After a year in the 2nd Bundesliga
Tormenting homeland question for Ukraine’s exile handball players
6/7/2023 7:51 am
For one year, Düsseldorf is the home of HC Motor Zaporischschja, the Ukrainian handball team is admitted to the 2nd Bundesliga. But now they have to go back – to their homeland, into the unknown. The Russian war of aggression rages on, the manager has lost his mother. Fear dominates.
Sachar Denysov fights back tears. The robust guy with the imposing stature is looking for the right words for what’s going on in his head. “We’re at war, so it’s difficult to look to the future,” says the 33-year-old. After a year of Bundesliga exile in Germany, fear is returning among the Ukrainian handball players from HC Motor Zaporischschja. The fear of returning home. The fear of war.
After the game on Wednesday at TV Hüttenberg, the second division season ends – and with it the solidarity project for the team from Ukraine, which was accompanied by a lot of hype. It is a farewell with many unanswered questions. Who is going back with me? Where is the journey going? And what will the gaming operations look like under wartime conditions?
“Overall, Motor has had a very difficult year, not just because of the war. They have changed shareholders and are now managed by the Ministry of Defence,” said HBL Managing Director Frank Bohmann. “There’s a big transformation going on and the future of the club would be even more uncertain if we hadn’t offered them a home.”
“Very emotional for us”
From a purely sporting point of view, it was a mixed trip. Only 17th place in the 2nd league, nine Motor players with the Ukraine national team also missed qualifying for the EM 2024 in Germany. After all, it went sensationally in the European League to the round of 16. But much more important: “Every week, in every game, no matter where we were, the spectators were there and supported us. That was very emotional for us,” said family man Denysow.
And Bohmann also drew a positive conclusion: “They fit in well here in terms of play, the costs were not decisive. Many clubs had a full house, which showed the solidarity of the fans,” said the official: “We made the right decision “It’s just an “act of humanity”. Officially, the Ukrainian team had already bid farewell to the city and the HBL before the last home game in their adopted home of Düsseldorf (29:35 against HSC Coburg).
Return to the Ukrainian league
The current plan is for HC Motor to return to the national league. The series champion has won that since 2013 this year, but “only” played the final series. A second substitute took over the preliminary round from October, but at the beginning of April the professional squad traveled twice to western Ukraine for a few days. A few weeks later, Motor also won the national cup in this way.
Now you are facing a major upheaval: Some players like top talent Ihor Turchenko will leave the club, as well as manager Dmitrii Karpushchenko, who lost his mother in the war, and coach Gintaras Savukynas. Exactly where Captain Denysow and his team will be staying with their families in the future is uncertain. The hometown is under constant attack, it is definitely not possible to play safely here.