Former Ukraine national team midfielder Dmytro Khomchenovskiy spoke in an exclusive interview with Sport RBC.UA about the moment his career received its first boost at the international level. In August 2013, while playing for Zorya Luhansk, he received an invitation to the Ukraine national team from then-head coach Mykhaylo Fomenko. Khomchenovskiy was the only debutant in the squad for the friendly match against Israel, and he recalls this exact episode as a turning point in his football biography.
The First Call: "What National Team?"
According to the player, the news of the call-up reached him not directly from the coaching staff, but through his teammate Maksym Bilyi. By that time, the regular league matchday had already concluded, and the players had dispersed to their homes for the weekend. "And then Bilyi calls me and says, 'Congratulations on the national team call-up!' I reply, 'Stop kidding, what national team?'. And he says, 'Go look it up.' That's how I found out. I started looking for information to check if it was true," Khomchenovskiy described his initial reaction to the news. The skepticism was so strong that he needed to verify the data himself before he believed what he heard.
A Coach from the Sidelines: How Fomenko Worked
Khomchenovskiy characterizes his relationship with the manager during that period with restraint. In his estimation, Mykhaylo Fomenko was a calm coach who mostly observed training sessions from the sidelines. Notably, during his first stint with the national team, the midfielder never actually got the opportunity to speak with the head coach personally. At the same time, as the player himself notes, Fomenko gave the players space to prove themselves—an approach that essentially allowed the debutant to secure a spot in the squad for that match.
Great Atmosphere and Old Acquaintances
Khomchenovskiy described the atmosphere in the national team as "great." Finding himself alongside footballers whose play he had previously only watched on TV, he initially felt noticeable excitement. Within the team, he communicated the most with Andriy Pyatov, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, and Oleksandr Kucher—these were the exact players who often flew together to the national team camp, and they became the debutant's closest contacts in the new environment.
Four Matches and a Move to Spain
In total, Dmytro Khomchenovskiy played four matches for the Ukraine national team. Explaining why he received no further invitations after that, the player approached the question without blaming the coaching staff, offering two personal versions. "I think the game against Lithuania wasn't very convincing on my part, and after that, I wasn't called up anymore. Probably, the fact that I moved to the Spanish second division played a role as well," he noted. Thus, the player himself links the end of his journey in the national team to a combination of one poor performance and a transfer to the Spanish second division, which, in his opinion, reduced his visibility for the coaching staff.
