Artem Chobanian

Miron Markevich was born near one of the most beautiful cities in Ukraine — Lviv — in 1951. He started his career as a footballer at local side Karpaty Lviv in 1970 as a full-back. Markevich went on to play for several more clubs in his career including SKA Lviv, Spartak Ordzhonikidze and Torpedo Luzk. He was always a popular figure in the dressing room of every team for his composure, work-rate and honesty. After a minor injury, Miron Markevich decided to end his playing career and enter the Lviv Institute of Physical Education.

After graduating successfully he then moved on to The Higher School for Coaches and completed his coaching studies here in 1983. Immediately he was offered the position of head coach at former club Torpedo Luzk, where he spent eight years before moving back to the club where his career began, Karpaty Lviv, in 1992. He became very famous throughout western Ukraine for his ability to unite the team, to establish discipline and create a friendly atmosphere at the club. Markevich still holds the record as the coach who has spent the most matches in the Ukrainian League, and that is 327 games (July, 2007).

At Karpaty these were the years of the collapse of the Soviet Union and there was almost no financing for clubs, no salaries, no equipment or even training kit. The teams throughout Ukraine were, just about, surviving, and players even were playing for food and clothes. During those terrible years, Markevich managed to get to the Cup Final in 1993 with Karpaty and showed everyone how ambitious a manager he was, no matter the circumstances. Later, in 1999, he reached the Cup Final with his team again. However, Markevich and his club reached their peak by finishing in third place in the Ukrainian championship. Overall, he spent nine years at Karpaty, made it a strong and respected team in the Ukrainian League, found sponsors and restored the training base. Miron Markevich was not just a coach, he was a real manager of the club.

In the late 90’s, he moved from one club to another stopping even at Anji Makhachkala in Russia. Although he had no success here, his outlook on coaching underwent a change. “I thought I was no longer capable of training a group of people… But it turned out there were some clubs that needed me. Thus, I began a new life in a new environment…”

To make the picture clear, we have to look at the facts behind Miron Markevich’s words. After his success with Karpaty the bosses of the club became envious of his popularity amongst the players and fans, and fired him right at the beginning of the next season. Markevich and the players were shocked. They refused to believe it. The players were threatened with having their contracts terminated as well, Markevich was told to forget the way to Karpaty’s stadium and then another life changing event occurred.
 

One evening Miron Markevich was at home. Luckily, he was alone. There was a buzz at the door, Markevich opened it and a group of bandits attacked him. He was fighting against them as much as he could but they hit him with a hammer on the spine and tortured him for five hours trying to learn where his millions were hidden. “People then, and even now, think coaches in Ukraine made millions of dollars. That was, and is, not true. We had just enough to live properly, but nothing more!” said Markevich in his first interview after the accident.

The bandits searched all over the house and found only $8,000. That made them mad. They began to threaten Markevich telling him they knew where his wife and children were at that moment and describing in details what they would do to them if he did not get them $1M! Then, after three hours of beating Markevich, they promised to let him go for $500,000. Markevich did not even have 500,000 in the Ukrainian currency, let alone in dollars, so he told them to take everything they wanted and just go. When it was getting brighter in the morning, the bandits took all they could and left. Markevich was found later by his neighbours.

Luckily, he was not injured too badly. The Militia later found the bandits. They even learnt who ordered the assault, and that was one of the executives of his old club Karpaty Lviv! Markevich was too weak to challenge these people, so he let it go. Nobody from Karpaty helped him to recover, just some of his former players. He had no money to live, no job. His wife was selling books at the market place to survive. Markevich says he is grateful to the leader of the bandits, who did not want to kill him. When they were leaving that man said, “Here, take the knife and untie yourself when we leave”. The bandits apologised to him court when they were tried and Markevich said he realised he had a second chance at life, but was not sure where life would lead him.

Soon after the accident, Miron Markevich was invited to Metalist Kharkiv. Almost no-one amongst the fans of the club knew anything about him, nor about the horror he had just endured. But after several unsuccessful attempts to build a strong team, the new owners of Metalist agreed that Markevich as the best candidate for the position. Miron Markevich appeared at Metalist with a simple brief: Change the team dramatically and show you can challenge the mighty Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the race for the title. 

The first thing Markevich did was to regroup the team. Before Markevich the players did not know the correct positions for themselves on the pitch in all tactical situations. He bought Alexander Rykun, who would go on to become a core player for Metalist, Zeze, Obradovich, Slusar, Papa Guye, Marco Devich, Edmar and other players who changed the team completely. “One day we went to the stadium and saw a new group of players who knew how to pass, to tackle and to score goals” said one prominent supporter. Luckily, almost all of the players bought adapted very well and the discipline imposed by Markevich to make them perform was very strict.

Oleksander Rykun was a star at that time, a player from the national team, and he was a typical prima-donna who felt the club should revolve around him, but Markevich knew to handle this kind of situation. He put Rykun in the Metalist reserve team and said, “You are a star, you can play the game by yourself. Do it here”.

Meanwhile, the main team were doing great without Rykun and notching up successive victories. It was not long before Rykun begged to come back. Rykun has become more of a team player now and Metalist are lucky to have him, he is a very good playmaker.

Markevich has also divided the team into two halves, with Goryainov as the captain guarding the first half and Rykun taking care of the second one. This works nicely, especially with Markevich’s habit of placing Rykun, Devich and Edmar in different positions on the pitch.

Markevich has managed to build up a strong and ambitious team, which plays for victory in every match. This season Metalist have had 11 wins in a row and in all these games, the players were continually striving to do even better. Unfortunately, this season also proves that Metalist cannot yet win against the top clubs, which would delight their fans and bring the confidence they really need to challenge for trophies. However, Markevich says, “The plans of the club are to get to the UEFA Cup or end the season in fourth place. We are not sure if we will participate in the Intertoto Cup. We are not strong enough to have such a long season, but all this will be discussed with the players and the management of the club”.

Last season Metalist gained very good experience in the UEFA Cup. The team played Everton and felt they should have defeated them. Markevich said then he was proud to be the coach of these footballers. They may not have been lucky enough to win, but it was obvious that Metalist, as a team, were ready to play in the UEFA Cup.

The club has become even more ambitious since the UEFA Cup journey. Metalist’s president is exploring all avenues to bring more investment into the club and to finish a much awaited new stadium.

During his time at Metalist, Markevich has also spent several weeks gaining experience from the likes of Christoph Daum and Fabio Capello. Markevich has shown he is eager to learn from some of the best managers in the world. Although Daum cannot be put in the same bracket as Capello, Markevich stated he liked his ideas on how to manage players and what tactics to use. They have remained very close and Markevich said in many ways he felt Daum was like a father sharing his knowledge with a son.

When he recalls Capello, Markevich says, “Capello is Capello! He is the best for me. When I observed him working, I could not get rid of the feeling that I did not know anything. I felt like being in Coaching School again! Coaches do not share secrets or tell others how they influence the players psychologically… they just do what they think is suitable for these players and hope they are doing the right thing… “

Metalist, to show their faith in Miron Markevich and the side he is building offered to prolong his contract until 2013! Markevich says he feels he has enough strength and motivation to work on and make Metalist as famous in Europe as Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Champions League had better watch out for Miron Markevich!

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