Millions of fans argue about contribution of each of them into historical victories of the club and national team. Still recent opinion polls prove that today #1 is twelvefold Ukrainian Premier League winner, eightfold Ukrainian Cup triumphant and threefold Ukrainian Super Cup holder Olexandr Shovkovskyi.
His parents Olha Korniivna and Volodymyr Stanislavovych have told how their son has reached success.
- Olha Korniivna, you’ve mentioned that you don’t watch matches with the participation of your son…
- I haven’t watched them since my son had his collarbone broken… Sasha’s injuries have a negative impact on my health. Still even when I don’t look at the screen I feel that Sasha will concede about thirty seconds before that happens!..
- Millions of kids play ball… That doesn’t mean that all of them become professionals.
- First of all it was important for me that he had some occupation when a kid. We always respected Sasha’s opinion, so when he came home and told that he joined football team I just asked him to study well at school…
When he was in the third form several boys, including him, were invited to trial at Dynamo school. Soon he started training there!
Once teacher asked children to write a composition about their favourite toy. Sasha wrote about his ball. He actually took it to the bed when a kid.
- Did Olexandr’s first coach Olexandr Chubarov realize that your son could become a famous goalkeeper?..
- No, at first Sasha played as forward and scored a lot. Only when Anatoliy Kroshchenko took charge of the group he became a goalkeeper.
Once our team participated in some tournament and coach told me “Today great goalkeeper will come up or die!”… There was a big puddle in front of our goal. When it was necessary Olexandr jumped into it and grabbed the ball. “Great keeper has come up!” – said Kroshchenko.
Volodymyr Stanislavovych Shovkovskyi
- What’s your attitude to football?
- I played football since childhood. By the way I also was a goalkeeper.
- When did you realize that Sasha would become a good goalkeeper?
- I guess when I saw an article in Soviet Sport magazine. There was Olexandr’s photo. “Memorize these names” was written below.
- When did you understand that your son is a great master?
- Today I can just say that he’s achieved a lot and I’m proud of that. Still it was a really difficult way for him!.. That’s why we just want him to be healthy.
