Shakhtar Donetsk coach De Zerbi refusing to leave until players are safe
Shakhtar Donetsk coach Roberto De Zerbi and his staff are refusing to leave Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.
Shakhtar’s foreign players and their families had hunkered down in a hotel in Kiev when the Russian invasion began and were soon joined by the squad from their rival club Dynamo Kyiv as well.
read also:Tuchel fears anti-Chelsea feeling from rivals amid ‘horrible’ Ukraine war with Abramovich
The New York Times reports the foreign players – most of them Brazilian – were placed on a train and have already reached the border with Poland. However, De Zerbi and his Italian staff remain in the country.
Shakhtar Donetsk player Junior Moraes confirmed that former Sassuolo coach De Zerbi and his Italian assistants refused to leave unless his players were taken care of first.
“They had two opportunities to leave us, and the coach said, ‘No, I stay here until the end.'”