• Since we were able to establish informally, Cezary Kulesza is considering offering Andrij Shevchenko a job as coach of the national team
  • The obstacle to hiring Shevchenko should not be finances, but the fact that she is bound by a contract with a club from the Italian league.
  • In the past, the legendary striker had the opportunity to collaborate with the Poles, but after the end of his football career
  • More such stories can be found on the homepage of Onet.pl

Hand in hand with the Poles

At first glance, the idea seems unrealistic, but according to our information, the head of Polish football does not want to give it up so easily. If there was an actual opportunity to engage such a coach, Kuleza, who speaks Russian as well, would be willing to wait even longer, betting someone else in the playoff in March for promotion to the World Cup. On the other hand, the possibility of Piyao Chervonich performing in Moscow under a Ukrainian coach excites the imagination. FIFA and UEFA are known to carefully avoid – due to the tense political situation and the annexation of Crimea – the Ukrainians vying with Russia. Of course, this will not apply to the coach leading the Poles in the Luzhniki match, but thanks to him the temperature of the match will rise significantly.

Once, Shevchenko collaborated with the Poles, seeking from us to give our country the right to host Euro 2012. In April 2007, he was in Cardiff, when the fate of the Slavic candidacy was at stake, and celebrated success with Poland. The last match of his career was played in the 2012 European Championship. As a footballer he is the top scorer of the Ukrainian national team, he has won as many as 16 titles for the club, including winning the Champions League in 2003.

Conqueror of Portugal

He did not achieve this success as a coach, but he made a good reputation for himself. Already in November 2012, he was offered to represent Ukraine. Then he refused. He also tried his hand at politics, ran in the parliamentary elections on behalf of the center-left party Forward – Ukraine, but this did not join the Verkhovna Rada. He did not appear at the Ukrainian team headquarters until February 2016, but as assistant manager of the Mykhailo Fomenka team. He performed this role for four months, including during the unsuccessful European Championships by the Ukrainians. In France, our eastern neighbors lost all matches, including the Polish national team (0:1).

It was Shevchenko who did well, because Fomenko lost his job, and was replaced by the best football player in the history of Ukraine. The beginnings weren’t easy. His team did not qualify for the World Cup, because they were ahead of Iceland and Croatia in the group. However, in his country Szewo has such a position that he held the position and – as it turned out – it was worth trusting him, because the team under his leadership first advanced to the A-class in the Nations League, and then in a remarkable period. A style that won promotion to Euro 2020. In the qualifying rounds they beat Portugal and Serbia, beating Cristiano Ronaldo 2-1 at home and crushing the Balkans 5-0. You did not fail the entire qualification.

Student from Łobanowski

Shevchenko used the workshop of his great coaches – Valery Chubanovsky at Dynama Kiev, Alberto Zaccheroni and Carlo Ancelotti at Milan, as well as Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. Łobanowski taught me that even the details are important in football. I listened to him with my mouth open, picking up every word – he said in an interview with The Guardian.

He also benefited greatly from the Italians. My priorities are compactness, a balance between attack and defense, and playing short and medium passes. We want the ball, but sometimes you have to defend yourself, the most important thing is to make quick strokes – he explained.

He surrounded himself with specialists from Italy. His assistant was Mauro Tassotti, Antonio Maldera was responsible for analyzing the video, but he was also helped by the Spaniard Pedro Luis Jarro and his colleague – goalkeeper coach Oleksandr Zovskovsky.

Russian-speaking Ukrainian

His adventure with Chelsea was not successful, but he loved London so much that he stayed there after the end of his career and still lives there – with his wife, American model Kristen Pazik and four sons. He’s still a fan of The Blues, too.

To lead our team, he may not have moved to Poland permanently. When he was director of Ukraine, he was daily in the capital of Great Britain, but he was in the country regularly.

Interestingly, although he never hid his connection to Ukraine, he does not speak his native language very well, and being in his homeland, he uses mainly Russian. He also knows Italian and English well, so he can speak freely with almost any of our representatives.

Money is not everything

Financial conditions should not be a big obstacle to the appointment of President Kulesza to the famous Szewa, but the fact that the Ukrainian has been the coach of Genoa since November (he has already taken the 18th place and the position of the team has not changed so far). So Shevchenko had to deal with the Italian club in the same way that Paulo Sousa dealt with the national team. However, the difference is very important. While Flamengo completely ignored the Portuguese employer, asking himself to terminate the contract, the Polish Football Association could conduct secret negotiations with Italy over the purchase of the coach. Or maybe you wait patiently until the end of the season for example, and then get back to the conversations.