Goalkeeper of Spanish Girona and the Ukraine U-21 national team, Vladyslav Krapyvtsov, talked about the thwarted transfer to Chelsea and performances with Tsyhankov and Vanat.
Vladyslav Krapyvtsov— Vlad, let’s start the conversation with club matters. Girona today doesn’t resemble the team that captivated football romantics...
— Girona is in a rebuilding stage. Many new players have come in, who need to understand Michel’s principles of play. This doesn’t happen in one pre-season. Many of the players are in demand in their national teams, and this also somewhat hinders working on shortcomings.
The whole team needs time to understand each other and evaluate the possibilities of the players. Responsibility for the result is not removed from anyone. Our task is to listen to the coaches, do our job well, and the result will come.
— It’s been 10 months since your transfer. How has Girona changed you?
— I can’t confidently say that I’ve fully adapted yet. I’ve found myself in a completely different football context. For a young player, getting into La Liga is top. Every day I discover something new. A large volume of information from coaches and partners — and I’m not just talking about goalkeepers now. It’s about what the Spanish championship offers you. Psychologically, it can be difficult, but I understood that after Dnipro-1’s U-19, this would be an entirely different leap. In this regard, Vitya Tsyhankov helped me a lot, without whom it would have been very difficult in Girona.
— Besides you, there is Tsyhankov and Vanat in Girona, plus another Ukrainian, Yulian, working at the club. Has it become easier?
— Of course, since you understand you’re not alone. There are guys in the team who understand your mentality. You can communicate and joke around, spend time together. A lot of attention is paid to the little things. After training, they look at how the legs respond to loads.
— How is your namesake Vanat adapting?
— Vlad learned a lot of information from the first days. Now he’s somewhat settled in and has even scored a few goals. The team received him well. Everything is going as it should. High expectations are placed on him in Girona.
— Not without the shadow of Dovbyk behind you.
— There’s some pressure present, but you can see from Vlad that he was mentally ready to come to Europe, having a few good seasons with Dynamo behind him.
— What can you say about your fellow goalkeepers Hassani and Livakovic?
— Paulo Gassani and Dominik Livakovic have different profiles. In youth academies, emphasis is placed on the style of play for goalkeepers. At this level, goalkeepers play to their strengths, developing their style to the maximum. Paulo helps me a lot, giving a lot of pointers. I can easily discuss some details that interest me.
Dom only recently joined Girona. He arrived, and a few days later, I headed to the national team. You can feel Livakovic’s experience, but I would also mention Juan Carlos, who embodies the DNA of the Spanish goalkeeper school.
— How do you feel knowing that in Spain a goalkeeper needs to not only catch but also participate in different phases of play?
— Playing with feet, clearing, build-up hasn’t become something new for me, mastering certain principles at Dnipro’s school. To some extent, I’m lucky to have mentors from whom I can take a lot. The same attitude towards mistakes and how an experienced goalkeeper reacts and everything else.
— Did coach Polissya’s goalkeepers' coach, Volodymyr Tymenko, whom you know well from Dnipro-1 and the national teams, ask for your insights on working in Girona?
— I shared my impressions with Volodymyr Mykolayovych. He helped me a lot at the time with the volume of information during my time at Dnipro. I took a lot of new things for myself, which I took with me to Spain. Even then, he mentally prepared me for the challenges I would need to be ready for if I wanted to play at the top level.
— Before ending up in Girona, you had a few months without a club. How does a young footballer feel, who was in the status of the best goalkeeper of Euro-2024, ends up in limbo?
— When Dnipro-1 was breaking up, I decided to continue my career outside Ukraine. My agent and I were constantly in touch. A note of anxiety occasionally crept in because time was passing, and you don’t know where you’ll end up tomorrow. It was easier in the sense that Vadim [Shabliy] was nearby. Similarly, Yehor Yarmolyuk supported me during that period. I understood that he would do everything in his power, and I would do my best to sign a contract with a team where I could develop further.
— Initially, you were at Chelsea, even trained with the first team. What didn’t work out?
— I made a mistake by getting attached to the team too soon. They warmly welcomed me. I was constantly with the reserves, trained, and was taken to games. The only thing was that I couldn’t play and was without a contract.
— How does it feel to train with guys you’ve seen on TV or traded cards with in EA FC?
— Awareness comes post-factum. When you’ve never played at the senior level before, some things are somewhat new to you. A lot of physical work to be at that level. There is reverence for star names, but I didn’t come just to be there; I wanted to prove that I deserve this chance.
Everything was going well. More or less, everything was wonderful domestically in England, and halfway through, you’re told that it didn’t work out because of bureaucratic reasons. This situation taught me to be more resilient. Don’t panic. I want to note that in Chelsea and Arsenal, speaking about U-21, the level of intensity is very high. It’s hard to make decisions at that speed on the field if you haven’t been in that training process before.
— Was the blow hard?
— The first few days, I walked around darker than clouds. You don’t know what to do next. I knew that after a great Euro, there was interest from other clubs. I started training individually.
— The Chelsea trio of goalkeepers, Sanchez, Jorgensen, Slonina — are these guys genuinely in good order?
— It’s another level.
— Would Mudryk have been useful to Chelsea if he could come out now?
— 100%! Misha didn’t end up there for nothing. He came to Chelsea when everything wasn’t as stable as it is now. Under Maresca, he could play and continue to develop.
— Can your chosen path with successful club searches in Europe serve as an example for other young players?
— Now I’ll say that I did everything right. You don’t have a certain comfort zone, as if you understand that after U-19, you’ll move up to the reserves, train with the main team and lose precious time in a warm bath. You grow up quickly, immediately diving into the adult football kitchen. Life, regime, recovery, check-ups. Every detail plays a key role. You understand that you can be useful now and not wait for your chance in turn.
— You’ve already played several matches in La Liga, where you had a lot of work for an inexperienced goalkeeper.
— Every opponent can create problems for you. A small mistake can ify everything. You need to program yourself to be ready to go out and help the team at any moment.
— How do you react to games when everything the opponent shoots goes in?
— If I recall the last match of that season against Atletico (0:4), I made several mistakes. Having analyzed, I realized that my reaction wasn’t entirely correct in this situation. Against Villarreal (0:4) in August — the same story. Everything went wrong. I never conceded 4 goals within 30 minutes.
Analyzing them, I concluded that there wasn’t a chance to do anything in those matches. At such moments, it’s hard to switch immediately. You need to learn to take a hit in different situations. I’ve always been confident in myself, and allowing myself to doubt isn’t for me. But the first reaction to such things was far from the level I want to play at.
— After failures, don’t you wind yourself up extra?
— I try to do it less. I analyze more, listen to myself, discuss with coaches and move forward. Since the time of Dnipro, Tymenko taught us how not to react to our unsuccessful actions. Now in Girona, we have a mental coach working with us, with whom you discuss all these nuances.
— By temperament, are you an extrovert or introvert?
— It’s hard to say. In daily life, I’m probably more closed. It takes me a lot of time to get accustomed to a new environment for myself, but I’m also interested in non-trivial communication that charges you rather than drains you energetically.
— I know you have quite a large family. Does separation from loved ones knock you out of balance?
— I haven’t seen my father for 2 years. Part of the family visits me here periodically, and I really appreciate it when they are with me.
— Which goalkeepers have been examples for you?
— As a child, Neuer made an impression on me. Then ter Stegen. Among the modern ones — Ederson.
Alexander Karpenko
