The midfielder of Zhytomyr’s 'Polissya', Oleksandr Andriyevskyi, recalls his time playing for 'Metalist' and working under the head coach Myron Markevych.
— Was Markevych’s attitude towards Ukrainians and foreigners the same?
— No, it was different. He hardly touched the foreigners, but Ukrainians he was direct...
— Pushed them?
— Yes.
— Into certain frameworks or..?
— No, if something went wrong, it was always the Ukrainians who were to blame.
— So, regardless of status, whether playing or not, all foreigners were treated differently?
— Yes. I wasn’t much in the first team, but from what I saw, especially how the young ones were treated — the priority, of course, was for the foreigners. Such were the realities at that time.
— At that time, this was indeed the case, because the foreigners that were invited had to be pampered, paid 2−3 times more money, or even much more than ours. But in the top clubs at that time, let’s be honest, the foreigners made the difference.
— Of course. This was true in 'Dynamo', in 'Shakhtar', and in 'Dnipro', so it was not surprising at the time. And at 'Metalist', they delivered results.