Maksym Zaderaka: Kryvyi Rih is a second home for me

In the second release FCKK PODCAST on our Youtube - a conversation with Maksym Zaderaka, the leader and captain, already an ex-football player of the red and white team, who left a bright mark in the history of "Kryvbas".

- The championship is on break. Everyone is on vacation. What are you doing?

- I finally got home. It so happened that my wife gave me a son on vacation, in the winter. And I only spent one day with them, when he was born. And the next day I had to go to training camp. That's why I was really looking forward to this vacation to spend time with my baby, daughter and wife. And, in principle, I spend all my time at home now. Two days ago, my daughter's class teacher invited me to school to conduct a football lesson. It was very interesting, emotional.

I liked the fact that the children understand a lot about football. And this surprised me a lot. I gave them a little master class and told them stories from world football. The children know such players as Ronaldo, Messi, but not everyone knows such players who forged the glory of Ukraine: Oleg Blokhin, Igor Belanov, Andriy Shevchenko. Although Shevchenko is still more or less known to the kids.

- You really had four great seasons for Kryvbas. Let's get a little nostalgic, go back to the very beginning, when you signed the contract. How was it?

- It was very interesting, because if you remember all these years that I spent in Kryvbas, it was such an emotional period, there are many cool stories, but, however, not all stories can be told. If you remember how I joined the team, the head coach, then Yuriy Mykolayovych Vernydub, called me and invited me. I agreed and moved to Kryvyi Rih with pleasure. He said that he was interested in my services and wanted to see me on his team. And over these years we have been through a lot. I think you remember what a bad start we had in the championship in the 2022\2023 season.

- Yes, but in the end we took seventh place.

- Yes, but, you know, I remember that we couldn't win the first eight games.

- The next season - already the bronze.

- Yes, it was a cool season, a great team, a great collective was assembled. You know, then the bronze season - then everything worked out. The selection service worked great, there was great competition, there was the right atmosphere in the team. And there was great support from our fans. It was cool, and I think when all these puzzles worked out, we got such a great result.

- In 2022, a full-scale russian invasion began, a war began. As I know, you live in Bucha. Can you tell me how the events unfolded there then?

- Then I played for Metalist 1925. And we flew in on February 22 from training, preparing for the game with Shakhtar in Kharkiv. And somehow on the 23rd we went to dinner. And one of the leaders told the group that we had three days off. I think: wow. At first it was incomprehensible to me: how are these three days off, we have a game in three days. And it turns out that the guys started calling, finding out a little more. And the leaders said that everyone should go home in the evening, and there we would be in touch by phone.

We understood that the news constantly said that the orcs would attack us. And in the evening we just got in the car with the guys. And, by the way, before that one of the leaders said: just don't go to Kyiv. Honestly, I don't know where the leaders got such information from that there would be a full-scale invasion. At that moment I didn't understand what was happening, I just got in the car and thought - I'm going home. And it turns out that I had just left Kharkiv, and one of the football players picked me up there.

He says: "Max, I have information, can you please pick up my wife and child from Kharkiv and transport them to Kyiv?" I asked the guys to turn around. We arrived at his wife and daughter. I honestly remember going to her house. And, you know, like these checkered bags that are always there in the markets, you know, when they were selling. And I just went to her house, and she cleaned up the whole apartment in 15 minutes.

- The invasion hasn't started yet, was it just panic?

- Well, it was more of a panic. Around 3:30 we arrived in Kyiv, and it started: explosions, arrivals, massive rocket attacks. I left them in Kyiv, called a taxi. And went to Bucha. I arrived in Bucha, and there was already such chaos that there were just a bunch of cars in the yard, all the neighbors were running around, loading their cars and going somewhere. I got up and went home, told my wife: "I'm going to rest," because I still couldn't believe that this was happening. I took a couple of hours off. And around 7 in the morning my wife came up to me, said: "Wake up." She opened the curtains, and I live in Bucha, and I'm only two kilometers from the Gostomel airfield...

And right before our eyes, three helicopters were simply shot down. And everything around the house is on fire, shelling. Some kind of horror begins. I had a misunderstanding - well, what to do? What's happening? And you know, at that moment my child got sick, she had a fever. And my wife says: "Can you go to the pharmacy?" And I don't know, everything was working in Bucha then. And Epicenter was working, supermarkets, Silpo - everything was working. I went to the pharmacy, and I see a tank already moving at the end of the street. I think: no. I must have gone home.

We spent the first night in the parking lot. And the next day the news started that you can come to the military registration and enlistment office and get machine guns there, some kind of weapon. And my wife and I went to the military registration and enlistment office in the morning, I ask: do you issue any weapons? They tell me: no, my friend, it's in Kyiv. And after that we came home. And my brother, he was a driver, he worked, and he just got stuck on the Zhytomyr highway. And it so happened that the news had already come out that one of the Gostomelsky bridges had been blown up. To keep the tanks from coming. My brother says, I don’t know how I’m going to get home to Alexandria now.

