They hung up their boots to take up arms and defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion: the story of footballers from Catanzaro, an amateur club from Kiev

Several members of the Catanzaro of Kiev have been forced to take off the jersey of their amateur soccer team to put on a soldier’s uniform, take up arms and defend their nation from a Russian invasion that began twelve days ago.

War does not take prisoners and, of course, it does not understand professions. Ukrainians Oleksandr Aliyev and Andriy Bohdanov know this well, among many other compatriots, who until ten days ago were footballers. Today, the war has turned them into soldiers. They have changed the soccer ball for the rifle.

The Catanzaro of Kiev is a Ukrainian amateur club whose name refers to the team from the city of the same name, a town of about 90,000 inhabitants in the south of Italy, which plays in Serie C. Its members, soccer players who “reluctantly”, as they say from the local environment Catanzarosport24have been involved in a war and have had to put football aside.

Aliyev and Bohdanov got in touch with the newspaper from the Ukrainian capital to tell their story, ask for help and make visible the war that is taking place at the moment, with a photograph in which they are seen holding a rifle in a shelter.

The current president of the club, Oleksandr Sytsko, tells the Italian News Agency (AGI) the story of the modest Ukrainian club.

“The person who gave the team its name loved Italian football. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was very impressed with the performance of the Catanzaro team. He wanted to give our club a name and, when he left, we decided to leave everything as it was, ”said the current president, who spends most of the day in a bomb shelter.

The name of the team even created a link – football through – between the region of Calabria, to which Catanzaro belongs, and Kiev that has lasted until now.

“We receive solidarity from Calabria regularly and many people from Catanzaro and Calabria write with an offer of help or even with words of support. I don’t always have the opportunity to respond on time, but it’s very nice and I thank all the people in Italy, ”she confirmed.

“We liked to defend the colors of a small and proud team from Calabria, it was our hallmark. We knew a little about the history of the team, we followed its performance”, he added to AGI.

Sytsko cannot be in contact with all the players but, in addition to the two already mentioned, he assures that there is another one enlisted, although, for the moment, without weapons.

“He told me in a private conversation that he is now in the army, but I have not seen him with a gun. I don’t have contact with all the guys, but long story short, there are definitely 3 people fighting right now.”

In fact, the highest representative of the club says that one of those who fight is Russian by birth, but that he defends Ukraine from the invasion since his children are Ukrainians.

The president of the team took the opportunity to appeal to NATO for help: “We ask NATO to close the sky over Ukraine and to help us against the aggressor. This is not just for the good of our children and civilians, but for the good of the whole world. We must unite against the aggressor, against the empire of evil.”

“And then of course we want to be part of Europe. Part of the civilized world, not the Soviet Union that Russia dreams of reviving”, she sentenced. (D)