Kyiv Dynamo graduate Artem Shabanov talked on Denis Boyko's YouTube channel about whether he could have played more than two matches for the Ukrainian national team.
Artem Shabanov— To be honest, no. I can't say whether I could have played or not. Because I really only played two matches. My debut was against Slovenia — I came on for the last 15 minutes. Then I played against Israel, where I worked for 45 minutes. We won 1:0.
I remember one friendly match against Albania. We were already leading 4:0 at halftime, the coach made a lot of substitutions, and I was left on the bench. Honestly, I was surprised. We even had a conversation with Andriy Mykolayovych back then. He put Lunin in and said directly: "He needs to be released because he came from Real." Well, you know, it would have been nice to give everyone a chance since it was a friendly match.
Of course, I wanted more. Because friendly games exist for players to gain playing practice, even if for a few minutes. It’s the national team level — the highest in any footballer’s career. But the decision is always up to the coach. How he sees it, that’s how he does it. If I wasn’t put in, then it was meant to be,’ said Artem.
