Paris (AFP)
After achieving one of the biggest surprises in the history of the Champions League, with the Moldavian Sheriff Tiraspol team by defeating Real Madrid, the Ukrainian coach, Yuri Fernydop, decided to take up arms and defend his country against the Russian invasion.
The 56-year-old told the BBC that he did not hesitate to return to his country, as soon as his son informed him last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had started military action.
“My son called me at 4:30 in the morning and told me that the Russians had attacked us, and I knew then that I was going back to Ukraine to fight,” Fernidop says.
Fernidop is one of the many well-known Ukrainian sports personalities, such as the world heavyweight champion Aleksandr Usyk, who has decided to return to defend her country.
Ferndup received that call while he was in Portugal to play a playoff match in the European League “European League”, which Sherif lost on penalties to Braga after the two teams tied 2-2 in the total of the two legs.
Although it plays in the Moldavian league, SC Sheriff is from Transnistria, a breakaway, pro-Russian state that emerged after a civil war following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Fernydub, who ended his playing career with Russia’s Zenit St Petersburg, spent 11 hours traveling to Ukraine on Saturday, and several members of his family tried to dissuade him.
“I thank my wife for her support, she knows who I am,” he says. If I make a decision, I will not change it.”
The Ukrainian trainer notes that he received two years of military training when he was younger, and asserts, “I know how to use” firearms.
During the interview with the BBC, Fernidop was 120 kilometers from the front line.
He explains, “I am not allowed to reveal my role in the army, now we receive instructions, every minute we are ready to go where they tell us, I have not used my weapon yet, but I am always ready. At what time”.