“The media bachelor and talented football player Sergei Melnik won more than one girl’s heart, but still did not open his own to romantic relationships. Sergei openly spoke about his daily routine, lifestyle, attitude towards civil marriage and sex without obligations in our interview.”
Let's start with the fact that a person who is far from football has approximately the following idea about a football player: a sporty, well-endowed guy who changes girls like leg warmers, cheating geographical position from season to season... Sergey, can this associative series be applied to you?
The further a person is from football, the worse the idea of football players is (laughs). And the associations can be continued indefinitely. In fact, we are all different! Just as in music, politics, and in any area of life, and in sports (in football, in particular), you can meet people who are completely opposite in their worldview and behavior. And their lifestyle will not be similar, although they have the same profession. Perhaps the goals and dreams are the same, but the people are different. Therefore, I would immediately warn against the stereotyped idea of a “football player”, if we are talking about me, and my colleagues as well.
You can't argue with that.
So, football life is an unpredictable thing. It happens that you devote your entire career to one club or change clubs every year, and along with them your place of residence. And what’s most beautiful is that all cases have their own charms and everyone is happy in their own way, if they get any pleasure from being associated with football at all.
I ended up with a combination of both situations. Until the age of 20-22, my career was connected with Odessa and my native “Chernomorets” (Ukrainian football club from the city of Odessa. – author’s note). I couldn’t even imagine that I could live and play in another city or country. I didn't even plan something like that. Yes, leaving Odessa is not easy (laughs). But soon the geography of my career began to expand and today I have already managed to play in many teams different countries, which, in turn, helps to learn the culture, language, features national cuisine and the mentality of other peoples, and most importantly - gives a large number of friends from all over the world. I consider the rest of the “associations” to be a little mercantile and would not like to answer, but to put it briefly, a professional athlete should receive a decent payment for his work. And if you know how to do something better than others, then you should be appreciated and appreciated, especially since the age of sports is short-lived and no one guarantees that tomorrow you will wake up in full health and be able to continue making money in professional sports. Professional sport is a risk. We, football players, at the age of 6-7, took the risk of starting to play football. You need to study this business for 10 years and have a ghostly hope, and most importantly, a Dream (to become a professional from hundreds or thousands of guys like you). Then earn a living in 10-15 years.
How would you comment on the point about girls?
I don’t change girls, I’m alone for now. For me, the issue of relationships is a long conversation that deserves a separate topic.
Tell us about your daily routine.
My day can go completely differently, there is no strict automatic schedule for months in advance. First of all, everything is subject to the team schedule and a lot depends on the training time. But I always have a plan for tomorrow in the evening. Virgo, what can you add (smiles). I'm very pedantic. I carefully monitor my diet and try to plan my day so that there are no long breaks between meals, and I also definitely need to wedge in Additional session in the gym, in addition to basic team training. This is like a bonus for myself, I can’t live without the “Gym”. Sometimes I make going to the gym my third workout of the day. And it won’t always be strength training: exercises, cardio, stretching, all kinds of exercises for agility, coordination, reaction, static endurance. We need to approach everything wisely and understand that professionally I play another sport, therefore, even though my hands are itching, it is not advisable to put more weight on a football player. You have to save your strength. Another mandatory rule with two team training sessions per day - an hour's sleep during the day. They really help to take your mind off the hustle and bustle and constant movement books.
Be it in the morning on the balcony or while I’m going with the team for lunch, or even in the evening before bed. I don’t watch TV at all, but although it may not sound modern, books distract me from the Internet and useless communication. I’ll also add language learning to this. I am constantly studying English, and have also started to learn Spanish. I don’t like to sleep for a long time, and I try to finish all my work before 11 pm. My rule is this: if you want to get enough sleep, you have to go to bed on a different day than when you need to wake up. I try to adhere to this rule and advise everyone (smiles).
How much time a day do you devote to sports?
One training session takes 1.5 – 2 hours. This is the load itself. We also need to calculate and add here the time to prepare for training, and since we are gathered an hour or even more in advance for medical control (daily weighing and blood pressure measurement), it will take about 5 hours for one team lesson, plus the hall takes 2- 3 hours. It's good that he is always nearby (this is very important criterion for me). And if there are two team lessons, then the day is scheduled minute by minute: from 9.00 to 20.00 you need to be at the club base.
