Once again, the coach emphasizes that he was not working with the team he expected to see
Former coach of the Ukrainian youth team Ruslan Rotan commented on the performance of the Olympic team at the 2024 Games in Paris.
“You all know what happened and what didn’t work out. I think the question needs to be asked about why the team isn’t going with its best lineup.”
“I don’t want to say that the footballers who played at the Olympics are weaker. But the team that reached the semi-finals of the Euro got this ticket, and I think that they should have been given a chance to show themselves at the Olympics, like the Spanish did. We need to think about the country’s image at this time.”
“Yes, I didn’t do the job. The coach will always be to blame, and I accept that. Did they help me with that? I don’t know.”
“If they had told us right away that they wouldn’t let the players go, we would have done everything differently. We would have made the roster that would be at the Olympics, plus or minus, back in March and would have prepared. But we were counting on something, thinking, but it didn’t work out.”
The blue-yellows were left without many strong players at the 2024 Olympics: Yegor Yarmolyuk, Mykhailo Mudryk, Ilya Zabarnyi, Ivan Zhelizko, Anatoliy Trubin. At the same time, Shakhtar was represented in the final application by the most – five players, of which only Dmytro Kryskiv and Daniil Sikan can be called close to the main team. Rukh was represented at the Olympics by three footballers – Oleksiy Sych, Oleg Fedor and Igor Krasnopir.
The Ukrainian youth team, led by Rotan, reached the semi-finals of the 2023 European Championship, which allowed them to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games football tournament for the first time in history. At the Olympic Games, the Ukrainian Olympic team failed to advance from the group (defeats to Iraq and Argentina, as well as a victory over Morocco).
In total, under Rotan’s leadership, the Ukrainian youth team played 47 matches. The Ukrainian Olympic team played another 11 matches under the coach’s leadership. In August, the UAF ceased cooperation with Rotan’s coaching staff.
15 footballers who debuted in the youth team of Ukraine under Ruslan Rotan already have experience of playing for the national team of Ukraine. 9 of these players were in the application of the yellow-blues for Euro 2024.
During Rotan’s time with the Ukrainian youth team, his coaching staff included the following specialists: Vasily Kardash, Alexander Melashchenko, Vitaliy Reva, Sergey Kravchenko, Alexey Chistyakov, Evgeny Baryshnikov and Evgeny Gres.
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.
