The veteran coach recalls how he stayed at Dynamo at the height of the war, and why he left Ukraine after all
Ex-coach of Kyiv Dynamo Mircea Lucescu shared details of his motivation to stay in Ukraine and talked about the reasons for his final departure.
“Dynamo asked me to help, and I agreed. The first year went very well, we won the championship, the Ukrainian Cup and the Super Cup. Then in 2022 the war began, but I decided to stay, although we played in stadiums without spectators, we could no longer use the plane and therefore the bus ride took 9-10 hours to get to the game. Then the second part of the championship was not played, and we went to Europe for several matches in defense of peace, of which I was the promoter.”
“I thought that the war would end, that it would not last so long, and in the meantime football would be the answer to people’s need for survival: a few minutes of leisure to better cope with the terrible reality of the death of many children. That’s why I didn’t run away.”
“There were 14 players left, I didn’t give up and restored the team with young players. I wanted to be there for them in this bad situation, many players grew up with me, they are strong and will have a career. But when the bombing of cities intensified, I could no longer tolerate it. They called me every day from home, they were very worried. So in November I left, the journey was difficult, but in the end I arrived in Bucharest.”
Lucescu, who previously worked for Shakhtar Donetsk for many years, took over Dynamo in the summer of 2020. In the first season under the leadership of the Romanian, the Kiev team became the champion of Ukraine, and also won the Ukrainian Cup and Super Cup.
Let us remind you that Lucescu resigned as the head coach of Dynamo Kyiv in early November 2023 after a defeat by Shakhtar (0:1). Later, Cluj and Dinamo Bucharest were interested in the specialist. According to Romanian journalists, the coach himself is waiting for an offer from the Romanian national team, with whom he would like to work until the end of his career.
In the first week of the new year, the 78-year-old specialist received an offer to head Besiktas.
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.