Now the question that worries everyone who has seen your photos without a T-shirt is how long do you need to sweat in the gym in order to get six-packs like Sergei Melnik’s?
So it's as easy as shelling pears! They also found a problem for me (laughs). From the age of 6-7 you start doing acrobatics for about 2 years, then, against the will of your parents and all coaches, you go to football and continue to love the sport. From the age of 20, during the football holidays, you don’t lie on the stove, but go and practice kickboxing and love Gym. All of the above is only 15-20% of success. I believe that abs are 80% proper nutrition and, quite simply, the percentage of fat in the body. I won’t say that now I spend a lot of time on my abs, they work during all exercises and especially running, so sometimes it’s more useful for the abs to do cardio and not eat crap than to just dumbly, excuse me, “sort of” pump them up.
So are you watching your diet?
In terms of food and nutrition, I have serious discipline. I rarely allow myself to deviate from the rules. Proper nutrition– this is preparation for training and better recovery after. Reduced to a minimum flour products, no sugar, salt, sauces, soda, chocolates and any sealed store-bought food (in general, you can list it for a long time) - I simply don’t have all this at home. There is a complete taboo on alcohol and cigarettes, and it is better not to smoke or drink alcohol in front of me. In general, my usual diet is rich and varied, since I really like to cook. I choose the ingredients myself and stand at the stove; the presentation of the dish is also important to me: everything on the plate should look appetizing and tasteful. I rarely prepare for a day or a week; I mostly cook for a specific meal, let it be salads, cereals, meat, fish.
The bearded joke that EVERYONE can play football and write articles is relevant at all times, because literally everyone scolds football players for being “bow-legged” and journalists for being “venal.” Have you ever heard negative feedback about your game from fans?
Fans are an integral and important part of football; they want and should feel their importance, their involvement in everything that happens. We play for them, they support and cheer for us, without this union there will be no big victories. They are different in every city; there are those who can’t even name the team’s composition, but there are also those who have known many of the players since childhood.
There are sharp, stupid statements, but often criticism is to the point. No matter what you do, if you are visible, people talk about you. And often those who do not understand and do not understand the essence of the profession. Yes, the “couch masters” know better than anyone how to sing, how to lead a country and play football. There is always a choice: continue doing what you love or lock yourself at home and sit on the sofa.
I love to travel, but I can’t say that I manage to do it as often as I would like. If I have the opportunity on vacation or during a break in the championship, I try to go somewhere, preferably to a place I haven’t been to yet. I love architecture, I love photography interesting places, I pay attention to people, their style, culture. I often travel alone with a backpack or one bag. Experience shows that the more carefully you plan and more people you involve yourself in the upcoming train, the less chance of its implementation. IN Lately fell in love with the Cote d'Azur and learned more about Cannes, Monaco, Nice. These are definitely places where you would stay for a long time.
Milan was once my dream, although many people dissuaded me from visiting there. But this city remains a dream even after my visit. I also really like Rome, Turin, Amsterdam.
Somewhere, when you return to somewhere, you say: “I’m home”?
As our fans chant: “We are from Odessa and we are proud of it!”
And what will I say to this: “Yes, yes!” I am a resident of Odessa and will say a special word for Odessa! As Utyosov said after a tour of France: “Let that Paris clean the boots of our Odessa” (laughs). With all due respect to other cities and countries, Odessa is not “somewhere” and I feel at home in it.
In Odessa, people probably recognize you at every step?
Not without it! After the TV project, popularity and recognition increased. In the summer, when Odessa is crowded with tourists, people often come up to chat or take pictures. In winter, there is less attention, since only Odessa residents remain in the city, and they already have several photographs with Sergei Melnik (laughs). Just kidding, of course.
Is the notorious Odessa humor your “trick”?
I am a big connoisseur of humor, especially intellectual humor. Good joke should be short. Sometimes, in order to make a sharp joke, both the speaker and the listener must be sufficiently educated.
Now let's talk about personal life. It is clear that the answer to the question whether your heart is free worries many, but we would like to know how long the list of requirements is for your potential applicant to go to the registry office?
I will try to answer the longest question briefly. We complicate life too much with all sorts of cliches, templates, like “right” and “wrong”, what others will look at and think - all this is garbage, tear it up and throw it away.
