Dmytro Chygrynskiy recently sat down for an interview with Spanish sports paper Sport where he discussed a number of things, including how his season at Barcelona changed him as a player while also revealing how his transfer to Shakhtar came about.
Ukrainian international defender and ’new’ signing for Shakhtar Donetsk Dmytro Chygrynskiy (23) is determined to prove the world and especially new Barcelona president Sandro Rosell that letting him go was a huge mistake.
Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu confirmed last night that FC Barcelona defender and Ukranian international Dmytro Chygrynskiy will be part of the Ukrainian team come next season.
FC Barcelona defender and Ukrainian international Dmytro Chigrinskiy (23) reportedly told Ukranian sports site terrikon that he will be returning to hometown club Shakhtar Donetsk, confirming reports emerging from Catalan radio station RAC1 this evening.
According to Catalan radio station RAC1, Barcelona are in advanced negotiations with Shakhtar Donetsk for the transfer of Ukrainian international and Barcelona defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy (23), who could once again become a Shakhtar Donetsk player come next season. Dmytro was brought to Barcelona as an express wish of coach Josep Guardiola, but was unable to transmit his Shakhtar form to the Camp Nou.
Caceres to AC Milan? Options for new midfield players from Diarra to Sissoko to Gerrard? Our ongoing series of reports following stories and outright rumours in the transfer market is back, perhaps with some more credible rumours this edition (or maybe not). As always, please keep in mind that some of these reports are more grounded in reality than others. Tell us which of these rumors seems most [or least] likely to you in the comments.
According to Catalunya Radio, several top European teams are preparing bids for Barcelona defender and Ukrainian international Dmytro Chygrynskiy (23). The young centre-back is reportedly ready to be transferred since his adaptation to La Liga hasn’t gone as planned. Barcelona club president Joan Laporta is claimed to have offered Chygrynskiy to Arsenal as a makeweight in the deal to sign Cesc Fabregas.
Next season is shaping up to be yet another exciting affair, with Barca likely to face a rejuvenated Real Madrid, who under the expected stewardship of Jose Mourinho will be desperate to wrestle the La Liga crown from our heads. Arguably next season will be the toughest faced yet by Pep and the boys, what with the shake-up caused by the incoming new presidential board, as well as all the world’s gaze being set firmly on the ‘Special one’ and his galacticos. So it seems El Mister will have some tough decisions to make.
Toure Yaya and Dmytro Chygrynskiy continued their race to be fit for the weekend encounter with racing Santander as the rest of the squad enjoyed an intense training session on Friday morning.
Josep Guardiola maintained the focus as the players learnt more about their opponents and worked on tactics to prevent a surprise in Camp Nou when the Cantabrian outfit visit on Saturday (8pm). After the first defeat of the league campaign last weekend in Vicente Calderon the Blaugrana are looking to bounce straight back.
Closely watched
FC Barcelona defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy (22) has suffered a tear in the femoral biceps of his left thigh and will be out of action for one week. Chygrynskiy now adds to the already long list of injuries affecting FC Barcelona’s defense.
The defender felt some discomfort in his left thigh during training yesterday. On Wednesday morning, the discomfort persisted. After conducting tests it was confirmed that there was a 1.5 cm tear in the femoral biceps of his left thigh.
Absences in defense
Dmytro Chygrynskiy is confident that he will succeed as an FC Barcelona player, as he continues his adaption to both the city and the club.
The Ukrainian defender was optimistic as he spoke to the press after training on Thursday and was in no doubt that he would rediscover the form that attracted the Blaugrana to him in the summer. “I am happy with how things have been going in training,” he explained. “The last week has gone very well for me. My level and my state of mind have been improving.”
Period of adaption
“I needed more time to adapt than I thought I would, but I knew that it would not be easy for me to play all the time,” Chygrynskiy continued. “Here there is more pressure from the fans and the press and the way of playing is very different to how the game is played in Ukraine. One thing is desire and another is reality. What I have to do now is show what I can do in training.”
“I take those whistles as a challenge, I know I will eventually end up playing at my level and that the fans will applaud it”
FC Barcelona player and Ukranian international Dmytro Chygrynskiy, during an interview with catalan sports paper ‘sport’.
Only seven players from the senior squad took part in a training game on Wednesday along with players from the reserves and the youth team.
Although Wednesday was a day off for the first team, seven players who feature rather less frequently in the starting line-ups took the chance to get in some extra practice together with youngsters from the reserves and the youth team.
First team players
The competition today does not allow even the slightest breath of releif and tonight Pep Guardiola (39) must make a decision in the middle of the field, only hours after announcing that he will renew his contract until June 2011. In the absence of Segio Busquets (21), due to injury and Yaya Toure (26), who is away on international duty, Guardiola will have to invent a new defensive pivot for this match. However, the squad provides amply reliable alternatives to solve the problem against Valladolid.
