Shakhtar's Dutch head coach commits to learning Ukrainian
Patrick van Leeuwen, the new coach of top Ukrainian soccer team Shakhtar, has expressed his desire to learn and speak Ukrainian during his tenure with the team, the Ukrainian publication Tribuna reported on July 29.
While acknowledging that he had predominantly lived in a Russian-speaking environment during his time in Ukraine, van Leeuwen acknowledged that mastering Ukrainian might pose a challenge for him.
"The previous coach played football in western Ukraine, where he started his coaching career. There was a linguistic division, with Russian being more prevalent in the eastern part of the country. As a football professional, I spent most of my time in this region and learned Russian, which was quite demanding," he told Tribuna.
"I'm not ruling out learning Ukrainian, but it might take some time. After all, during my seven years in eastern Ukraine, the majority of people spoke Russian."
As the 2023/24 season kicks off, Shakhtar will begin their campaign with a match against Metalist 1925 on July 29.
Earlier, Shakhtar secured a spectacular victory under van Leeuwen's coaching, defeating a Dutch club, marking his successful start on the coaching journey with the Miners.
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