I am sure that there are no specific criteria, and no one will ever find a person who will be close to him under the list of requirements. For people, everything is outrageously simple! There is such a wonderful word “like”. So, you just need to like each other and neither the color of the skin, nor the length of the hair, nor the size of the chest and butt are important, and the rest is a matter of relationships. I am single and, apparently, there is a time for everything.
By the way, do you accept civil marriage?
This can be approached in different ways. Partly this is irresponsibility, but making such a decision is a purely personal matter for the couple. If such a marriage will benefit the relationship, then so be it; no one has the right to interfere in someone else’s personal life and advise how and who should live better.
Is sex without commitment the norm or an inappropriate trend?
It’s not that this is the norm, but it has a place in my life and I’m okay with it.
Again, after studying your Instagram account, under each photo several dozen girls write a comment in the hope of your attention. Admit it, have you answered at least one of them?
I answer messages quite often, but, of course, I pay more attention to messages from friends and acquaintances. Whenever possible, I try to respond to meaningful comments rather than just emojis.
Are there girls in your circle of close friends?
Certainly! I clearly distinguish between the concepts of “colleague”, “comrade” and “friend”. I am very kind to my friends and value friendly relationships. I’m proud of my loved ones, but what’s nicer is that many people can call me their Friend. Among my friends, of course, there are girls whom I have known for a very long time, and even know their parents. My friends can always call, ask for help, invite me to a family dinner, offer to be a witness at their wedding or become godfather for their children. By the way, the last offer is coming more and more often (smiles).
Nowadays, it is not so easy to find sincere friendship: not selfish, without subtext, envy and anger. Even though I am credited with having a relationship with everyone seen in the photo, but for me attitude is more important those close to me, and not the words of those who have not seen me in real life or communicated personally.
Text: Elena Babich
On the eve of the 5th season of the most romantic show in the country, the attention of fans, especially female fans, is focused on the figure of the new bachelor. The season can be said to be an anniversary, which means that the main bachelor of the country should also be special.
First of all, he must be from Ukraine. This is logical and fair, so the show organizers decided not to interrupt this tradition, which began only in the 4th season of the Bachelor show.
So, meet Sergei Melnik, a 26-year-old Odessa football player. Having achieved good results in sports (Sergei currently plays in the main team of FC Torpedo-BelAZ, Belarus), he realized that it was time to think about his personal life, creating a family and a home.
For the sake of the project, Sergei had to change his busy schedule in order to have the opportunity to meet his soulmate. Speaking of girls. New Bachelor has a number of its own criteria, according to which it will make a strict selection.
Firstly, he is not interested in mercantile people, as well as girls who do not support their femininity and beauty. In addition, honesty in relationships is important to Sergei. Fair and well-founded demands!
Now some dry facts from the bachelor’s biography. He was born on September 4, 1988 in Odessa. According to the zodiac sign - Virgo, and according to eastern calendar- The Dragon. An unexpected combination!
Sergei is a railway worker by training. In this he probably followed in the footsteps of his father, who is a machinist. In general, Sergei is from an ordinary working-class family, and therefore he owes his success mainly to his own perseverance and work, because the guy started playing sports at the age of 9. Sergei also has a brother Andrei and a sister Marina.
It is noteworthy that Sergei was invited by the TNT channel to become the main character of the 3rd season of the show. But after the guy refused, he chose another candidate - Timur Batrutdinov. I don’t want to offend Timur, but it’s obvious why he was not first on this list.
Having become the main character of the Ukrainian show “The Bachelor” in the fifth season, football player Sergei Melnik became a much more recognizable person in home country than it probably was before. It can even be said with confidence that the athlete was better known in Belarus, where he has been successfully playing for Torpedo-BelAZ for more than two years. However, participation in the show radically changed the situation. Now Sergei Melnik is one of eligible bachelors, about which girls in the country secretly dream. After all, even despite the end of the show, the football player continues to retain the title of bachelor, which means he continues to excite the imagination of the fair half of humanity. Each new detail from personal life of Sergei Melnik causes a sensation among fans.
The biography of Sergei Melnik began in the city by the sea of Odessa in early September 27 years ago. He comes from a completely ordinary family, where his father worked as a machinist (now retired), and his mother was an occupational safety engineer. In the family, in addition to the hero of our article, there are two more children - brother Andrei and sister Marina. Therefore, all the heights, albeit not yet sky-high, that Sergei Melnik achieved in his biography, he achieved on his own. Of course, there is a certain merit to the parents who thought of enrolling the guy at the age of 8 in the football section, but further perseverance and many years of work are entirely due to their son. He began his career in the main team of Chernomorets relatively recently - just over five years ago, in 2010. Then he managed to play for Dniester, Odessa and Sumy before receiving an invitation from Belarus.
