Former player and head coach of Kyiv's Dynamo Yozhef Sabo commented onmentions of himself in the book of former defenderOleh Luzhny "Without Compromises".
Yozhef Sabo— Yozhefe Yozhefovych, what is your opinion about Luzhny?
— I can only say good things about Luzhny. He was ahead of his time. Luzhny as a right-back in the 90s did what current players do. Oleh managed to play in attack and defense, made excellent cut passes, he had good interceptions. He was also physically well-prepared and fierce, which is important for a defender. On the field, he was the assistant of the head coach; players listened to and respected him.
It’s a pity that his coaching career is not going well so far. Maybe he will lead "Maccabi" (Haifa) now, we’ll see. I wish him only good luck.
— Luzhny wrote in his book that during his playing career, there was interest from "Coventry" towards him, you knew about it but didn’t tell him. Is that true?
— When I was in charge of "Dynamo", there were no offers regarding Luzhny. At least no one approached me.
— Luzhny is also dissatisfied that you did not field him in the starting lineup of the national team in the first match against Slovenia, and instead relied on Spartak player Parfyonov. Thus, you supposedly raised Luzhny. He says you "fiddled" with the lineup and because of this we lost. What can you say in response?
— Who knows what he writes there. I don’t remember all the details from that match. After some time, a Croatian footballer told me: "You couldn’t have won then. Everything was decided before the game".
The same thing happened against Croatia when Rebrov was fouled in the penalty area, and the referee did not call a penalty. The clear ball of Kosovsky was not counted by the referee in the first half. Players even cried in the locker room. The referee just killed us. They changed referees a day before the game. Horrible what was going on! At that time we were not liked and were associated with Russia.
And also, bad luck played a big role. In another moment against Slovenia, Shovkovskiy would have simply knocked the ball out, but here… But I didn’t say a single bad word to Sasha after the match, he needed to be supported.
— Luzhny mentioned a case before the match with "Ksamaks" in the Champions League, how you with journalist Dmytro Gordon brought a clairvoyant Baba Maria to the "Dynamo" base to help the team achieve a result.
— Where did he even get that from? I definitely didn’t bring anyone. Luzhny either made up this story, or maybe someone else brought someone, but I didn’t know about it. I was a categorical opponent of having women at the base. I am also generally not a supporter of clairvoyants and fortune-tellers.
— What do you think, why did Luzhny write such things about you?
— I don’t know. Time has passed, and they start telling something. Half is true, half is not. Sometimes Leonenko says such things that cannot be believed. Let them talk about themselves, not about others.
Andriy Piskun
