Friday, May 28, 2021 at 12:30 AM• Chris Meijer • Last update: 15:46

Oleksandr Zinchenko was four years ago with Jong PSV at De Herdgang in the Kitchen Champion Division, but now he can prepare for the Champions League final in Estádio do Dragão of Porto against Chelsea. After his disappointing year at PSV, the 24-year-old Ukrainian was transformed by manager Pep Guardiola from attacking midfielder to left wing defender. To the surprise of many, Zinchenko has definitely emerged as one of the key players in the Manchester City squad this season.

By Chris Meijer

If the Manchester City player bus arrives somewhere for an away game, it sometimes happens that there are frequent Kev is called to someone who does not respond at all. That is not because he is too bad to respond or too arrogant to hand out an autograph. No, this has to do with the fact that in that case the person in question is not Kevin De Bruyne, but Oleksandr Zinchenko. In the dressing room, he is jokingly called Kevin De Bruyne’s twin brother. While his ‘twin brother’ has been one of the main players at Manchester City for years, Zinchenko is also demanding a vital role in the Guardiola’s team this season. “When Manchester City is at its best, every player has an important role,” explains Jonathan Smith, who follows Manchester City on behalf of the England arm of Manchester. Goal, from. “To underline his importance: in the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain, he had to eliminate Ángel Di Maria. Yet he had the confidence to be at the base of the crucial opening goal with a mighty sprint. ”

It didn’t look like Zinchenko would get such an important role at Manchester City. “The only way he can get there playing time is through the PlayStation,” was the telling comment of Andriy Voronin, the Ukrainian former striker from Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool, among others, after Zinchenko chose to join FK Ufa. exchange for Manchester City. By then he had already had some turbulent years in his career. Between the ages of 13 and 17, he played in Shakhtar Donetsk’s youth academy, but left there when war broke out in Eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian army and separatist rebels. The Zinchenko family fled to Russia, where he was without a club for six months and had to train for himself.

His ongoing contract with Shakhtar thwarted an employment contract with Rubin Kazan, because that club did not want to risk a transfer ban. FK Ufa dared to do it and at the foot of the Ural Mountains, Zinchenko became not only a basic player in the Russian Premjer League, but also the third youngest debutant in the Ukrainian national team (Sergiy Rebrov and Andriy Shevchenko). That took some doing, because at first it was planned in Ukraine not to summon him because of the tensions with Russia. But in the end, Zinchenko played three games at the 2016 European Championship, prompting Manchester City to take him in for two million euros. That led to somewhat surprised reactions. Because Zinchenko was a great talent. But Manchester City? That seemed a bridge too far.

Zinchenko played a total of 680 minutes for PSV, spread over 17 games.

Veronin and all the other critics seemed to be proved right very quickly. The then nineteen-year-old Zinchenko was rented out directly to PSV by Manchester City, but he barely found a job in Eindhoven. Only six times, coach Phillip Cocu made a basic place for Zinchenko in his midfield. He did not make the most impression in the Netherlands in the total of seventeen matches he played in PSV’s first, but in the seven matches he played for Young PSV. Zinchenko recorded no less than nine assists in it. Still, PSV will not have been really sorry that he returned to Manchester City after a year. Conversely, expectations in England will also have been modest after the somewhat disappointing rental period in the Netherlands.

In the first months after his return to Manchester City, Zinchenko was hardly ever in the selection. And if he was already in the squad, he usually stayed on the reserve bench for ninety minutes. But Guardiola appeared to see something in Zinchenko that he had seen in someone at Bayern Munich before: Joshua Kimmich. He was occasionally posted as a right-back by Guardiola, a position where he is arguably one of the best players in the world. However, unlike Kimmich, Zinchenko had to be turned around to get to minutes. Guardiola saw Zinchenko’s talent, went to work with him and gradually gave him minutes as a left back as the season progressed. A position where he had played a handful of matches until then only at Ufa.

Zinchenko cries out after Riyad Mahrez’s opening goal in the return of the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain (2-0).

“It was partly a necessity. The left back position was a tough spot at Manchester City: Benjamin Mendy sustained a serious knee injury, Danilo seemed to struggle on the left. Guardiola even used Fabian Delph as a left back and Zinchenko got a chance too. In his first performances he left a good impression. Guardiola has given him a shot based on what he’s seen on the training ground. His year at PSV had no influence in that judgment, ”says Smith about Zinchenko’s development. He eventually turned out to be a typical back for Guardiola’s football: energetic, strong in possession, tactically ingenious. Still, it took a while before Zinchenko was allowed to kick off on a relatively structural basis.

Zinchenko has in the meantime been linked with a departure to Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Napoli, while Angeliño (taken over from PSV in 2019) also brought in a new left back. “Angeliño seemed perfectly suited for City and it seemed that Zinchenko was going to leave. But Angeliño had a hard time from day one, so it quickly became clear that he had no long-term future at City. ” Angeliño left for RB Leipzig in January 2020: the first eighteen months on a rental basis and finalized next summer. “They both have their strengths. Angeliño is great offensively, but can be defensively naive. Zinchenko is more technical, he can also slide well into midfield. Angeliño is more of a traditional one wingback which is at its best on the wings. ”

Where Angeliño chose to leave Manchester City after six months without too many opportunities, Zinchenko always stayed in England after his rental period. “He worked hard, listened carefully and did everything he could when he got the chance. His determination is impressive. He wants to play at Manchester City, is popular in the locker room and gives his all in practice and in the games. I’ve spoken to him a number of times, you always notice his determination and his sense of humor. That’s what makes him so popular, ”says Smith. Guardiola generally chooses Zinchenko or João Cancelo (actually a right back by nature) in the left-back position this season, who are preferred over Mendy. Zinchenko fits well into Guardiola’s system defensively, while Mendy is not always consistent. In recent years, Zinchenko has grown up a lot more. He does and knows what Guardiola asks of him. Zinchenko has played a fantastic season and reached a new level when you consider his importance to the team. ”

Does that automatically mean that Zinchenko will have a starting place in the Champions League final? “It is always difficult to predict Guardiola’s line-up. The left back is one of the choices that is not yet clear, it is between Zinchenko and Cancelo ”, Smith replies. The Champions League final does not mean the final part of the season for Zinchenko, because the European Championship is still waiting for him afterwards. In Ukraine – one of the opponents of the Dutch in the group stage – Zinchenko does play in midfield and wore the captain’s armband in the last three games. “At City you have a lot of great players and characters. Zinchenko is also a character, but is of course much more important in Ukraine. He probably also has the qualities to play in midfield at City, but comparing him to world-class players like De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan is a bit unfair. They may be among the best midfielders in the world. ”

That Zinchenko would be in the Champions League final and as captain at a European Championship a few years later, was probably not immediately expected at PSV. The seed for this was indeed sown in Eindhoven. At least, that is what Zinchenko himself claimed, when six months after his departure he suddenly turned up along the PSV training field. “I am still in Eindhoven every now and then, when we have a day off. Then I would like to come and visit, ”said Zinchenko in conversation with it Eindhovens Dagblad. “For me, PSV just feels like a second home. I owe a lot to the club and have been able to improve myself here. The people who work at PSV have received me warmly and that is why I like to come back here every now and then. I’ve always had a good time here. ”