Vyacheslav Fridman: "It will be difficult for Dovbyk at Roma - a new country, language, mentality, this fucking catenaccio"

Commercial Director of Dnipro-1 Vyacheslav Fridman told whether his club has any financial benefit from the transfer of former Dnipro forward Artem Dovbyk from Spanish side Girona to Italian side Roma.

- Vyacheslav Yevhenovych, will Dnipro-1 receive any money for Dovbyk's transfer to Roma?

- No! Our condition for the sale of Dovbyk from Dnipro-1 to Girona was to receive the entire amount at once within five days, so no bonuses or interest from the subsequent transfer are provided. As agreed, Girona immediately transferred six million euros to our account. Dnipro-1 has no further benefits from the sale of Dovbyk.

But Midtjylland had an interest in his next sale. They received about one and a half million euros from Artem's transfer to Girona, and the rest was spelled out as bonuses from his next transfer - about 30%.

- Midtjylland will receive €9.15 million in bonuses from Dovbyk's transfer to Roma. Aren't you offended that Dnipro-1 decided to get everything at once and didn't foresee a scenario where they could earn more?

- I don't count other people's money! At that moment, we only had an offer from Girona. That was it! The year before, Trabzonspor offered $10 million for two, us and Midtjylland, but we refused. When we received the offer from Girona, we had to sell Dovbyk immediately.

That was the agreement we had with Artem and his agent, because he is a decent guy and extended his contract with us so that Dnipro-1 could make money on his transfer. Believe me, no one gave Dnipro-1 more than Dovbyk, although we fought with Girona for 13-14 million.

Why didn't we put in a percentage of the resale? It's roulette! What if Dovbyk had failed in Girona? Then goodbye, percentage. No one knew how Artem would adapt to La Liga and the new country. We decided to get everything at once.

- Will Dnipro-1 be able to count on a UEFA solidarity payment for the player's upbringing?

- No, we won't. He came to us at the age of 23. And 5% of the transfer amount is distributed among the clubs that trained the player from the age of 12 to 23.

- Do you think Dovbyk will be able to prove himself at Roma?

- This is roulette again. Sometimes you don't expect a good thing from a bad thing. He played well at Girona and maybe he should have stayed there. Let's recall the example of Shevchenko, who showed good results every year at Milan, but it didn't work out for him at Chelsea. But I talked to one of Dovbyk's agents, and he said that Artem has a desire to move to a club with a name.

"Girona can be a team for a couple of seasons, and Roma is Roma. This year is most likely Girona's peak, and it's unclear what will happen next. The Catalan team is now selling its leaders, Savio, Dovbyk and several other players have left.

- Dovbyk was also of interest to Atletico Madrid. Where would you be more interested in watching him?

- To be honest, in Girona, because he did well there. But if I have to choose between Roma and Atletico, I'll say Roma. Although it will be difficult for Artem there - a new country, language, mentality, this fucking catenaccio. But as far as I know, the Roman club is planning a big project for years to come. So I wish Artem every success at the new club, and we'll be rooting for him.

Andriy Piskun