Serhii Bolbat: The second call to the national team and the debut were notable for me

30.04.2020 18:31

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Another guest of #GOnline project on UAF's Instagram page became Shakhtar Donetsk and Ukraine defender Serhii Bolbat.

- Sergey, tell us about your game numbers.

- I play under the 50th number all the time. I did not choose him myself, it happened by accident, and then I got used to it. In the 50th he got to Shakhtar's first team and decided to play with him further. Only when he was at Metalist did he take the seventh, because the 50th was at Zhaja Coelho.

- How did you retrain from an attacking player to a defender?

- They decided to try me in defense, and it worked. It was initiated by Paulo Fonseca. They started to trust me, the coaches told me a lot about how to act in this position, I learned a lot. In general, during his career he managed to play in all positions except goalkeeping. In Shakhtar's second team, in one of the matches, he even once played as a striker for about 30 minutes.

- Who is the toughest coach in your career for you?

- Mircea Lucescu. He could keep everyone in shape, was a strict mentor. But on the case. He has a training process - as a service in the army. Even after the weekend I gave such hard trainings that I didn't want this weekend.

- Who is the best motivating coach?

"Paulo Fonseca." There were many theories, attitudes, it is difficult not to repeat. But sometimes he found very important words to give impetus to the team. I would also like to mention Andriy Shevchenko as a good motivating coach.

- How would you rate your business trip to Belgium?

- As a person, Belgium changed me. It was a difficult two years because I was a pioneer. Then others went there - Malinovsky, Totovytsky, Bezus ... It was difficult in the sense that there was no one to consult. The team worked differently, there is a different training process.

- What match in your career would you like to play?

- When he played for Metalurh Donetsk, we lost to Dynamo Kyiv 1: 9. We had a withdrawal at the beginning of the match, and then we showered.

- What emotions did you feel when you first received an invitation to the national team?

- It was during the time of Mykhailo Fomenko, six years ago. I was also invited by a couple of young guys to a friendly match. But I remember more the second call to the national team and the debut on May 22, 2014 with Niger (2: 1) - Note.). Then he felt that he deserved this challenge.

- Did you miss the national team?

- Of course. We haven't seen each other for a long time. I think we will come and sing songs with joy (laughs).