The former forward of Kyiv “Dynamo” Fran Sol, who currently plays for the Cypriot AEK from Larnaca, recalled the time he spent in Ukraine.
Fran Sol. Photo — Yu. Yuriev“I started at ‘Dynamo’ really well, scoring goals even in the Europa League, but then I injured my shoulder and had surgery. I had to go to Barcelona for that, and when I returned, ‘Dynamo’ already had a different coach (Alexei Mikhailychenko — ed. note), and he didn’t trust me.
I left a year before the war started (the original publication uses the word ‘conflict’ instead of ‘war’, which is a little shameful — ed. note) — in October 2021. Other legions of ‘Dynamo’ were less fortunate than me: for some time they had to stay in hotels, and only later could they leave the country. I would have to go into details to tell what they went through, but the main thing is that, thank God, they managed to leave. Fortunately, I didn’t experience any of that.
If there hadn't been a war, I would have stayed at ‘Dynamo’ (Sol’s contract with the ‘white-blues’ was valid until 2024; however, since autumn 2020, the forward went on loan to Spanish clubs and no longer played for ‘Dynamo’ — ed. note). It was a club I liked, my family felt comfortable living in Kyiv, but because of the war, I had to take advantage of the temporary FIFA rule, which allowed any legionnaire who had a contract with a Ukrainian club to unilaterally move to another team. That’s how I ended up at AEK.
Because of the war, the level of the Ukrainian championship has dropped significantly. There are now far fewer legionnaires. They exist, but honestly, I can’t imagine how they managed to be persuaded to play there. Personally, I wouldn’t go to Ukraine right now even for all the money in the world,” Sol’s words are quoted by Relevo.
