Serhiy Rebrov Becomes a Daredevil

The English club, Tottenham Hotspur, has concluded a five-year contract with Kyiv Dynamo striker Serhiy Rebrov who was also sought by Arsenal, the Glasgow Rangers, and Milan. The deal was preceded by a careful medical checkup.

The Ukrainian forward was secured for г11 million ($16.5 million US). Serhiy himself will be earning г25,000 ($37,500) a week. This is the second “result” in the history of national soccer: last fall the Italian Milan paid Dynamo $25 million for forward Andriy Shevchenko. It should be noted this is the absolute record transfer fee in the English club’s history: before the 1997/1998 season, Tottenham signed the forward Les Ferdinand for г6 million ($9 million).

The Russian publication, Sport segodnya (http://www.sports.ru), quotes the British press as saying that this team has managed to acquire a world-class forward for the first time in the last two years after the German J Ъ rgen Kliensmann left Tottenham. Serhiy Rebrov has now come back to Kyiv to end the season with Dynamo. Tottenham supporters will be able to see him in action on May 31 at Wembley, where our national team will play a friendly match against England. As to our fans, they will have a chance to nostalgically recall the good old days, when the Rebrov- Shevchenko duo struck terror into the hearts of European soccer teams. It is, of course, always sad when the best ones go, but, on the one hand, if we dream about 2002, this is likely to do our national team good, and, on the other hand, Valery Lobanovsky has proven more than once he knows how to set stars alight.