As a sign of solidarity with Ukraine, Poland’s star striker Robert Lewandowski wants to wear a blue and yellow captain’s armband at the World Cup.
The former Bayern professional was presented with the armband by Ukrainian football icon Andriy Shevchenko at a meeting in the National Stadium in Warsaw.
“Thank you Andriy. It was a pleasure to meet you! It will be an honor for me to wear this captain’s armband in the national colors of Ukraine at the World Cup,” the FC Barcelona professional wrote on Instagram, posting a picture of himself and Shevchenko. Poland will play Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Mexico in Group C at the World Cup in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December. The Ukrainians failed to qualify.
Lewandowski had previously expressed his full support for Ukraine, which has been fighting a Russian war of aggression since February 24. The top scorer and his Polish national team colleagues had publicly stated that they did not want to play against Russia in the playoffs for the World Cup on March 24th as scheduled.
“We can’t pretend that nothing happened,” Lewandowski said at the time. A short time later, the Russian national team was excluded from all international competitions organized by the world association FIFA.