In the photo - Sergey Melnik with now ex-girlfriend Marina Kishchuk
Despite successful development career, and in many ways even for this very reason, the personal life of Sergei Melnik did not work out for a long time. By his own admission, serious relationships and declarations of love practically never happened in his biography. This was the main reason for agreeing to participate in the show “The Bachelor”. By the way, literally a week before this decision, Sergei Melnik refused to allow representatives of a Russian similar show. During the program, the football player took the choice of his girlfriend seriously, so at the end of the project, all viewers were almost sure that the couple Sergei Melnik - Marina Kishchuk, formed on the show, would last for a long time. All the more surprising was the recognition of the winner of the show that the lovers were no longer a couple, which she made at the beginning of December last year. The girl’s fans, of course, are upset, but all the admirers of Sergei Melnik are again inspired by hope, because there is now again a temporary lull in the footballer’s personal life.
Details Created: 05/26/2016 08:49 Updated: 08/31/2017 09:04
Sergei Melnik is a famous Ukrainian football player (Milsami club, defender), loved by TV viewers as main character and seeker true love on the project "Bachelor" season 5 Ukraine. All the details of his personal life, as well as interesting photos, you can find out in our article.
Biography of Sergei Melnik
According to sources, the future talent and heartthrob was born on September 4, 1988 in the glorious city of Odessa (Ukraine). Dad (Anatoly Savelyevich) is a machinist, and mother (Irina Yuryevna) is a labor protection engineer. Now Melnik’s parents are on well-deserved rest (retired). Serezha also has a sister, Marina, and a brother, Andrei.
Sergei's father
Mom and sister Marina
Brother Andrey
Rumor has it that his love for football began in childhood. IN school years he did acrobatics and was one of the players on the school football team. Graduated Ukrainian State Academy railway transport , but chose a different profession and connected his life with sports (football).
Sergei Melnik in childhood
Interesting Facts
His height - approximately 183 centimeters, weight - about 72 kilograms. He has an excellent and slender figure, always keeps his body in sports shape. According to many sources, m Spends a lot of time in the kitchen at the stove and cooks delicious food. She loves water very much, so she always plans her vacation on a cozy beach closer to the sea. He dreams of having a faithful wife and many children. Prefers classic clothes in a combination of gray, blue and white shades. He likes to spend more time alone reading an interesting book.
Personal life of Sergei Melnik
For Seryozha, what was always important was (as he stated in one of his interviews) what was inside a girl, and not what she looked like on the outside. Although there were still minor preferences. His chosen one had to be in sportswear and always have a light tan. Hair color, status in society, Family status did not have of great importance. That's why he chose a girl who already had a child from her first marriage.
Shot from the show "Bachelor 5"
Seryozha admits that he never had Serious relationships, because constant training takes a lot of time and there is nothing left for personal life. But there are rumors that I fell in love once, with a girl student from general company friends. Unfortunately, things didn't go further than flirting. Today it is known that this girl died tragically, and it’s hard for Seryozha to remember this.
Marina Kishchuk (winner of the “Bachelor” project, season 5)
The bachelor admits that he is the most Difficult choice he had when there were three girls left at the end of the show. Each one was good in its own way and it was incredibly difficult to choose the one.
Sergey Melnik and Marina Kishchuk photo
But the choice was made - Marina Kishchuk became his chosen one. She is 24 years old (Gemini) and comes from small town Glukhova. According to the media, Marinka’s dad is a retired lieutenant colonel, and her mother is a housewife. Marinka is not the only child; she has sisters and a son, Matvey. Her dream is to create a happy family.
There are rumors that after the project, Marina and Sergei dated for some time. The romantic dates did not end: Melnik constantly brought flowers and gifts to his chosen one. Certainly real life and life on the project are very different, but the young couple tried to build relationships outside of the show. Seryozha was constantly busy, as always, with multiple training sessions, championships, and long business trips. He could devote only a little time to Marisha. Oddly enough, this is very little for many women. The couple tried to live together, but were in no hurry to get married. Sergei argued that everything should go as usual.
