Andrei Jarmolenko (32) and Anatoly Tymoshchuk (43) played 42 games together between 2009 and 2016 for the Ukrainian national team. But the duo, which once ensured harmony on the pitch, no longer has the hay on the same stage.
Since the outbreak of war, former Bayern defender Tymoschtschuk has been increasingly confronted with criticism. On the one hand, because he has not yet made a statement against Putin’s attack. On the other hand, because he didn’t give up his job as Zenit St. Petersburg’s assistant coach. There were only consequences in Ukraine: the association banned Tymoshchuk for life, canceled all the titles he had won in Ukraine and revoked his coaching license.
From role model to unwanted person
That’s not enough for Jarmolenko, he wanted to confront his former teammates: “I wrote to him: ‘How do you sleep at night?'” The West Ham star tells Russian blogger Zorya Londonsk. “Not as good as you,” Tymoshchuk replied. During the phone call that followed, there was apparently a real bang.
“I told him that he used to be a role model for me, but now he doesn’t exist for me anymore,” says Yarmolenko. “He said, ‘Fuck off.’ I said the same thing and that was it.”
The former Dortmund striker explains that he is aware that his former team-mate does not want to express any criticism out of fear for his family in Russia. But that’s no excuse: “I can understand the situation, but you have friends in Ukraine whose relatives are dying.”
Jarmolenko sees no problem for Tymoshchuk to go somewhere else with his family: “I think he has earned enough money to live anywhere in the world. I can’t understand how he should live with that.” (che)
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