— At the end of your career, you played for amateur "Shturm," which featured several former UPL stars.
— I want to thank Dmytro Dymnych and the coaching staff of "Shturm," now "Kolosa-2," who believed in me and accepted me at a very difficult moment. At that time, everyone turned away from me. I spent two wonderful years with these teams. To be honest, I was very lucky with the team, and there I met many great friends.
— The famous Yevhen Khacheridi became your strongest partner in central defense?
— Well, definitely one of the strongest. A long time ago, I watched Zhenya on TV and tried to be like him. Then we met in the same team and studied together for the B licence. It’s some kind of irony of fate. (Smiles). Zhenya has helped me many times. I have great respect for this decent person. You can say he is my friend.
— It seems Khacheridi ended his professional football career too early. Could he have played more even at the UPL level?
— Of course, he could have. It’s just that our football is now oriented towards the fact that a person at 30+ years is considered old and no one needs them anymore. These are terrible realities and a scourge.
Dmytro Venkov
Oleksiy Dityatyev