One more important point in their life together was that the bachelor entrusted Marina to take care of him Online store of children's goods(since Marina is a young mother and she has more experience in what babies need today). In this business, Marisha received a lot of help from Sergei’s brother and sister.
Kishchuk also took up ideas children's charity. The first project was a “Charity Flea Market”, where they collected things for children who need this help. Melnik supported Marina in this action and took a direct part.
Seryozha and Marina admit that their feelings were real (not under contract), but everyday life and long separations destroyed their relationship.
Sergey Melnik and Marina Kishchuk: Latest news
Unfortunately, the young couple, for whom TV viewers were so rooting and worried, broke up. Rumor has it that Kishchuk was the first to voice such a decision and it was she who suggested that Seryozha remain friends. The girl admits that she could not fully understand Sergei Melnik’s feelings towards himself. And also, I realized a long time ago that the bachelor is in no hurry to seriously develop their romance, namely, to the wedding.
There are rumors that another reason was that Sergei spent a long time in Minsk, and Marisha was physically unable to move to his permanent place of residence. After all, she Small child and by law she does not have the right to take him abroad. This means that she would not be able to be constantly near her beloved. Kishchuk has repeatedly argued that if not for the distance, everything would have turned out differently. And besides all this, Sergei never once suggested that Marina move in with him forever and made no plans. Such uncertainty in the future forced Marina to end their romantic relationship.
Sergey Melnik and Elena Golovan
Sparks flared between them during the project. Many TV viewers were very worried about this couple. But the bachelor made his choice, he declared that the feelings between them are not love. Elena was terribly worried about this moment, because she confessed to the bachelor that she had fallen in love with him, and he pushed her away. Her romantic story ended so quickly that it took her a long time to realize it. Elena called it a betrayal. After all, for the first time she trusted a person so much, she felt weak in his arms, and he trampled all her hopes for their future together. After the project, she received not only moral, but also physical trauma (she tore her ligaments and underwent long-term treatment). In Seryozha she saw exactly the person with whom she would like to live her whole life and have children from him.
Bright moments on the show "The Bachelor"
Let us remember that Elena has already participated in the project “All 6 Dance” and she already had a relationship with a dance partner, which also did not work out.
There are rumors that Melnik and Golovan are together now. They don’t advertise it, but Elena, in one of the interviews she gave after the project, let slip about their connection. As you know, the show “The Bachelor” is made according to a script. And in almost all seasons, bachelors choose those girls to whom they are less attracted. And then after the project they part with their chosen passion and return to the one they kicked out in the finale. This is what happened in the 5th season.
Elena Golovan
Odessa resident Sergei Melnik gave an interview about sports and personal life. Photo: podrobnosti.ua
Odessa resident Sergey Melnik, former member TV show “The Bachelor” and the football player shared details of his professional career and plans for the future.
Sergei Melnik is perhaps the only Ukrainian football player who managed to harmoniously combine professional sports with participation in a popular television project, and even in the role of the main character.
The graduate of Odessa Chernomorets spoke frankly about difficult periods in his career, ambitions to play in the Champions League and a possible return to Odessa in the future.
In the CIS countries and Ukraine, you are associated more with the show “The Bachelor” than with football. Do you feel this in your life now?
Now I feel it less because, first of all, I am an athlete and I spend all my energy in training, all my goals are related to sports, so these topics come up less often for me.
In those countries where I have played recently, they are less familiar with television project, but from time to time, as in any male group, they remember, they make fun of them, these are normal things, I have a normal attitude towards this. These things about television concern me more in social networks, but in my professional direct activities they concern me very, very little.
Do you often get calls from journalists from non-football publications about commentary about your personal life?
They used to call quite often, and now they continue to call from different countries, not only from Ukraine, with completely different questions, not only related to sports, a lot about their personal life, a lot about the TV project, they write on social networks. I am from strangers I rarely open messages, sometimes I simply ignore them if I don’t see any kind of formality, but rather seriousness. They often write just like that, asking questions without knowing who or what, or without warning. Therefore, I spend little time on these types of issues that relate to my personal life.
"Girls" by Bachelor Sergei Selnik on the project. Photo: tv.ua
In December there was news, it spread among the media (who write more about showbiz), that you did not have a good relationship with the girl who won the project, Marina. If it's not a secret, have you really separated, and what is going on in your personal life now?
