He had arrived at training in tears at the end of February, at the start of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army.
The Ukrainian midfielder of the Girondins de Bordeaux (Ligue 1) Danylo Ignatenko, joined by part of his family in recent days, with the help of the club, appeared this Friday relieved at a press conference.
đź“˝ Danylo Ignatenko: "The players came to support me and I thank them".
💙🤍 #PSGFCGB pic.twitter.com/if3gJj2f40
— FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) March 11, 2022
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He thanked the club and its president, “who did everything for [his] family to come.
“But I'm worried about everyone who stayed in Ukraine, he explained, because not all my family came.
There is still my father who stayed there, my grandmother and other members of my family,” said the native of Zaparojie, where fighting is taking place between Ukrainians and Russians.
He thought about taking up arms
Danylo Ignatenko admitted "having thought" to take up arms to defend his country against the Russian invasion.
“Of course I thought about it.
If I knew for a fact that I could help my country, I would have done it, but unfortunately I know that this situation will last and the best I can do is to continue playing, ”said the player on loan this winter by Shakhtar Donetsk.
Asked about Ukrainian athletes who have put their careers on hold to take up arms, he replied: “I didn't have the idea of ​​breaking my contract with the Girondins.
Anyway, nobody thought that this conflict would last so long when it broke out”.
“I focus on the game”
“I know all the cities [bombardées], he continues, I have friends there, it really hurts me to see these people who die, these children who die and the conflict that lasts.
I admit that I try not to think about that, I don't want to think about that.
The only thing I want to do is to pray for all those who remained there”.
Ignatenko “tries not to watch the news.
I focus on the game, on the football”.
The midfielder will celebrate his 25th birthday on Sunday, during the match against Paris-SG: “It would be the best gift anyone could give me to play against this club”.
And to score at the Parc des Princes?
“Sometimes yes I admit that I have this dream.
My family told me that if I score a goal on Sunday, they will come out and run from Bordeaux to Paris shouting “he scored the goal, he scored the goal”.
Sport
War in Ukraine: The family of Danylo Ignatenko, player of the Girondins, on their way to France
Sport
War in Ukraine: Messages of support for Danylo Ignatenko during the Clermont-Bordeaux match
Sport
Aquitaine
Bordeaux
War in Ukraine
Girondins of Bordeaux
Soccer
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