Due to the African Cup of Nations, Seydou Keita (29) and Yaya Toure were initially supposed to miss atleast a month of club football action, but the results have allowed the return of Keita, ahead of schedule. On the other hand, the Ivorian continues to play in the tournament and is expected to play in tomorrow’s quarter-final against Algeria and his absence will be felt sorely as the only other defensive pivot in the squad, Sergio Busquets suffered a bruising to his left kidney.
In a short interview with Catalunya radio station ‘Cadena Ser’, FC Barcelona and Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy answered a few questions about the recent incident where he was again ostracised by a segment of the Camp Nou crowd during the Copa del Rey match against Sevilla last week.
Asked how he felt, Dima said, “In a very special club like Barcelona, you have to be prepared for everything, good and bad. When they get bad, you have to be positive in the next match.”
On how he copes with the criticisms, the 22-year-old acknowledged, “The team helps me and for me that is important. Xavi told me other players were also whistled at before.”
In his weekly column for Catalan newspaper El Periodico, Dutchman and former Barcelona manager, Johan Cruyff, gave the Camp Nou faithful a piece of advice: Support Chygrynskiy if you want Guardiola to stay.
Dmytro Chygrynskiy’s beginnings in the colours of Barcelona is anything but smooth. The acquisition of the 23-year-old Ukrainian for 25 million euros from Shakhtar Donetsk this summer has not given Pep Guardiola the required defensive potency that he expects of the lanky defender. Struggling to adapt with the team’s tactics, and with the technical abilities of most Spanish Primera Liga opponents, as opposed to most European forward players – who are typically big and tall, Chygrynskiy looked ordinary, in fact amateurish.
“Chygrynskiy is a fantastic player,” said the coach at a press conference yesterday.
Speaking to the press entourage yesterday, FC Barcelona central defender and team captain, Carles Puyol said this Blaugrana team has already made history no matter what happens in the Club World Cup tournament.
“I believe the team has already made history but we always want more, and that is why we are here,” said the ambitious Spanish international. He confessed that the team is not “obsessed” with the only cup missing from the club’s trophy cabinet but insisted they came into the tournament “with a lot of desires and enthusiasm, considering that we already had a chance to win it but failed (2006). We hope it won’t happen again.”
Puyol lamented the long trip that the team’s flight had to take to reach Abu Dhabi, and said they felt physically and mentally worn out after spending unnecessary hours on the plane. Nevertheless, he is confident that the players have enough time to recover before their first match on Wednesday: “We are used to playing a lot of matches with barely enough time to rest and it is not something new for us.”
Speaking to Catalan radio channel RAC 1, Barcelona defender and Ukrainian international Dmytro Chygrynskiy (23) is confident that if Barcelona continues to play with their usual game, they are sure to achieve a decisive victory against Dynamo Kiev in the last group stage game in the Champions League. Chygrynskiy however warned that Dynamo Kiev players are physically strong and well prepared for the match: “Shovkovsky, Shevchenko and Milievski are their best players, but sometimes Dynamo relies too heavily on them. If we play our kind of game we should have no problem.”
Chygrynskiy, a former Shakhtar Donetsk player, noted that the temperature is now higher than expected in Kiev: “Normally during this period the temperature is usually at around -14 °C or -15 °C (5-7 °F), but it may now be between -2 °C and -4 °C (25-29 °F). It is not that cold,” he said jokingly.
Catalan sports paper Sport today reports that Ukrainian and Barcelona central defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy, will possibly be benched again in Ukraine’s home-leg play-off match against Greece this Wednesday because of a slight strain in his patella tendon (ligament that joins the kneecap to the shin bone) and will undergo tests to determine its extent.
Catalan sports paper Sport today notes the debate surrounding Barcelona defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy’s performances in the few matches that he has played in. Under the microscope ever since his arrival two months ago, the criticism came to a head when he was whistled by a segment of the Camp Nou crowd on Saturday night, when he was adjudged to be slow in responding to Mallorca’s offensive moves.
Costing Barcelona 25 million euros, he arrived at the club at the behest of Pep Guardiola who sees him as a player who can start an offensive move from behind, and his height as the answer to the team’s weakness in defending against corners and high balls. Guardiola was captivated by him from the moment he began watching videos of Shakhtar Donetsk in preparation for their Champions League matches last year.
The first to speak was Carles Puyol, and El Capitan could not hide his satisfaction: “because it was an important victory against a tough opponent that closed up (defensively) really well”.
Playing in place of Daniel Alves at right back, Puyol welcomed the rotations because “(even though) we leave out several of the best players in the world (on the bench), it just shows that the team is good”.
Finally, Puyol said he is pleased with the result because “we have to focus on adding three points every week to ensure that we still lead (the table) at the end of the season, which is imperative”. Continue reading »
Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo reports that Barcelona defender and Ukrainian international Dmytro Chygrynskiy (22) has recovered from his injury well and is available in the next league match against Real Zaragoza. He suffered a strained patellar ligament during the match against Malaga in September 26.
