Andriy Lunin poses in the official UEFA session before the European Championship with the Ukraine national team Boris Streubel / UEFA via Getty Images
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Andriy Lunin (Ukraine, 22 years old) went from finishing the season almost blank with Real Madrid - he only played one Cup match - to concentration with his team prior to the Eurocup, and from there back to Spain, ruled out by Shevchenko . "When you're not playing ..." he laments through a video call. "It is very sad when you do not go to the European Championship and you are very close, but when you are not playing throughout the year it is not bad to rest a little and prepare better for next year." Before going on vacation, he still exercised for several days at his home in Madrid, without returning to Valdebebas.
Lunin, dismounted from a Ukrainian team that this Monday will play Austria for the round of 16 of the Eurocup (18.00, Four), finds something healing in continuing to squeeze himself when the months go by and he has no minutes. "That helps me. When I don't play, if I don't work enough I don't feel good. I feel sad, I feel a little bad, more tired. I'm not enjoying it. When things go like this, I don't play enough, I prefer to work a little more, a little harder, be a little more tired. Work helps me. Without a job it would be worse, ”he says. But it does not give up. He has had some conversation with his club since the end of the course, but the decisions will come after the break. “You have to turn off your head, and when you return we will continue. But when the coach changes, a lot of things change. You have more enthusiasm, you have another challenge.Another míster comes and you have to show him what you are worth. I am preparing myself for a tough year, to fight, show and wait for my opportunity ”, he says after Zidane's resignation.
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Lunin, a Stakhanovist waiting for his moment
He also remembers work from the French, more than a conversation in which he tried to comfort him because of how little he played: "We are not children to help us when we do not play," he says.
“But we did talk a couple of times, and he gave me advice.
He cannot tell me many things about the goal, because I have a very good goalkeeping coach.
But he was one of the best midfielders in the world.
I stayed a couple of times a week trying to improve my game with my feet, and he saw it and gave me a couple of tips: what do I have to do, how do I have to improve my technique.
In his office we talk about the way to play, how he sees the team's style of play, how he sees how the goalkeeper has to play, the movements, a bit of tactics ”.
Like many goalkeepers, Lunin was a forward as a child: “Children like to score goals more than fall, save, hurt you ... They all like to score goals.
Being a hero is more beautiful.
But little by little ... I didn't like running a lot, I got tired fast.
The issue of running is not for me, so I became a goalkeeper little by little ”.
And if you ever have doubts about the pick, they are passed to you in the preseason.
“The first two or three days, when the whole team runs, 30 or 40 minutes, I suffer, and I am convinced that the goal is my thing.
I'd rather do two hours of work, a thousand five-second exercises, than 30 minutes of jogging ”.
I didn't like to run a lot, so I became a goalkeeper
Lunin is not only conscientious in physical work. He is also methodical with the study of his performances and those of others: “I analyze for myself. I know what I like, what I don't like, what I want to do better, what I want to keep, what I'm terrible at. When I'm playing, I can watch my game two or three times. When I'm not playing, I watch football and analyze the situations that goalkeepers have. I see many videos on YouTube with the training of different goalkeepers, from Mexico, from the Spanish school, from Germany, from Ukraine. I like those things. Of these schools are also its references: "De Gea, Iker Casillas, Buffon and a little Neuer and Ter Stegen".
But his dream was Ukraine: “The national team is what you've been dreaming of since you were little.
When you arrive you are privileged, you feel it as an honor.
It is like a peak of your dreams.
You represent your country.
You play for those 45 million people, because they are supporting you, they are criticizing you.
You represent a lot of people.
It's spectacular, ”she says, and a smile lights up her face.
He has no doubts with the controversial shirt of his team, with a map that includes Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014: “Well, it looks nice.
The clothes are not bad ”, and smiles again.
What if they cross?
"I would like to play against Russia only in one case, if it is in the final," he says.
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