In the summer transfer window, midfielder of the Ukrainian national team Sergei Sidorchuk left Dynamo Kiev and moved to the Belgian Westerlo. On September 15, he made his debut for the new club and since then has played three more matches at the start of the Belgian championship.
One of the teammates of the 32-year-old Ukrainian is a football player with Russian citizenship Roman Neustedter. In He joined the ranks of the Belgian club in the winter of 2022. He is a regular player at Westerlo.
Sidorchuk said that after the transfer to the Belgian club he spoke with the management regarding Neustaedter, and then had a conversation with the football player himself. He told the YouTube channel VZBORNAYA about this.
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— Before I signed the contract, I had a conversation with the general director, he said that this would be a very big problem for me. He replied that I needed to talk to him, and I would understand everything myself. I signed a contract, arrived at the base and the first person I met — it was he. I immediately told him that “I won’t be able to shake your hand first, because I need to know your position.” And he explained it to me clearly, I understood it and on this we agreed, — Sidorchuk said.
According to the Ukrainian, Neustaedter, in a personal conversation with him, said that he did not support a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, Roman did not publicly express his position.
— He doesn’t support this (Russia’s war against Ukraine, —Ed.), but I can’t speak for him. Do you understand, right? I cannot say for a person what he himself must say. He told me that he doesn’t support it and that’s the end of it, — explained the Ukrainian.
He also added that Neustaedter's position seemed “normal” to him. Sidorchuk suggested that his teammate wants to renounce Russian citizenship, but said that “he has a lot of nuances, but I can’t tell them.” And regarding the refusal of citizenship, he said that “it’s not all that easy.”
Who is Roman Neustedter?
Ukrainian fans know him, first of all, for that he was one of the candidates for the Ukrainian national team. Now he is 35 years old, and he was born in Dnieper. Since childhood, he lived in Germany, where his father played.
On the eve of Euro 2012, his father claimed that his son wanted to play for the Ukrainian national team, but the following year he made his debut for the German team. A video also appeared where he sang the anthem of Ukraine, but later, to Russian propagandists, he called his performance a mistake.
In 2016, he decided to change his sports citizenship and began playing for the Russian national team, with which he played at Euro 2016 .
