We meet Andriy Shevchenko
The former Ballon d’or winner is impressing as Ukraine’s coach and loving life in the dugout
After a very successful playing career, you took your first job in management when you became Ukraine boss in July 2016. How is life as a coach? I’ve already completely killed the player inside me. It took me a few years to do that after finishing my playing career in 2012, but now I can perfectly feel the difference in responsibility that a coach bears, compared to a player. As a coach, you’re a mentor.
What has been the biggest change that you have experienced since moving into coaching, first as Ukraine’s assistant manager and then when you became manager? A player is most often responsible only for himself. The coach is responsible for all, say, 50 people with whom he works. The difference in the workload is absolutely enormous and you must adjust, mentally in particular, but I am enjoying it. I was very much looking forward to this work; I was preparing for it over several years. I’m really glad that I lead the Ukrainian national team, the main team in my life.
As Ukraine’s all-time leading goalscorer, and a Ballon d’or winner, you’re a national icon. Has that hero status helped you in this job when it comes to convincing the national team’s fans? Yes, on one hand that does help. However, on the other it only brings even higher expectations, for me personally and also for the team. Players can see that and feel that. You have to bear in mind that there’s a lot of attention on us: the national side is probably more popular in Ukraine than any club, and that motivates us. Every step we take,
“I’VE COMPLETELY KILLED THE PLAYER INSIDE ME – I’M A COACH AND FEEL THE DIFFERENCE IN RESPONSIBILITY”
everything we do on and off the field, is widely discussed in the media. We have practically no space for mistakes. That’s the situation we currently find ourselves in, despite the fact we are performing the difficult task of trying to update the team and switching to a new model of the game, all against the background of several important matches that we have to play, too.
In your career, you played for great coaches. Did you learn from them? Yes, I can say that I’ve had a lot of great mentors in my life. I learned from them during my whole career.
Who in particular influenced you during your playing days? Well, first of all I must mention the great Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who was my coach at Dynamo Kiev. Simply, he taught us how to play the game and made a good team out of us. The main thing I learned from him was his principle that there are no trifles in football – there’s nothing you can ignore as a minute detail. Now, as a manager, I see that really clearly. The second person is Carlo Ancelotti. Only when I went to Italy to join Milan did I truly understand what football tactics were about. The way they worked on the tactical side of the game in Italy was incredible. The level of their work in that area was incomparable to other countries.
You took the job after Ukraine had a poor Euro 2016, losing all three games and not even scoring a goal, but recently the team have made significant progress and you won your Nations League group ahead of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. How have you improved? Over the last year and a half, we’ve updated the squad a lot: about 20 newcomers have made their debuts and – believe me – that’s a very big number. And how many new players have come with us but not played yet? That’s difficult to count. The truth is that the future is always about the young people. However, in football the process of change shouldn’t be too fast. We need a balance, with veterans in our team who can share experiences and perform the role of leader. I can say now we’ve created a team, and I value this squad a lot.
What are your targets now? The task in front of us is really simple and clear: we have to qualify for Euro 2020 and play very successfully there.