And I tell my wife: let’s go, let’s go to Kyiv, and then to Alexandria. And we just drove out to the Zhytomyr highway and under shelling, I was really driving, and for me it was the scariest thing, yes, because I didn’t know that a tank would come out of there or something else. And we took my brother, drove only over the bridge on the Zhytomyr highway, and a couple of hours later it was blown up too. So we managed to leave Bucha before the occupation and then spent all the time in Alexandria with our parents.

- So how do you think about football when there’s a war all around?

- Then there was no time for football, then football went somewhere, I don’t even know to what plan. The war changed all people. We came to Oleksandria, I understood that I have a small child, and I need to help her grow up, I have a wife, I have a responsibility, so I understood that I need to train. Then Denys Ustimenko was also in Oleksandria, and we constantly went to training with him. I made a chat group in Oleksandria and went to school, we have school No. 20 there, I used to study there. And the director and I agreed to gather the guys on the playground. For an hour and a half, about three or four times a week, we played football, and kept in shape and somehow got some air. At first it was very difficult to gather enough people: we played 5 on 5, but then many people joined that group, and the president of Oleksandria Ivan Kuzmenko was there.

- Later you signed a contract with Kryvbas. Did you believe in this project then? That it would be a team that would fight for European cups?

- Before the war, when the team was in the First League, I had already watched it. Back when I was at Metalist 1925, Kryvbas came to play a friendly match. I liked how Kryvbas presented information in the media field, how it presented the players who came. For me, it was wow. I thought: they are doing cool things. And they have been doing these cool things for four years now. And this level is still maintained. And it so happened that I was invited. When I joined the team, there were really top players. I should also note the selection service at Kryvbas. All the players who were at Kryvbas during these four years, they brought a lot of benefit to the club, and they were all high-quality performers, and, probably, 90% of them all played.

- Okay, is there an underrated player in the team?

- For me? Yes. And he's playing in the team now. I'll call him Jan Jurczek. First of all, he's a top person and a top footballer. I see him doing things like that in training. And I just understand that many fans underestimate him. He's got great speed, he's got a head. You know, for example, the last two matches we played with Shakhtar. Do you remember how he came on in the 90th minute and accelerated to such a high speed? And now the last game with Shakhtar: Obach for me is probably the fastest footballer in the Premier League.

But Jan caught up with him and took the ball away. So I'm sure he'll grow and reach some kind of top level. I hope that they'll all be helped to develop their qualities. And the most important thing for me is that he is a top person, because, you know, there are few legionnaires like him. And for example, when it is necessary to raise money for the military, the Heroes' Tribune, to close some collection. He doesn't even ask questions. And he is one of the very first to close these issues.

- Who else can you mention from the legionnaires in general, if we are talking about the selection service?

- This season, when Andrusva Araujo was brought in. And he was immediately released in the main squad. He probably had two or three training sessions and was already in the starting lineup. And then I thought: wow, this is a football player. He has such an aggressive style, but, listen, when the ball is, for example, 70 on 30, and you think: he will take it - he will not take it, and he is in a losing situation, I was sure that 70 on 30 he will take that ball. He sometimes does such things... For me, the showpiece match was - it was probably when we played a home game with "Polissya", when he had something under 30 tackles there. He simply won that center field himself. And, by the way, he is a very nice, modest person.

- The debut of the modern Kryvbas in the Premier League - we took seventh place. Then the long-awaited bronze for the city. Change of coach. The team has completely changed, new faces, new players have arrived. A new coach has arrived. How could we have had such a season without a boost?

- If you analyze this season, then for me it is fantastic. I will try to argue. The team has changed by almost 90%. And there were a lot of skeptics, journalists all said that, well, the team would be in the relegation zone. And I don't even remember a single person who believed in us. To be honest, I can't say that I directly believed that we would have such a great season. But in the end, this season is the biggest asset in terms of players in these four years. How our youth shot up - Williwald went to the national team, Shevchenko also gained momentum. I told Sheva that it would be better for you not to end the season now, but to continue. That's why there are many players who have shot, who have shown that the club is moving in the right direction, that there is great potential. The maximum credit for this is the coaching staff, because they built the right training process, built it so that everyone understood what to do on the football field. And when you understand what to do on the football field. When I look back and see what matches we played, I think: this is madness, really.

- For example, with Dynamo. Can you call it the brightest match in your career? At the moment.

- 100%, in my life I think, there will probably be no more matches like this. This is a historic match. And in terms of emotions, it's something fantastic. When we went out on the field, and this shootout started... At first I thought, you know, the first half is ending, Mendoza scores the fourth goal... You see, he made a poker in the first half. But as the game showed, the weather, which worsened after the break, did not play in our favor. The opponent had such top UPL football players as Yarmolenko, Buyalsky, as substitutes, and they demonstrated their level.

