Yurii Kevlych, the first coach of Dnipro legend and Ukraine's national team, told how his ward almost ended up at Dynamo.
Yuriy Kevlych and Yevhen Konoplyanka- "Kroshchenko offered him, and so did San Sanych Lysenko. "Petro Vasylovych Kutuzov, the champion of the Soviet Union, helped me. When I told him that they wanted to take my talented boy to Dynamo Kyiv, he said: "It can't be."
At that time, Dnipro had just started paying normal salaries to youth coaches. So I told him about it. Petro Vasylovych put me in touch with Stetsenko. Andrii Viktorovych came personally to a friendly game in Zaporizhzhia. Zhenya scored, and we lost 2-3. That's how he ended up at Dnipro. However, Yevhen was close to signing a contract with Dynamo, even a medical examination was already scheduled. He was there for a viewing. He trained with them. We had a verbal agreement with Oleh Konoplyanka, Zhenya's father, that he could leave by mutual consent.
My phone was red, I can say that for sure. Shakhtar and Dynamo were calling. I dialed Oleh and said: "Why isn't Zhenya at the training?". He replied: "Yura, I wanted to tell you... So, we were invited to Dynamo. We have to pass a medical examination on January 5." I said: "Oleg, let's make a deal: you give me one more chance. And then we will resolve the issue: "Dynamo, Shakhtar, or wherever you want to go."
The kids met with Kutuzov in the evening, and I explained the situation. He said: "All right. Just make sure they see it somewhere." The only artificial fields we had were in Zaporizhzhia, at the Metallurg school. I call Eduard Tymoshenko. We agreed on friendly matches. We arrived, played sparring matches from January 2 to 4, and finally Stetsenko arrived. We agreed on the spot, and on January 16, Konoplyanka arrived and signed a contract with Dnipro," Kevlych said.
