On a slight incline overlooking FC Kryvbas’s training facilities, the skeletal frame of a mining tower sets slowly into action. Its wheels turn intermittently, deliberately, helping drag a city’s lifeblood closer to the fresh air. Down by the gates an elderly man materialises from a side path at the first sign of visitors, hawking a plastic bag half-full of cherries. They are in season, glistening and juicy; there will be plenty more where those came from, should the volume of sales match his optimism.
Inside, Yuriy Vernydub has work of his own. He jokes that the last year of his life would make a film script but the immediate reality is, true to his oeuvre, about the next game. There is a competitive match to prepare for: Kryvbas will face Kolos Kovalivka near Kyiv on Tuesday, the first day of the 2022-23 Ukrainian Premier League season.
