Mentor Gornyakov explained why he decided to release five of his players to the 2024 Olympic Games in the midst of pre-season training
Head coach Shakhtar Marino Pusic spoke about plans for pre-season training, his players’ participation in the Olympic Games and upcoming transfer news.
“I expect the collections to return on July 7th. After that, we will conduct tests and start pre-season with them personally. For them it will only last four weeks as the season and competitions begin. But they will also have time to practice, because this season we will have many difficult games, including European Cup ones. It is important that they come back as fresh as possible, and most importantly that they approach each game with desire and enthusiasm.”
“If we look at the situation as a whole, the Ukrainian national team will take part in the Olympics for the first time in history. And we see what is happening around this situation, so it was important for us to approach this issue with maximum loyalty and understanding. As I said, for me as a coach this is not very good, because I want to attract as many players as possible, but I understand that this is also part of football, and this is very important now for Ukraine. Therefore, I wish the Ukrainian national team the most productive performances at these Olympic Games, so that the players can represent the country as best as possible. This is very important for the country.”
“We always want to improve. Transfers are also part of our work, and we are busy with that now. We expect that maybe in a week there will be some good news.”
On June 24, Shakhtar returned from vacation and began preparations for the 2024/25 season. The Pitmen are holding their first summer training camp at the training base of the Slovenian national team in the city of Brdo. The coaching staff and football players who are not involved in their national teams arrived for classes.
In the first Slovenian match, Pusic’s team won a big victory over Saravevo (4:1) with goals from Daniil Sikan, Dmitry Kryskiv, Lassina Traore and Eguinaldo.
Yesterday, information appeared that Shakhtar is ready to release five players to the Olympic team: in addition to Sikan, the list includes goalkeeper Kirill Fesyun, midfielders Kirill Sigeyev, Dmitry Kryskiv and Oleg Ocheretko.
At the same time, the UAF has already received letters from a number of foreign clubs refusing to let the Ukrainians go to the tournament. The Olympic team will be left without Yegor Yarmolyuk, Mykhailo Mudryk, Ilya Zabarnyi and Ivan Zhelizko. Also, Benfica goalkeeper Anatoly Trubin announced that he will not go to the Olympics.
Earlier, the head coach of the Ukrainian Olympic team, Ruslan Rotan, said that he does not see much desire on the part of most clubs to help his team and release their players to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games.
In the second half of the summer of 2024, Ukraine will take part in the Olympic football tournament for the first time in its history. Rotan’s team won a ticket to Paris last year, reaching the semi-finals of the European Youth Championship.
The Ukrainian national team will play at the 2024 Olympics with Argentina, Morocco and Iraq. In the first round, Rotan’s team will meet the Asian team on July 24.
The 2024/25 UPL will start in early August, with the base date for the first round being 03.08.2024.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
