Former player of the Ukrainian national team and currently the assistant coach of Oleksandriya, Serhiy Kravchenko recalled part of his career related to Kyiv’s Dynamo (the ex-midfielder played for the “white-blue” team during 2009).
— You joined Dynamo as a free agent. Did Vorskla offer you a (the club Kravchenko was at the time of moving to Dynamo, — editor’s note) new contract?
— Yes, but it was a bit too late. There were six months left on the contract, and we thought everything would be fine. But I then debuted for the national team, played well, and immediately there were talks about Dynamo. There was a call from Kyiv and an offer to sign a preliminary contract. Vorskla only then got involved in the process, but many clubs had already contacted me.
— Which ones specifically?
— Besides Dynamo, to which I had already given preliminary consent, there were Shakhtar and Dnipro, for example. There were also discussions about Russian clubs — Lokomotiv and Rubin. I thought it was worth trying at Dynamo, and if it doesn’t work out, I could always step back to Dnipro, which was a common practice back then.
— Why did you refuse Shakhtar?
— The situation with Shakhtar’s offer is generally interesting: as I said before, I was considered unpromising at Shakhtar-2, and then there was a contract offer.
Why not Shakhtar? You remember that there was almost no Ukrainian forwards back then, and I played in the number 10 position, so I thought: where would I play there? There were Fernandinho, Jadson, Matuzalem, so no chances. Dynamo was the first to call me, personally president Surkis was interested, and Syomin called. Shakhtar got involved in the process a bit later when there was already a preliminary agreement with Dynamo, but at that point, it was still at the level of conversations, Dario Srna asked me in particular.
Perhaps if I had played as a defensive midfielder at that time, as I did later at Dnipro, I would have chosen Shakhtar, because it’s my home team and city.
— Was there no certain resentment towards Shakhtar and a desire to prove something in the squad of the eternal rival?
— I can’t say that there was such a feeling. Of course, any athlete wants to prove something to someone, first of all to themselves. There was no resentment towards Shakhtar because I genuinely did not pull at that level then. I love and respect Shakhtar as the team of my native city. It probably was logical because I could not withstand the competition. But that’s football: sometimes it doesn’t work out at first, then you work hard, believe in yourself, and everything is possible, just like in life as well as in football.
— Why didn’t it work out at Dynamo?
— In short, I couldn’t withstand the competition. Of course, you want to be trusted more and all that. At Dynamo (Kyiv), no one is going to wait for you and just trust you. If you were given one chance and didn’t take it, a second one may not come. There were no other reasons. I was healthy, trained, gave 100%, played well, but Syomin trusted the players who had been there before. Then you lose confidence when you don’t play, especially since I didn’t have experience with significant competition.
At Dnipro, I understood how to cope with situations when you don’t play, but at Dynamo it was hard, primarily psychologically. I looked for reasons in myself. Then Gazzaev came, I played little, he didn’t put me on the transfer list and offered to stay. First of all, I made the decision for myself that I needed to change something and leave because I was starting to go crazy, and depression was creeping in. A great contract and life in the capital is certainly cool, but I need to play to feel happy.
— What do you think, why do many Ukrainian talents fade in the ranks of the Kyiv team?
— In my opinion, this happens because of the high competition. You can’t say that Dynamo loses talents; it’s just that not everyone is given a chance to play in such a team. A conditional Vorskla is a team of a lower level, so the competition is not so high, they trust you. And at Dynamo, everyone is as talented or even better, who has been brought to the capital.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it, although I did everything possible that depended on me. Everything that doesn’t happen is for the better; that’s how I ended up at Dnipro, so I don’t regret it at all. At that moment, I was about 25 years old; I was no longer a young player, so I couldn’t withstand the competition. Yes, of course, I wanted to be trusted and valued, but it is what it is.
Igor Lysenko