Defender of Polissya Eduard Sarapiy recalled the period of his football career spent at Kyiv's Dynamo.
Eduard Sarapiy (photo: scdnipro1.com.ua)— You were born in Zaporizhzhia, but played in the youth team of "Dynamo" until the age of 17, not in “Metallurg”. How did you get there?
— Yes, I was born in Zaporizhzhia, but since childhood I played in many children's tournaments, as our Zaporizhzhia region is quite football-oriented.
Teams often came to us, and we also traveled to Kyiv, Mariupol. It was at one of these tournaments that Dynamo scouts noticed me. At 12, I moved to the club's youth base in Nivky, where I spent five years of my life.
— What memories do you have of young Mykolenko, Popov, and Buletsa? You started your football journey together in Dynamo’s academy.
— Only pleasant memories remain because they are my teammates with whom we just started our first steps in football.
Mykolenko and I still keep in touch. As for the others, I am always happy to see them when we meet, especially since Denys Popov and Serhiy Buletsa are currently playing in the UPL. So when we played against each other, we were glad to chat and see each other. They are all professionals, and I am glad they perform at a high level.
— What’s next?
— Next, when Dynamo started conducting selection for the U-19 team, we were sent for a medical examination at the "Boris" clinic — at that time it was a club partner. During a routine heart ultrasound, they diagnosed me with something that, according to their words, meant I could not continue playing football. They said they couldn’t take such responsibility for me, and everything needed to be checked several times. Because of this, I missed half a year of football and returned to Zaporizhzhia. During this time, my contract with Dynamo ended, and I didn’t return there — I stayed at Metallurg.
— So, you left Dynamo solely because of the unsuccessful medical examination?
— I left Dynamo exclusively due to not passing the medical examination. Fortunately, there are now more modern technologies, perhaps also new generation doctors — thus, there are no longer issues with such things.
Igor Lysenko
