The captain of Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk, Tarás Stepanenkohas taken advantage of his presence in the Catalan capital, where his team will face FC Barcelona tonight in a Champions League match, to visit Vitali Shumei,uA Ukrainian soldier injured in the war recovering in a Barcelona hospital.
Stepanenko has been accompanied on his visit by Shakhtar’s goalkeeping coach, former goalkeeper Andrí Piatov. Together they have talked with the soldier’s father, Serguí Shumei, who accompanies his son in the rehabilitation process at the Guttman Institute in Barcelona.
“On the one hand, it is difficult to see our heroes, our fighters, in this state,” said Piatov, who for more than three decades and until his retirement at the end of last season defended the goal of the Ukrainian club.
“But we understand that the club, and first of all his father, give us hope in victory, that we are all in this together, that our nation cannot be defeated,” he added in the presence ofand Sergui Shumeithe father of the 35-year-old soldier, who did not hide his excitement at the possibility of meeting two Ukrainian soccer stars.
Shakhtar pays all the expenses of Shumei’s rehabilitation process at the Guttman Institute in Barcelona, one of the most effective neurorehabilitation centers in the world. The Ukrainian club has also paid for the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers in Israel and the United States.