The defender of Odesa’s “Chornomorets,” Yaroslav Rakitsky, talked about his attitude towards his performances for the Russian “Zenit”.
Yaroslav Rakitsky— I let go of the situation with the Ukrainian national team back when I was playing in the lower leagues. I believe I could have been called up at least once or twice. But apparently, I didn’t deserve it. I think the issue was not with the quality of play, but rather the social context. I understand all of that.
Honestly, at that time I didn’t understand why it was happening. It seemed there should have been a call, but there wasn’t one. Then it became clear why. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat: who knew? I often hear people say: “Why didn’t you go here or there?” And I respond: “Why didn’t anyone offer me any proposals?” If there had been offers — I would have gone.
For example, there was an option with “Besiktas,” there were certain negotiations. But we didn’t come to an agreement — either with the president or someone else. And that was it. Although logically, it seemed a solution could have been found to stay and agree. It would have been easy to do. But that’s how it turned out,” said the former Donetsk resident on the YouTube channel “Trendets.”
