The head coach of the Ukraine U-20 national team, Dmytro Mykhailenko, spoke about the search for young Ukrainian players abroad.
Dmytro Mykhailenko (photo: uaf.ua)— Every year, the number of players for selection will grow. We cannot say that there will be a large number of footballers in leading teams. The number of players playing abroad will increase, but they still need to be selected, watched, and monitored.
Children’s football is changeable, and everything changes very quickly. Someone was in the national team, but then they finished entirely within two years and are not playing at the adult level. Therefore, we must constantly monitor, look, and create a database because there are many players.
There are situations, like with Andre Vakulyuk, Zak Bauman, or Konstantinos Plis, who have never been in Ukraine but have Ukrainian roots, and their parents speak Ukrainian. The guys also speak Ukrainian — some better, some worse, but they all understand the language, are proud, and ready to play for Ukraine. That’s wonderful.
But we still need to look for players with a good level. What do I see now? It doesn’t matter what the name of the club is and what country it is from. There are also many talented footballers in Ukraine. We think that if a player plays abroad, they must be better. No, that’s not true. We still need to watch everyone because talent can be anywhere. And their search is a significant task, — said Mykhailenko.
