A graduate of “Shakhtar” and a former midfielder of “Olympik”, “Chornomorets” and several foreign clubs Vladislav Khomutov spoke about the newcomer of Kharkiv’s “Metalist 1925” Ivan Kaluzhny, who became one of the discoveries of last season’s Ukrainian championship due to his performances for “Oleksandriya”.
— How did you get close to Kaluzhny?
— We met personally in the national team. It turned out that he was the only one then from Metalist, and I was the only one from Olympik, so we were placed together in a room. After that, we became friends. When he moved to “Dynamo”, we lived in the same area in Kyiv, as “Olympik” was already based in the capital.
— What do you say about Kaluzhny’s rise?
— A handsome guy, zero market. He made it solely through his hard work. Two or three years ago he called me from “Keflavik” and said: “Brother, I have no team. I came here for pennies, just to play somewhere because there’s nowhere to go.” Who could have believed that a person after Iceland and India would get into the national team of Ukraine?
Luck smiled upon him. He played well when Taras Stepanenko wasn’t there; he jumped into this wagon. Of course, he earned this luck with his work and attitude towards football. Everything coincided, and now he is a national team player.
— Have your relations with Kaluzhny changed after his recent successes?
— No, no. I think our relations won’t change. Of course, maybe now we’ve started communicating less frequently because each of us has family issues. However, I recently had a birthday, and he called me from Canada. We talked for about five minutes, and then he went to training. We remain in touch.
Dmytro Vienkov