Berlin (AP) – In view of the war in his home country, former Bundesliga professional Andrei Voronin is not concerned about the World Cup.
“It’s so small compared to everything that’s happening right now. And whether we end up at the World Cup in Qatar or not, nobody cares at the moment,” said the 42-year-old in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Neither do the boys. Everyone’s waiting and hoping this nightmare will pass. Me too. When the time comes, we’ll be able to talk about it.” Ukraine had qualified for the European World Cup playoffs at the end of March.
“At the moment it’s a bit absurd to lose a thought about it, especially since our focus is on completely different things,” said the vice-president of the Ukrainian association, Oleg Protassow (58), in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. The former star player added: “Once the guns are down we will look into this issue.”
The situation is a “disaster. For the whole world,” Voronin said. “Humanity has experienced this before, 80 years ago. During the Second World War, which lasted four years in the USSR. Everyone knows how many people died then. And now there is a war in our country. (…) Me never thought I would have to experience this, let alone my children.”
Voronin was assistant coach of Russian football club Dynamo Moscow until the invasion of Russia, but then left the country. “We flew to Germany with an Aeroflot machine. But it was no longer allowed to land in Düsseldorf. Luckily we were able to switch to Amsterdam. I rented a minibus there and drove to Düsseldorf with my family,” said Voronin, who played for Mainz and Leverkusen in his playing career.