In 2015-2016, Shakhtar Donetsk youth academy graduate Oleksandr Zinchenko had to play for the Russian club Ufa.
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Photo – uaf.ua
As NBN reports with a link to the material “Ukrainian Football”, Serhiy Boretsky, who is the first coach of the Ukrainian national team player and British “Arsenal” Oleksandr Zinchenko, explained what prevented our compatriot from becoming part of the Russian national team.
Based on Boretsky's recollections, Zinchenko communicated with the coach regarding this controversial issue during the above-described period. However, the Ukrainian legionnaire never had any thoughts of ever playing for the Russian national team: Zinchenko assured that he was even ready to leave Ufa on loan, if only he would no longer be pressured and conditions would not be set, forcing him to obtain Russian citizenship.
In particular, according to his first coach, Alexander always clearly stated, judging by everything, to the Russians:
He has only one homeland – Ukraine. I don't want to praise him in any way, I'm just retelling our conversation, because I love the truth.
Earlier, our information portal wrote about how Rebrov commented on the results of the draw for the 2026 World Cup qualifying round.