trace, just like the then super-popular political party Our Ukraine, which, like Milan, is no longer remembered. And in vain - it was this party that was the most popular in Ukraine at the time of "rooting" for AC Milan!

Why are we like this? Why are we ready to instantly declare ourselves supporters of something and then pretend that nothing happened? Already this year, Ukrainian TV "fans" have managed to betray the Spanish team Girona, for which they suddenly began to "cheer" en masse after the successful play of Ukrainians Tsygankov and Dovbyk for this team. Now they have all become "fans" of Real Madrid, for which the Ukrainian Lunin plays. Isn't it funny?

Interestingly, these so-called "fans" are quite understandable. We are not Spain, where the town of Girona, which has a population of 100,000, has its own football team that will not go anywhere. Even when the team's unexpected successes come to an end, Girona fans will continue to go to football games and support their team. In Ukraine, this option is almost impossible. For various reasons, Ukrainian football fans, even if they really wanted to, do not have the opportunities that are available in almost every European city. And it's not just the war that is to blame, as it has deprived residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Simferopol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and other cities of the opportunity to go to football games and support their own. Where football is possible, there is no choice. If rich people wanted it, teams appeared in Zhytomyr and Cherkasy. If they didn't want to, teams in Lutsk and Uzhhorod disappeared. And there is no reason for this.

That's why I don't mind Ukrainians watching Real Madrid on TV. I am concerned about the fickleness of this "cheering". As soon as the team's main goalkeeper recovers and Lunin returns to the bench, these 'fans' will forget Real Madrid, just as they once forgot Milan. As for me, real football support is something else. Real, sincere and forever!" Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.