To put it all briefly, it is true what was written about. The winner of the project and I are not really together; we are on good friendly terms. We keep in touch, sometimes communicate in a friendly manner with the participants and project leaders, friendly relations remain. I'm alone now, and all my thoughts are connected only with football and my direct professional responsibilities. Nothing keeps me at home, so I calmly examined and accepted different variants further employment.
Started in hometown, however, it was not possible to build a long career there, to play in the Premier League in Odessa. Why do you think?
I think you need to look for all the reasons within yourself. Yes, I am a student of Chernomorets, I was first at the Chernomorets school, then at the Belanov school, then in the Chernomorets reserve team, the first contracts. For three years he was the captain of the Chernomorets youth team, and had already trained for a long time with the first team. I worked with different coaches - Altman, Grishko, Nakonechny, Telesnenko, Shevchenko, Frolov, Zubkov, the list goes on for a long time.
Sergei Melnik (left) with the legend of the Ukrainian coaching workshop Semyon Altman (center). Photo: "Football 24"
When I was 19, I played in the Premier League, and then under Bal and Blokhin I was constantly with the first team, replacing Vladislav Vashchuk and Sergei Fedorov.
When Grigorchuk arrived, they didn’t really look at me, I went on loan. New players arrived with the coach and played. When the contract was ending, they hinted to me that I needed to look for a team. There were some slightly football-related situations when the (previous) agent had a fight with the club management and was undesirable for the management. I've heard a lot from different people.
We also traveled to different teams, including the Donetsk “Metallurg” and “Krylya Sovetov”, wherever we went, but it was all like this... we went to places where they didn’t really need a player of my role. Then I had to look for a team myself, I had to gain a little experience by playing in First League teams, and then I left for the major league of Belarus, where I spent a more mature championship, a mature time there.
I would like to clarify - do you mean that changes occurred with the arrival of Roman Grigorchuk, who came to the team with his players?
I left Chernomorets at the same time that Grigorchuk arrived. In principle, he didn’t even see me, there was only one training session. I didn’t go with the first team, there was one training session, after which the management told me that other people would go to the training camp, but for now I was offered to play on loan at the first-league FC Odessa. There, of course, there was also a crazy lineup of legends: Kosyrin, Balabanov, Poltavets, Oprya, Lavrentsov, Parkhomenko and others. I don’t regret being there, I learned a lot in individual plan. So it was necessary.
At one time, Sergei captained the reserve team of Chernomorets. Photo: "Football 24"
How would you characterize the period in which Bal and Blokhin worked with Chernomorets? In particular, how would you characterize Oleg Vladimirovich Blokhin as a football specialist? From your point of view, what kind of coach is he?
Officially at that time, Bal was the head coach, and Oleg Vladimirovich was the sports director, so he did not interfere much in the training process. Mostly the guys who interacted with him were older guys. It’s not for me to judge the trainer’s qualifications. He is a very good football player, but I was more impressed by the behavior of the late Bal, he treated me very well. He's purely human qualities was a very decent man, and also very good specialist. He had a sense of humor, knew how to get the guys going and at the right time to relax, and how to make a joke somewhere.
He also told his stories with Oleg Vladimirovich, which were full during the time when they played together both in the USSR national team and in Dynamo. For example, one of them. When they played for the Union national team, Bal says: “I dribble the ball, Blokhin runs in, the whole stadium shouts: “Blokhin is running, give him a pass,” and I, at his expense, go to the center, diagonally, and we score a goal. And Blokhin tells me shoves." There were many such stories. Ball, of course big man, and blessed memory to him...
As for characterizing time, there are specialists. At that time, I was probably not yet such a mature football player to evaluate their requirements and the specifics of training. I did what their methodology gave me, I tried to do it conscientiously. Probably, this is what earned him matches in the main team of Chernomorets, in the Major League.
There was one of the matches that they write about when remembering the beginning of your career - against Dynamo, when you played for the reserve team. Dynamo's company was simply crazy; there were legends whom you could only see on TV before. What kind of match was this?
I remember that match quite well, it was my debut for the reserve team of Odessa Chernomorets. It was the start of the championship, we arrived in Kyiv, there were all young guys. From the first team there were only Dima Grishko (who now plays at Olympic), Pasha Kirilchik and Zhenya Shiryaev, all the rest were reserve players.
We beat them 1:0, as far as I remember, it was their first defeat in Kyiv. And then we made a good start, and we finished that doubles championship in 3rd place and won bronze medals. good time was.
