Appointed to head coach in August 2018, Serhiy Rebrov led the team to three champion's titles, and the group stage of the Europa League in 2019-2020 and of the Champions' League in 2020-2021.Continue reading
Serhiy Rebrov, who won three championships with the Ferencvárosi Torna Club as coach, is taking up arms to defend his country, sports daily Nemzeti Sport reports.
The coach of Al-Ain (UAE Premier League) will return to Ukraine at the end of the season, he told the Irish Independent.
We are not even thinking about football now, we are thinking about protecting our country. I am very proud of the people, the soldiers who are trying to save our country. We are on the right side, but we have to fight for our freedom,”
he told the paper.
There are two more games left for Rebrov’s team in the season. “I have a job here but as soon as my season is over, I will be back home, with my people. As soon as I can, I will go,” he said.
The former world class footballer also said he does not believe there will be any compromise in the Ukrainian-Russian situation “as there is no compromise with Putin.”
Rebrov was born in 1974, in the city of Horlivka in what was then the Soviet Union, later part of an independent Ukraine from 1991, but which was taken by Russian-backed forces and claimed for the so-called DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) in 2014.
“Trouble started there in 2014 and now there’s nothing there, it’s the territory of the DNR. But we are fighting not just for places like Horlivka but for all of Ukraine. Russians took it in 2014 and we are still waiting, it’s under DNR control for eight years,” Rebrov told the Independent.
“My parents are now in Kyiv but I could not go back to see my grandparents’ home, not for a long time,” added Rebrov, who managed Ferencváros between 2018 and 2021, and also said that “Of course I will take a gun in my hand.”
Rebrov had previously spoken about his disapproval regarding the war, saying “Russia, what are you doing? Shame on you!”
Featured image via Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI
