The men’s team’s 1,000th international game comes on Monday against a nation that is fighting for its freedom
I played six major tournaments from 2004 to 2014: three World Cups and three European Championships. Euro 2012 took place in Poland and Ukraine. We played the group stage in Kharkiv and Lviv. Ukraine has a great football culture – that was noticeable.
It has also had great footballers. Andriy Shevchenko, Igor Belanov and Oleg Blokhin were Europe’s footballers of the year. Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the legend of the Dynamo Kyiv bench, continues to influence European football; many system coaches refer to him. In 2001, when I was making my way towards the professional team at Bayern Munich, Germany had a difficult task against Ukraine in the World Cup playoffs. Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn had cause to fear for their participation in the tournament because Ukraine were strong opponents.
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