The Romanian specialist, who said goodbye to Dynamo and our football, remained with him and our country in the most difficult times
Mircea Lucescu announced that he is leaving not only the post of head coach of Dynamo, but also ending his coaching career in Ukrainian football. The Romanian specialist gave 15 years to our championship, managing to become perhaps one of its most discussed and scandalous characters. He leaves Ukraine with disastrous results with Dynamo: fourth place in the 2022/2023 season, seventh place, albeit with postponed matches in the current season. And even though these results are one of the worst for the white-blues and the worst during the Ukrainian stage of Lucescu’s coaching career, he definitely deserved warm words addressed to him.
This is perhaps wrong and certainly irrational, given the previous relationship between the country’s two leading clubs and the coach’s performance. But after February 24, 2022, there is no longer anything rational other than the desire for victory and help from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And human actions have to be assessed precisely through the prism of a full-scale war and, accordingly, human actions and behavior during it.
Of course, I don’t know Lucescu’s real motives for staying at Dynamo. Perhaps this is the last good contract in his coaching career, although, given that he was never without work, this is far from a fact. Perhaps these are some kind of personal agreements with the Surkis brothers. Perhaps the desire to prove something to Shakhtar, with whom he could not find a common language after two seasons without gold. Perhaps faith in Dynamo, even in the squad that remains at its disposal. Lucescu himself will be able to answer this question, if, of course, he wants to.
For now, let’s just talk about the facts. After the start of the big war, Lucescu did not abandon Dynamo, although he could have done it calmly, and no one would have thrown a stone at him. What can we talk about if our coaches of many clubs, various national teams in all sports, including football, did not return to Ukraine after February 22. If, for example, Left Bank and Agribusiness, due to, let’s call it, the non-return of football players/coaches/staff to Ukraine after the start of a full-scale invasion, suspended their performances at the professional level. Which, by the way, both clubs openly talked about.
How many times have the curators of Ukrainian referees Luciano Lucci and Nicola Rizzoli, who receive salaries from the Ukrainian Football Association, a public organization, been in Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion. Even in relatively calm Uzhgorod and Lviv.
Yes, the same Roberto De Zerbi, for example, did not continue working with Shakhtar, limiting himself to summer charity matches. In general, we will keep silent about the foreign players of Ukrainian clubs. As well as how many specialists, if you believe the information in the media, refused the same Shakhtar because of the war in Ukraine.
Lucescu remained in Dynamo and with Dynamo. We also agreed on friendly matches, on a possible alternate stadium, and, in fact, on the arena where the white-blues played a European Cup match. He and Dynamo traveled by bus, stood at checkpoints on the border, returning from championship matches to European Cups. And all this, to put it mildly, at a respectable age. Those who have to travel abroad two or three times a month for volunteer work can tell you how difficult it is, both physically and emotionally. Again, only he himself knows about Lucescu’s motives, but I want to believe in his decency and love for the country, with whose clubs he won the lion’s share of trophies in his career. Including the European Cup.
Of course, there’s no escaping Dynamo’s results with Lucescu either. Beautiful football, no matter what anyone says, is not valued even at the domestic level, where everyone goes out with the desire to win, let alone at the professional level. And yes, these results over the last season and a half certainly did not correspond to the level of the team and the expectations of the club’s fans. But on the other hand, with Lucescu, Dynamo had two qualifications to the Champions League group and one to the European spring, the championship title after Shakhtar’s four-year undivided reign.
There was still an unfinished season due to Covid (at the time the championship was suspended, Dynamo was two points behind Shakhtar, five ahead of Dnepr-1). There were sales of leaders – it was under Lucescu that Mikolenko, Zabarny and Tsygankov left. But there were also strange transfers, the responsibility for which falls equally on the coach and the club.
I will not list all of Lucescu’s trophies in our country, which made him the most successful coach in the modern history of Ukraine. Just as I will not list all the football players to whom, for various reasons, Mircea gave the way to big football/opened up an incredible number of players for football Ukraine. It’s hard to believe, but it was under him that Dmitry Chigrinsky, for example, made his debut at Shakhtar, becoming the first truly big transfer in the history of the club. In Dynamo it was Zabarny and Vanat, in Shakhtar you can also remember the same Kovalenko and yes, Rakitsky. And this is not to mention the legionnaires.
I don’t want and don’t intend to idealize Lucescu. It is unlikely that anyone in Ukraine, perhaps except Akhmetov and the Surkis brothers, knew him well. Yes, Mirchi, it seems, had enough strange decisions, scandals, excuses, and actions. Yes, after the start of the hybrid war unleashed by Russia in 2014, he had enough contradictory statements, and he worked at his zenith immediately after leaving Shakhtar. But at a critical moment, he showed respect and decency. Whatever motives might dictate the latter.
Well, just a reminder. He did not leave Shakhtar either after a heart attack that happened during the training camp and because of which he ended up in the hospital, or after the outbreak of hostilities in the Donbass and the forced move to Kiev (and yes, you can also see how many players then left the club and Ukraine) . He was with the white and blue during the most difficult period in the history of Ukraine.
It so happened that his methods stopped working and bringing results. Perhaps he simply no longer keeps up with the trends of modern football. Maybe he was tired of the situation, the team was tired of him. Perhaps his resignation was a little late. But hardly anyone will deny the fact that Lucescu was a phenomenon in Ukrainian football, having managed to leave behind trophies in the two strongest clubs in the country.
Bohdan Gryshchuk
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
