Yuri Wernydub won with Tiraspol at Real Madrid. When the war broke out, the Ukrainian volunteered for service in the army. Now he is also training a newcomer.
A 0-0 first-leg draw at NK Maribor gives Sheriff Tiraspol hope of progressing through the second qualifying round of the 2022/23 Champions League. If the second leg were successful, two more rounds would have to be completed in order to be back on the big stages of European football.
That was successful last season. There was even something to celebrate several times. Historically, the 2-1 win at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu will remain for Real Madrid, eventual winners of the competition. The photos of the dismayed Real coach Carlo Ancelotti went around the world. A few meters next to him lay colleague Yuri Wernydub in his players’ arms, the coach of Tiraspol from the autonomous region of Transnistria, which belongs to Moldova.
Wernydub is now the coach of a promoted team in the first Ukrainian league, the Premjer-Liha. That has absolutely nothing to do with sporting aspects, but exclusively with the war, with Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Beginning of war in the morning, Europa League in the evening
His son called him early in the morning on February 24, 2022 and reported on the invasion, Wernydub wrote in a report for the BBC in March. He was in Portugal at the time, playing with Tiraspol against SC Braga in the Europa League in the evening.
He immediately made the decision to quit the job, return home and take up arms. Almost since the beginning of the war, 56-year-old Wernydub has been fighting for his country, Ukraine, against the now hated Russians.
“There will only be peace if we win“
All he could think of was defeating the aggressor. “There will only be peace if we win“, Wernydub wrote in March. About “my life“, the “the football” be, it says: “I hope this war will not last too long. I’m sure I’ll be back as a coach and win trophies.“
An end to the war is not in sight. Yuri Wernydub continues to fight, and he’s back to work – part-time. FC Kryvbas from the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine signed him. The club rose to second place in the 2nd division and is currently preparing for the season in the top division.
The club’s women’s team visited Germany in the spring, was supported by 1. FC Köln and met Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the aid organization “Blau-Gelbes Kreuz”.
Symbolic start of the Premjer-Liha
The Premjer-Liha is scheduled to start on Tuesday (08/23/2022), symbolically on the eve of the Ukrainian Independence Day. League football in times of war with thousands dead, wounded, homeless? How does the population feel about this, the sports show asked the journalists andrew Todos who is from London on his blog “Zorya Londonsk” and reported about football in Ukraine via social networks. “On the one hand it was a shock, on the other hand there is understanding. The Ukrainians want to get on with their lives as best they can.”, so Todos. On February 28, he also distributed the photo of Wernydub (middle) and two comrades who were ready for the war via his account.
Jurij Wernydub, who played seven second-division games for Chemnitzer FC in the 1993/94 season, is going to the third preparatory training camp with his new club FC Kryvbas at the end of July.
“In western Ukraine” says the location of the training camp on the club’s website, which when called up shows the circumstances under which Wernydub prepares his team for the season. With a photo of soldiers raising their guns, the football club calls for the Kryvyi Rih armed forces and military police.