Kyiv (dpa) – After waiting for days in a hotel in Kyiv, the Italian football coach Roberto De Zerbi left Ukraine and returned to his home country.
Italy’s FIGC said the 42-year-old and other members of his coaching staff had arrived by plane from Hungary. “We all longed for this news, it fills us with joy,” said the Italian association president Gabriele Gravina. “L’Équipe” had previously reported on De Zerbis’ departure.
After the “complex operation”, the Italians praised above all the European Football Union and Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin, “who in these hours worked unconditionally to ensure that the members of the international football family get to safety in this dangerous war situation”, as it was called.
De Zerbi was last stuck with the team in a hotel in Kyiv. He reported that they were woken up at night by the noise of the bombs. Embassies and authorities had tried to get the foreign coaches and players out of the country.
A group of Brazilian players and coaches with families active in Ukraine left Kyiv for Romania on Saturday; They arrived in Bucharest 36 hours later, as physiotherapist Luciano Rosa announced on Instagram.
De Zerbi waited in the Ukrainian capital until all his players had opportunities to leave the country, wrote Sky reporter Gianluca Di Marzio. “The last to leave Kyiv,” said De Zerbi on Monday night on Instagram.