Famous Ukrainian goalkeeper Oleksiy Shevchenko recalled a segment of his career, which he spent at Odesa’s “Chornomorets” in 2023.
Oleksiy Shevchenko— I didn’t see anything good in “Chornomorets”. It felt like I had returned fifteen years back. It’s awful! After “Shakhtar”, I was shocked. I can’t say anything good about Hryhorchuk as a person.
— Why is that?
— The attitude towards all players is terrible, not just towards me. He just didn’t have the opportunity to criticize my game. So, he provoked in other ways. He put me and Bilika (another goalkeeper of that time at “Chornomorets”, — ed.) in a square, where we spent most of the minutes juggling the ball, by hand or whatever.
All of this happened on days that were supposed to be days off. Hryhorchuk says: “What are you doing in Kyiv? Work!”. He pushed the goalkeepers — “take the ball three times for six minutes”, something incomprehensible. I respect myself too much; sometimes I wanted to spit in his face due to how he mocked us.
— Do you think Hryhorchuk understands football?
— I doubt it. Did he even play football? I’m not sure because he says some nonsense. In “Chornomorets” during the peak of the UPL, he had players who on their own would have won against many. In Astana, they won the championship without him; they constantly kicked him out, saying, we will manage without you. If he were a good coach, he would have stayed there. The places he coached had good money. Without good footballers with huge salaries, he could not show results.
— In what ways did Hryhorchuk show disrespect towards the footballers? Why did he do this?
— He is a dictator. He sits like Putin, and behind him is an icon. The style of conversation is one-on-one with the Kremlin dictator: he constantly mentions God, says that football is in his heart, and football can never be deceived. Hryhorchuk constantly uses curses and humiliates the footballers. Literally after the theory, some guys were already crying. He starts looking for someone to blame for the defeat. There’s no such thing as losing, that’s not a big deal, we need to change this or that. He picks one or two people and starts blaming them for the loss.
— Some players were under his protection?
— Of course! He constantly looks for someone to blame for the bad results. Here’s an example of what kind of person he is. After I played left-back, he told me that I would gain fitness and always play in that position, saying, you are among my top five players. I didn’t understand this.
Imagine, I came from “Shakhtar”, which offered me a three-year contract, to “Chornomorets” to play football, and he puts me as a left-back, although I am a goalkeeper and generally a right-footer!
— What’s the story about you playing left-back?
— It was a friendly game. Something switched in him, and he suggested I play there because there was a lack of personnel on the left side of the defense. I played once, then he put me in again for the next game, and I even scored a goal. Then there was an official game against “Dnipro-1” in the championship. I was recovering from an injury, and he wanted to release me right there, but didn’t know if a goalkeeper can play in the field.
He doesn’t even know the rules! He says that we, goalkeepers, are dumb. We throw a throw-in on our half — why don’t we come closer and catch the ball with our hands to start an attack? I look at him and don’t understand if he is serious about not knowing that a goalkeeper can’t handle the ball from a throw-in?
— Are there more stories?
— Many! There should be complete silence at the base. His assistants will immediately report on you if you walked around the base. Made a mistake in a match? Aha, because you walked around the base when you should have been resting!
Hryhorchuk didn’t take coach Oleksiy Antonov to the game with “Oleksandriya” because he communicates with Serhiy Kravchenko and supposedly will tell all the training secrets.
I was there for less than half a year, but there are stories as if I had been there for five years. All of Ukrainian football told me not to go to Hryhorchuk, but I didn’t listen. I thought, as an experienced goalkeeper, I would meet all the coach’s requirements.
— You came to “Chornomorets” after “Shakhtar” as a star. Why did you only play five matches there?
— There’s another story related to this topic. I missed a match due to an injury, then didn’t play in the next one. I approached Hryhorchuk, and he says: “Sheva, you are top, our best goalkeeper! You have a family! I waited for you for two years! You are an authority from Shakhtar; the referees will kill us less! You will play soon.” Then his assistant heard that I was coughing, and they decided that I was sick. If I were sick, I would have approached and said — again a strange situation.
Then at the theory, where goalkeepers weren’t invited, Hryhorchuk began to talk that Shevchenko negatively affects the team and that we need to part with him. This was told to me by the guys. What a hypocritical person.
— Could the goalkeeper coach Hlushchenko have influenced Hryhorchuk?
— I talked to Hlushchenko. He tried to talk to Hryhorchuk, all in vain. They watch a replay of a goal and look for a guilty one. Here, the goalkeeper in the video took an extra step! They ask: “Why did I do that?” There’s a constant search for someone to blame.
I don’t know how Vitaliy Yermakov tolerated it, because in his place, I would have killed that Hryhorchuk. Hryhorchuk says to Vitaliy: “You are not even a footballer, you are nobody, a scarecrow, you’ve annoyed me!” That’s how he speaks to a man who is 30 years old. This happens in front of everyone. He also mocked Demchenko, who now plays for Kolos.
— Why did he close players, including you, at the base?
— I don’t know, maybe Hryhorchuk enjoys this. Here’s another story. In Bogdan Boychuk’s family, a child was born. And we are always at the base; the coach conducts two to three theory sessions a day. Bogdan lives five minutes away from the base. We entered the base two or three days before the match.
At that time, the lights were being turned off in Odesa, and Boychuk’s wife had to go down the stairs with a stroller with a baby and a dog. And Hryhorchuk went home, and says to us: “Get ready.” We are left at that base for no clear reason. There’s nothing to do at the base; we sit and play cards or sit on our phones. The food is awful too. What to do there for two days? And if we lost, we would be there for three days! At the theory, he says: “Ah, maybe four days?” and laughs. And everyone is afraid to say anything so it doesn’t get worse.
— You said that you returned to “Chornomorets” like fifteen years ago. Why is that?
— Similar despotic methods were practiced in Zaporizhzhia when I was 16 years old. But that was a different generation. Back then, if you let footballers off for three days — there would be both drinking and billiards, and “carousels”. Now times are different. Your weight is strictly monitored. There are cameras everywhere. If they see you in establishments — that’s it.
— Is Hryhorchuk the worst coach you’ve played under?
— One hundred percent. The worst and the weakest. And in general, that was my mistake…
— By mistake with “Chornomorets”, do you mean the situation when Shakhtar offered you a three-year contract, and you chose “Chornomorets” for playing practice?
— Yes. If I were still getting playing practice in Odesa, at least somewhat, but like this… I played left-back, met a terrible person. This is my biggest mistake in life.
Igor Lysenko
