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.
— 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.