German coach Markus Gisdol quit his job as coach of Russian football club Lokomotiv Moscow on Tuesday in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Lokomotiv simply said that Gisdol had been “removed as head coach” after less than four months in charge. He told German tabloid Bild it was a gesture of protest against working in a country ‘whose head of state is responsible for a war of aggression in the middle of Europe’ . “I cannot stay on the training ground in Moscow, train the players, demand professionalism, and a few kilometers away orders are given, which bring great suffering to a whole people,” Gisdol said. the newspaper. Lokomotiv is owned by Russian Railways, which was placed under US sanctions last week. Gisdol was appointed in October by then-sporting director Ralf Rangnick, who later moved on to coach Manchester United. Former Liverpool and Ukraine striker Andriy Voronin has quit as assistant coach at Dynamo Moscow and Ukraine goalkeeper Yaroslav Hodzyur has left another club, Ural Yekaterinburg. The Urals president told the Tass news agency that a second Ukrainian player will also follow. Others stay put. “I’m not the kind of person to take a ticket and fly away,” Dynamo’s German head coach Sandro Schwarz said in comments posted in Russian on the club’s website on Saturday. “It’s not me. I feel responsible and I will be at the club. The Russian Premier League continued operations despite the war, while the Ukrainian Premier League was suspended when the invasion started last week. Brazilian players from Ukrainian clubs have appealed to their government to help them leave the country.
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