Yarmolenko: Glad to be back at an age when Dynamo can still be useful

Winger Dynamo Andrey Yarmolenko talked about his return to the club. The ex-captain of Kiev believes that he can bring a lot of benefits to the team.

“Of course, I am very happy to return to Dynamo. For me, this is my home, this team gave me a lot, here I became who I am. I really appreciate it, I am grateful to every employee of the club, the president, so for me this is really a return home. When a child travels from his parents and then, after a while, returns to them, I feel about the same now.”

“There were reasons why the transition did not take place a year ago. Now I think it’s not worth talking about it. It probably wasn’t the time to go back. Now I believe that this moment has come, because it happened. Igor Surkis and I were constantly in touch and talked about this. They talked about moving in the winter, but I had a valid contract and could not do anything about it. They waited until the summer, when it became clear that I could sign a contract as a free agent.

“All the clubs that approached me with offers were not interesting to me, because I was determined to return home. There were talks about clubs from Italy, Spain, but they were not even considered by me.

“Of course, I was not going to move to Shakhtar. This could only happen at the beginning of my career, when there was interest from both Dynamo and Shakhtar. But over the years, after I played in Dynamo, I was the captain of the team, then I simply had no right to go there, because I am a Dynamo player. At the same time, I respect both Shakhtar and their players.”

“I understand that now is the time in my career when I need to think about the future, because I don’t have much left to play at the highest level. Therefore, now it is precisely such an age, 33 years old, when I can still give something to Dynamo. I did not want to return to 36 years old, when you understand that you have no strength, and you came to finish your career well, where everyone knows, loves, appreciates you. And I wanted to come to the team and give something to her. Whether I can, time will tell. But the fact that I will give all the strength that I have at the moment is one hundred percent.

“We talked with Mircea Lucescu, but these were conversations for a maximum of five minutes. I had to understand whether the head coach needs me, in what capacity he sees me, what requirements he has for the players in my position. But for myself, I decided that I see the potential of this team, that with the players that we have now, the team can show completely different results than they were last season. I see that together we can change this, achieve better results, so I decided to come back.”

Yarmolenko moved to Dynamo as a free agent, signing a two-year contract. Last season, the 33-year-old Ukrainian made 33 appearances for the UAE team, in which the winger scored 12 goals and provided 6 assists.

Recall that Yarmolenko has already played for Dynamo from 2006 to 2017. During this time, the winger managed to play 341 matches for the Kyivans in all competitions, in which he scored 137 goals.

Dynamo took fourth place in the standings of the Ukrainian championship and will play in the Conference League qualification. In the first round of the new championship of Ukraine, the people of Kiev will meet Minai.