Fulham winger Manor Solomon has told the BBC this morning about how he ‘woke up to the sound of explosions and sirens’ when Russia invaded Ukraine and how the end of his time with Shakhtar Donetsk felt ‘like being in the middle of a movie’.
The Israeli international’s wide-ranging interview with BBC Sport ahead of the Whites’ FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester United on Sunday covers how he left Ukraine and why he decided to team up with Marco Silva at Craven Cottage. It proved to be a shrewd decision from the 23 year-old, who has remarkably scored five goals in his last six appearances to establish himself in the starting line-up.
Solomon describes the rush to leave Kyiv on the day the brutality of Russia’s full-blown assault became clear:
“Everyone was panicking because the war had started and didn’t know what to do. I knew I had to get away because it was going to get worse. I was running out of food and water. There was nothing to buy. I managed to cross the border with the help of Israeli diplomats. If they hadn’t come I don’t know what would have happened to me. My heart goes out to the people who are still there. Last year was the most difficult of my life.”
The winger insists he was lucky to ‘get out’ and lesser characters might have felt cursed when he was struck down with a serious knee injury – that sidelined him for five months – the day after an impressive Premier League debut in the 2-2 draw against Liverpool on the opening weekend. But Solomon has come back so strongly that he is now targeting a place in the last four of the FA Cup. Fulham last reached the semi-finals in 2002.
“Playing for Fulham at Wembley would be a dream”.