The most likely return of Chygrynskiy would be good news for Barcelona head coach Josep Guardiola, since Barcelona right back Dani Alves has just suffered a injury himself. The most obvious back-up for Alves would be Carles Puyol, and that would leave Chygrynskiy, Marquez and Pique for the central defender position. Other options, like placing Abidal or Toure in the central defender position, seem unlikely and would only be implemented if there are any new setbacks.
Football players and coaches who move to a foreign land to pursue their careers usually find themselves temporarily housed in hotels until such time that suitable accomodations could be found for them. In Spanish football lore, one notable exception would be Deportivo La Coruna’s Jabo Irureta, then coach of the all-Basque team, who once stayed at the Hotel Pita for no less than seven years. Barcelona’s foreign players seem to follow the more traditional path, but months after completing their move to Spain, however, two of the Barcelona’s summer signings continue to reside at the Hotel Sofia, a luxury hotel in the Catalan capital.
Pep Guardiola’s depleted Barcelona team returns to training this afternoon, with the novelty of the inclusion of Carles Puyol, Rafael Marquez and possibly Xavi Hernandez. The three players left their national teams for various reasons and will arriving be at the Ciutat Esportiva this afternoon.
One question that worries the coach the most is Xavi’s condition. The Barcelona midfield maestro had been affected by physical discomfort while playing for Spain, and was given permission from the national team doctors the choice to return to Barcelona after generating fluid in his right knee, and is now doubtful for Saturday’s match against Valencia. The player will be reviewed by the club’s medical services, to establish the extent of his discomfort and his ability to be ready for the forthcoming league match. Similarly, the discomfort felt by Andres Iniesta, who took a big hit around the area from his latest injury, have also set off alarms at the club who has asked the national team to exercise extreme caution with the midfielder.
Meanwhile, after receiving another yellow against Armenia, Puyol will miss the match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday due to an accumulation of cards. The Blaugrana captain will take part in the training along with the rest of the available players who had already exercised at the Sant Joan Despi since last week.
Catalan sports paper yesterday carried an interview it had with FC Barcelona newest member, centre-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy, reporting how this player is the perfect ‘anti-star’, a regular guy living in a world so different from one that is usually associated with many players of his level. The interview goes as such;
How do you spend your life in Barcelona? Do you live alone? Where?
No, I’m with my brother Vikhtor. He spends years working in Thailand, and every summer, would be back in Ukraine, to be with our family for one or two months, but this year he came home early in May, because I had very important matches like the finals of the UEFA Cup. Later, he worked in the negotiations with Barca and now, he is attracted to know a new country. Moreover, he believes it is important for him to be with me and he will remain in Barcelona.
Will your parents move here or stay in Ukraine?
They live in Iziaslav (the town where he was born) and want to visit, but I still have not found an apartment and continue to stay in the hotel. When I find one, my parents can come and spend some time, but they will still live in Ukraine. I would like to find a quiet place near the Ciutat Esportiva.
Spanish newspaper Sport reported today about the final preparation made by the team coaching staff in today’s morning training session, in preparation for tonight’s match against Almeria.
The session, as was usually the case before a home match, is held at the Camp Nou. Thierry Henry, though still not certified fit joined in the session. Barcelona Atletic attacker Gai Assulin, who had trained with the first team all week, though was not present. Defenders Gabriel Milito and Dmytro Chygrynskiy, both injured, were the other absentees. The training session (as always on match day) is to refine finishing touches and polishing the team’s game plan.
After the training session the players have lunch together at the facility before retiring back to their respective families until two hours before the match when they congregate once more at the Camp Nou. That is the moment when Guardiola will make his final list of the players who will make the first eleven.
Former Shaktar Donetsk player Chygrynskiy have faced Dynamo Kiev on several occasions, today he told Barcelona’s website fcbarcelona.com that he is confident that Barca will win against Dynamo. He will not participate tommorrow due to an injury, still he woulden’t be able to join since he played for Shaktar Donetsk in the qualification.
At the moment Dynamo is on top in the group after a victory against Rubin Kazan. Chrygrynskiy gave his opinion on Dynamo:
Catalan sports paper Sport reports that Chygrynskiy will be fit for training within three weeks. While the rest of Barcelona’s squad had a warm down session this morning, Chygrynskiy and Henry underwent tests to determine the extent of their injuries. Both picked up an injury during the match against Malaga yesterday, with goal scorers Pique and Ibrahimovic replacing them.
Chygrynskiy suffers from straining a knee ligament, however as he can not participate in the Champions League, he will most likely only miss the outing against Almeria next weekend. After the Almeria meeting, Barcelona will send their players on international duty.
DMYTRO CHYGRYNSKIY
Position: Defender
Date of birth: 7-11-1986
Place of birth: Iziaslav (Ukraine)
Height: 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight: 85 kg
TEN FACTS ABOUT THE PLAYER:
1 – He was born Dmytro Anatoliyovych Chygrynskiy.
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