Legends of Ukrainian football and football players from the UAE played a friendly match

The match took place on October 25 at the residence of the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Ukraine, Salem Ahmed Al-Kaabi. This event opened the celebration of the 50th anniversary of UAE Independence.

The game was held under the slogan "oldies but goodies"; all players are older than 45 years. The "good old" athletes have shown that age is not an obstacle to an intense and emotionally charged match.

Players played futsal, first competing in national teams of six to six players, and in the second half creating mixed teams. The result of the first half is 4:1 in favor of the team from Ukraine (BGV Group Management). The second half ended with a score of 4:4, and Ukrainian players were invited to another friendly competition in Dubai.

As the UAE Ambassador to Ukraine, Salem Ahmed Al-Kaabi told Rubryka, today's match was one of the first events held by the Embassy in honor of the 50th anniversary of UAE independence (UAE Independence Day is December 2).

"Now our country is 50 years old. We are starting to celebrate this date all over the world 50 days before Independence Day; the government and embassies are preparing events. The game was organized by the UAE Embassy with the help of Hennadii Butkevych."

"The Ambassador offered to play; he loves football, very often comes to support the Zhytomyr Polissia football club. Almost all national teams of Ukraine are represented here today," co-organizer of the match Hennadii Butkevych told us.

Hennadii Butkevych, owner of BGV Group Management and co-owner of ATB Corporation, helped bring together Ukrainian legendary players, including Oleksii Mykhailychenko, a former Dynamo Kyiv player and Italian club Sampdoria player, as well as a former Dynamo Kyiv coach and the Ukrainian national team, and Vladyslav Vashchuk, a former player of Dynamo Kyiv and the National Team of Ukraine.

"Our team of veterans is always ready to play in such friendly matches," the captain of the Ukrainian team Oleksii Mykhailychenko shared with Rubryka. "Football is a very popular game all over the world. It is played everywhere. This is important to understand: apparently, many of our players don't know English, and many of the veteran football players of our friends, partners don't know Ukrainian. But we understand each other on the field, we talk and play in one team," the footballer emphasized.

To recap, the UAE has become the most vaccinated country in the world.

Earlier, Rubryka reported that BGV Group of the famous entrepreneur Butkevych invested in the development of sports in the Zhytomyr region.