Artem Chobanian

 

Oleh Blohin was an exceptional player. His talent was widely recognised and during his career picked up numerous awards from FIFA and within the USSR (Soviet Union). Later, after he finished his playing career he moved, surprisingly, to Greece to begin his coaching career. Since then he has begun to establish a reputation in the dugout as a miracle worker.

In 2004, when Blohin was offered the job of Ukraine national team coach the fans and ordinary supporters started to believe he would help Ukraine to become a real power in Europe. Before Blohin, Ukraine’s national team had never achieved any remarkable results. Even with Shevchenko and Rebrov playing at the peak of their careers, the team still struggled to qualify for international tournaments. But then, along came Blohin.

In his first interview, Blohin shocked journalists from all over the world with these words: “If I can make this team as I see it, then we will get to the World Cup from first place in the group”. That was a bold declaration! The journalists and football executives at the press conference were stunned and a loud noise filled the room. Nobody believed that was possible. Moreover, for many people then that statement was absurd. Immediately, there appeared articles in the papers, announcing that Blohin was too presumptuous and took too much responsibility. But Blohin did not care. He was very busy and had a lot of work to do. He had to achieve the goal that had been the dream of a life-time for Ukraine. Frankly, nobody except Blohin thought our team would get to the World Cup, but we did not know we would have two happy years of wonderful Ukrainian football and many grand victories that would be celebrated late into the night!

When the qualification matches started and the Ukrainian team defeated one rival after another, it was clear Blohin had had grounds to believe that his team would pass the World Cup test successfully. Then, after further victories in the unforgiving homes of Turkey and Greece, Ukraine had so many points that most of the fans began celebrating their team’s success before all the fixtures had been played.

Blohin was very serious at the press conference just a day before his team gained a positive result in the match against Greece in Kyiv. He said he did not allow any fun or relaxation in the camp because no matter how many points you lead by, in football anything can happen. However, the next day Ukraine became the first team in Europe to qualify for the World Cup finals in Germany.

Those were days of happiness and glory for Ukraine and its team. Almost a week after the big event, the local militia was arresting people still celebrating. For Ukraine and the fans the achievement was a triumph! But almost as soon as the celebrating was over the Ukrainian supporters began to think about the finals themselves, and how the team would have to perform to show their presence their had not been a fluke.

Only people who have seen their national team qualify for a major finals for the first time can understand the torture of waiting for the event to begin. Almost all the people in Ukraine were talking about football and the chances of the national team to negotiate the group stage. Blohin was asked the same question. He answered, “We will almost definitely lose to Spain… but if we try to leave that idea behind us, we will as much definitely beat Saudi Arabia and Tunisia… and for our confidence we’d better do it with a lot of goals…”

Oleh Blohin was right again. He forecast the events as if he was a psychic, not a coach. Ukraine qualified from the group stage in second place, perhaps the best the team could hope for. Some might say Ukraine were lucky in the second round— they got Switzerland, but could have got France, which would most definitely result in a ninety per cent chance of defeat.

The team’s performance against Switzerland was very good but ended in a draw and then penalty shoot-out. Blohin was very careful then in choosing the players to take the spot-kicks and calming them down, though his own hands were trembling. When the time came, Blohin could not stand the pressure and left the pitch. He then confessed that standing in the corridors under the stadium he realised that the Swiss supporters outnumbered the Ukrainian ones a hundred to one and he would understand who were more successful by the shouting. Before the shoot-out started, he remembered a film, which he had seen when he had been the coach of Greek side Olympiacos. That was “Chariots of Fire”. He was like that coach, whose name he couldn’t recall, who was lying on a couch waiting for his guy to win in a running contest and almost having a heart attack because of the pressure.

Blohin was exhausted when he heard his team had won and so were the players. They were merry and happy as well as millions of people in Ukraine that had gone through such a stress with every kick of the game.

That was a great success for Ukraine, whose team then had to play Italy which was very hard for such a young team. They lost the match, but returned home like heroes. That year was the year of glory and recognition for Ukraine!

Unfortunately, after that result Blohin and his team had to face up to an even more challenging contest with Italy, France and Scotland as they tried to qualify for Euro 2008. They had some good chances to take second place and with it qualification, but that was just not meant to be. Frankly, they just were not lucky.

However, the major events that influenced their campaign started at the end of 2007. Blohin declared he was leaving the national team. No one knew the reasons then, but in time journalists found out he was offered a position at FK Moskva, a club from the Russian Premier League. But the matter was not that simple. As a professional and a businessman, Blohin decided to accept the offer because the owners of FK Moskva were inclined to pay almost twice the salary Blohin was receiving as the coach of the Ukrainian national team. After his private negotiations with Gregory Surkis, the president of the FFU, he understood that the FFU were not going to raise his salary to even come close to the FK Moskva offer. So, he decided to leave, though that was not the only reason… The football fans were shocked but even their heartfelt appeal via the Ukrainian media did not help. Blohin was surprised everybody at the FFU was offended that he had asked for the raise. And left without saying goodbye…

His departure was so quick and unexpected that the fans could not understand what had happened. Blohin did not give any interviews to the Ukrainian or Russian media. He arrived in Moscow and started training sessions with his new team almost immediately. From the sources close to Blohin the Ukrainians learnt that he had been heartbroken to part with Ukraine, but hoped he would find a new home at FK Moskva and would lead that team to victories.

Unfortunately, Blohin is not so lucky with his new club. FK Moskva picked up only two points in the first matches of the Russian championship. Blohin has not given a single press conference after the beginning of the season, but as he said in one of his flash-interviews, he was lucky to have a team he could build from scratch; he wanted to overcome the challenges they faced and still hoped to finish this year somewhere in the middle of the table…

Of course, the season in Russia has just started and Blohin has lots of time to prove not just his talent, but also his reputation as a lucky manager once again. The fans in Ukraine are still waiting for him to lead Dynamo Kyiv or the national team again, but that’s not going to happen in the near future. No matter how contradictory and complicated a figure Blohin is, he will always be ‘Blohin the Conqueror’ for the Ukrainians!