Coach Paulo Fonseca, who was quoted to take over Corinthians before the club agreed with the also Portuguese Vítor Pereira, faced with his family a 30-hour trip to escape the war in Ukraine.
Former Shakhtar Donetsk (2016-2019) and Roma (2019-2021) coach, Fonseca, 49, was with his wife, Ukrainian Katerina, and 3-year-old son Martin, in Kiev when the invasion of Russia, now in the second week it started.
With the danger of bombing imminent, Fonseca began looking for a way to get away from the city and the country.
First, he moved to a hotel in the Ukrainian capital owned by the president of Shakhtar and which served as a refuge for footballers, including Brazilians, who defended the club.
Shakhtar, due to the lack of security in the separatist Donetsk (eastern Ukraine), has not played there for 13 years. The team’s current base is Kiev.
From there, Fonseca contacted the Portuguese embassy, who arranged transport for the next day, heading to the western border.
A van housed Fonseca’s family, two of his compatriots who worked at Shakhtar –Edgar Cardoso, coordinator of the youth teams, and Filipe Sousa, nutritionist– and a couple who had a six-month-old baby.
The coach, currently without a club, told about the 30-hour journey, which started in one morning and went through one night.
“We traveled day and night without stopping. The trip took 30 hours, passing through Moldova and arriving in Romania.”
“I saw Ukrainian troops pass on the road many times, we heard alarms, there was a lot of traffic. We spent a long time going at 5 kilometers per hour.”
“On the trip we were in danger, even driving at night. I heard planes passing, but I didn’t notice any gunshots or clashes.”
In Romania, Fonseca recorded a video in which he said “we are safe at this moment, but the nightmare continues for the people [ucraniano] who continues to fight in a heroic way”.
Then he boarded with his wife and son to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, from where the coach recounted, in an interview with journalists, the affliction they went through.
As a player, from 1991 to 2005, Fonseca, who is born in Mozambique, played as a defender. The main club he defended was Porto, from 1995 to 1998.
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