Last fall, the Poltava club rewrote the history of Ukrainian football by appointing a woman as coach of the U-19 men’s team.
Vice President Vorskly Oleg Lysak spoke about the work of the ex-football player II Andrushchak at the head U-19 men’s team Poltava club.
“We decided that Iya Andrushchak will be [тренершей юношеской команды]. They gave her a certain period to decide for herself whether she wanted to work or not. Here Iya is a coach, and we are happy. I heard a lot of this from fans, and from coaches, and from the football community: do we really not have enough men, what can a woman understand about football, and so on.”
“We have made this decision and are moving on. I think there are results. I can boast that we beat Shakhtar U-19 7:2 in Poltava. That’s why we enjoy work.”
“The most important task now is to make Vorskla’s second team into the Second League. I think that Iya will continue to lead these guys and the main task is to prepare a reserve for the first team. Everything else doesn’t bother us much.”
“Of course, tactical schemes, approaches, etc. have changed. We watch from the outside, and we like everything. We are moving with the times, European trends, gender equality… I think we have set a worthy example. We have enough girls in Ukraine who could support this story.”
Let us recall that in November 2023, a historical event for Ukrainian football took place: former Ukrainian national team player, multiple national champion Iya Andrushchak was officially appointed coach of the Vorskla U-19 men’s team. The young specialist received the right to work with the youth team due to the fact that she had a UEFA A-diploma.
The Vorskla youths had a good season under the leadership of Iya: the final ninth place in the U-19 championship with a positive goal difference.
Also, as previously reported by Sport Arena, several clubs in the Ukrainian Premier League – and Vorskla among them – were considering the possibility of creating second teams and entering them into the Second League.
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.
