Shakhtar Donetsk’s sporting director Dario Srna has told the BBC that Fulham’s new winger Kevin can reach the next level under the guidance of Marco Silva, whom he describes as ‘one of the best coaches in the Premier League’.
Srna, who played against Fulham for Hajduk Split in the Whites’ UEFA Cup in 2002, told Nizaar Kinsella that Shakhtar stuck to their guns regarding their valuation of the 22 year-old Brazilian, despite suggestions in Portugal that they used late interest from Sporting Lisbon to engineer a bidding war.
“We kept our position [the same] from the first day. We told Fulham our price and that’s it. We cannot sell for less – than what we said. We had a lot offers for him and he could have gone elsewhere but he decided Fulham was best for him. It was his dream to play in the Premier League but we needed our conditions to be met to sell him.
Fulham have an amazing winger, he has amazing skills, is so fast, good one-versus-one, he even defends well. With Marco Silva, for me one of the best coaches in the Premier League, he will continue to develop for sure. I believe Kevin will move to one of the biggest clubs within the next two years.”
Srna feels the £34.6m deal will help Shakhtar remain sustainable and able to compete in both Ukrainian and European football, as well as attracting the best young South American talent – no mean achievement given the ongoing war.
“Kevin came to us having not been able to get into Palmeiras’ team and 18 months later he is sold for 40m euros to Fulham. Brazilians are happy to join Shakhtar because we develop them and they help us get good results, get into Europe and sell players to the top clubs. We brought three amazing talents, 19-year-old Lucas Ferreira from Sao Paulo and 18-year-olds Isaque from Fluminense and Luca Meirelles from Santos, they show we can still recruit well from Brazil.
Midfielder Georhiy Sudakov also went to Benfica and we develop Ukrainian talents also. But it’s harder with the war, we hope it ends soon. We keep working, the league remains competitive and this is the youngest team in Shakhtar’s history.”