- With the arrival of Patrick, what changed in you as a football player? Trust, the captain's armband... Why did it all happen like that, in your opinion?

- He gave me the opportunity to do what I did before, and without any prohibitions. He constantly supported me, he liked the way I professionally approached my work, and that's why he gave me such trust. I felt this trust from the coaching staff, I felt support from the guys. And this really helped me and the team move forward.

- Were there any fights in the locker room? You're like a captain... Were there any matches where, well, you had to, you know, give a little fire?

- Yes, I remember, probably, an emotional match - in the first round we played against Dynamo, and then we lost 0:4. But at halftime I flew straight to the locker room and was as emotional as possible, it was very difficult to restrain myself. We talked to the guys like men. And in the second half, of course, we came out and started playing more aggressively, but there was nothing we could do about the result that was there.

- The fans see you on the field, no one can look into the locker room. A bit like legionnaires: I see how they come to the match... Music, dancing. Doesn't it interfere with the team?

- It's a balance. We Ukrainians are more focused, closed, you know, we can't relax. And the legionnaires, they come - music, dancing, sometimes I watch, they shoot TikToks. I go to another room to warm up, work, prepare for the game. And then I go in, I'm already watching - the music is playing great, the mood is good, and it relaxes me a little too. That's why it's cool.

- I heard a story from you: you lived with Paraco and Mendoza on the base next door...

- Well, listen, the walls are thin at our base. Everything they say makes you feel like it's happening in my room. And they, you know, Latin Americans, they have their own regime, they're used to going to bed late. And they listen to music all the time. At first I couldn't adapt to it. But then I bought earplugs, a sleep mask and it got better.

- I still want to come back to Patrick. What did he give to the team and what did he give to you personally?

- Patrick van Leeuwen gave a lot of his experience, he worked in really great teams - Zorya, Metalist 1925, Shakhtar Donetsk. He has a lot of experience not only in football, but also in how to be a director in the Academy, how to build teams, how to build a structure in the club from the children's Academy to the first team. He gave Kryvbas a lot this year. Probably the biggest asset of the team in terms of players over these four years.

- What is the magic of our home stadium?

- Kryvyi Rih fans are the best. They have a culture of supporting the team and the city. I completely agree that they create a cool atmosphere and constantly motivate us to move forward. There were many such moments in the four years that I lived, and this was also in terms of criticism.

- Does it help or can criticism harm a football player?

- For a football player, it is an experience, and criticism will be constant, criticism will be everywhere. And you have to deal with it and move on. If a football player perceives criticism normally and works every day and systematically does his job, everything will be fine for him. Therefore, criticism should, on the contrary, help.

- And what was the most emotional match you had. Not in terms of football, but in terms of connection with the fans.

- This is the moment when Anton Fedorov, our soldier, our fan, made the first symbolic kick. And we talked to him before the game. He was in captivity for two and a half years. And he told me, damn it, guys, I used to go away with Kryvbas, I was in the Ultras, and the team played in the First League. Then, when I was captured, I couldn't believe that the team was already playing in European cups. It moved me very much, and it's a moment that has been etched in my memory.

- If you have something to say, here's an opportunity to address the fans, let's do it.

- I want to thank every fan, every person who has helped me become better over the past four years, who supported me. For me, Kryvyi Rih is my second home, where I feel comfortable and understand that I belong there. I want to thank all our staff, all our structure, base, people who have surrounded me over these years, who have given me emotions, who have supported me, who have criticized me. All these people have given me great experience. I also want to thank our leadership, our president for this entire period.

- Where do you see yourself after football?

- I would like to develop sports, for example, in my hometown of Bucha. If there were opportunities, I would open some kind of children's school. And I understand that I will stay in sports, but I haven't chosen for myself where exactly.

- And finally, a blitz. Goal or assist?

- Assist.

- The strongest opponent in your career?

- Saint-Etienne. Then my dream came true: to score a goal in the 90th minute and bring points to Ukraine is worth a lot.

- The best football player for you is...

- This is Oleksiy Dovgy. First of all, he is a professional in his field, who constantly demonstrated by his own example how to work to achieve maximum results. He is a true professional, and for me he is a role model.

- The best stadium where you played?

- Olimpiyskyi.

- Messi or Ronaldo?

- Messi.

- The best coach in the world in your opinion?

- Pep Guardiola.

- Captain - is it character or responsibility?

- I think it's both character and responsibility. Symbiosis.

- One football player with whom would you like to play in the same team?

- With Messi. There probably won't be such football players for another 100 years.

- Kryvyi Rih for you is...

- A second home.

- What's your biggest dream now?

- To play for the Ukrainian national team and play in European competitions. And for the war to finally end. This is 100%, with our victory.

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