We prepared as for a regular game; at that time we didn’t know who would come up against us. But a good, eminent opponent, on the contrary, motivates rather than scares. It's easier to prove yourself against a good team. If you can achieve results against a good team, then you are also worth something, you can do something.
Sergei Melnik during the time of Chernomorets. Photo: womanbook.com.ua
Your position (central defender) in your zone had to compete with Maxim Shatskikh and, perhaps, Valentin Belkevich and Diogo Rincon. How difficult was it to play against them?
As far as I remember, in that match I played left back, Peev and Yeshchenko played against me. Naturally, as you move during the game, you come into contact with all the players; of course, the skill was evident. When, after the match, they shared their impressions of how fast everything was, on high level. At that time I was impressed by Rincon, and also by Shatskikh, for whom half a moment was enough. Maybe somewhere we were underestimated. More than 10 years have passed, I remember that it was a difficult match, summer, heat, I had to play, overcoming myself. But the main thing is the result, everything is forgotten, but it remains in the memory.
Subsequently, you had another match, but at a higher level, you played as a starter against the first Dynamo team. They wrote that they were then at the center of an episode, because of which Chernomorets lost. What was that moment, do you remember it?
We played in Odessa, then, around the 60th minute, he came on as a substitute, played right back, against Yarmolenko, Shevchenko had a chance to play, it was a fairly uncompromising match, the score remained 0:0 for a long time, without any special moments. We had a moment at the end of the match, we could have scored, there were literally 2 minutes left before the end of the match, there was a serve after the standard, I stayed with Yussuf. The pass was from Gioane, if I'm not mistaken, it went straight to the target.
From the goal line, literally from a meter away, Rudenko and I relied on each other, didn’t figure it out, and Yussuf got ahead of us and scored a goal for us in the last minutes...
I’m still young, I went against Dynamo at my home stadium, when the whole city, friends, neighbors are rooting for you at the stadium, worrying, supporting... For me it was a difficult moment, an unpleasant aftertaste, I wanted to give up everything then, including football.
It was very disappointing, but my teammates supported me: Vashchuk, Shandruk, Rudenko, other older guys - Babich, we still played together, and now he is already the head coach of the team. Now you understand that these are moments from which no one is immune, they happen in every match. This is just a moment in football, but then for me, young, it was difficult to survive. Moreover, I was one of the few Odessa residents who were on the field at that time, I thought to take the blame on myself, because I let the guys down, they should have at least grabbed a draw at home.
Fans. Photo: "Football 24"
Have you ever had such moments in your career when you wanted to quit football, but then you still decided to return to what you love?
Probably, both goalkeeper and defender are not the most noble roles. Both position and responsibility, any mistake is visible in the palm of your hand and your half-turn, half-movement is closely watched. We have such a position that no one is immune from mistakes.
Football is, first of all, psychology, and secondly, skill. Physical condition, skill - they are somewhere in the background, especially for our role, where you need to have composure and restrain your emotions.
There are different situations, it happens that they can score into their own goal and make a mistake in the last minutes, just as the attackers may not score. This is football, it is clear that we are subject to criticism, sometimes justified, sometimes not.
But if you can't handle it, then you don't belong in sports. I think such worries and experiences can last 3 days or a week, but maximum - until the next match. A new match begins new life, you start doing everything again, you have some new emotions and memories. You put all this into a piggy bank every day, and every mistake is your experience. Of course, it is better to learn from the mistakes of others, but they explain their own mistakes more clearly.
How do you see your career in the future, what else do you want to do during your football career?
This is such a global issue. Any athlete is a maximalist, and I am no exception, we want to achieve the highest heights, everything we can squeeze out of our current state and location. If I am here now, I want to achieve the championship, maximum goals with this team.
But again, I can't say where I'll be next. It is clear that individual ambitions are now in the background, and team goals and objectives are in the foreground. If the team proves itself and you, as a part of this team, will do more for yourself individually. You can make yourself known when the team proves itself in Europe.
Of course, I would like to play in the Champions League and in my native club, Chernomorets, maybe the time will come, I’ll come back. I have many friends there, the coach, with whom we played together, again, I know the management. Maybe the time will come when I’ll return home. In the meantime, I set myself maximum goals and objectives in the club where I am now.
Perhaps Sergei will also please young Chernomorets fans with an autograph. Photo: "Football 24"