According to available information, Skripnik's contract with the club stipulates that upon the end of his playing career, the footballer will move to a coaching position. True, this will not necessarily be the post of first-team coach. Most likely, he will have to start either at the youth school or as a scout. But even this, you must agree, is serious proof that Skripnik is a respected man in the football world of Bremen. After all, eight seasons in one team is no joke. If we do not take into account the brilliant foreign career of Andriy Shevchenko, the rest of the Ukrainian legionaries, starting with Oleg Blokhin, did not distinguish themselves with such stability at their clubs. Therefore, against such a background, Viktor Skripnik's "unsinkability" looks almost fantastic. But behind it stand quite real drama and difficult decisions.
Viktor's football career began in Dnipropetrovsk back in the days when the city was experiencing a football boom. In 1983, Dnipro became the champion of the USSR for the first time, and Skripnik, who had just turned 14, was approaching the reserve team of that formidable side. In 1986, the young footballer, who was invited to the USSR youth team along with then-famous players Sergei Kiriakov and Oleg Salenko, joined Dnipro. Vladimir Yemets brought him into the reserves. At first on half pay, and then on a full salary, which at that time amounted to 120 rubles. Soon Viktor began to earn more than his father.
Skripnik failed to break into the main squad of Dnipro on his first attempt, so he took a roundabout route. He served in the Kyiv SKA, and then ended up at Zaporizhzhia's Metallurg, with which he earned a ticket to the top league of the USSR in 1990. At that time, Viktor played alongside his former Dnipro teammates - Taran, Shokh, Bashkirov, Sorokalet...
But the Zaporizhzhia stage of his career was also associated with the dark side of football life. "The team was taken under control by thugs," says Viktor. "Rigged matches began one after another. We received no money for them; they conspired without us. It got to the point that when the gangsters came to the training base, we would rush to the dormitory like bullets. And, peering out the windows, we waited for them to steam in the sauna and leave. This usually happened at dusk, after which we were sent out for training."
For a defender known for his high scoring efficiency, the return to Dnipropetrovsk was like manna from heaven. And Viktor used his chance to the fullest.
"Did I dream of going abroad back then? I don't know, maybe I did. But I can say for sure that I dreamed of playing professional football, seeing it from the inside. I succeeded. I played against good teams and strong footballers. In general, my football life was a success, there is nothing to regret. Perhaps I should have moved to Dnipro a couple of years earlier. And I also would have liked to play more under Lobanovsky. But when I was invited to Dynamo, Valery Vasilyevich was not in Kyiv."
By the way, while playing for Dnipro in the first half of the 1990s, Viktor could have taken a completely different path and ended up in another professional club - not a foreign one. "I had a very serious conversation with Grigory Surkis. Before the conversation, Grigory Mikhailovich, pointing at me after another match in Kyiv, said approximately the following: 'Take this one - under lock and key.' The conversation was cordial, but I made it clear that in Ukraine I would only play for Dnipro. After all, I ended up in Zaporizhzhia only because Dnipro people were at the helm and on the team. But my arguments did not convince the president of FC Dynamo Kyiv. Everything was decided by a call from the leadership of Dnipro. Sergey Tigipko was extremely laconic: 'I will arrange Skripnik's transfer to Werder.' That was a completely different level. Because if I had been an egoist, I would now be in the Champions League all the time, become a multiple champion of Ukraine. And I would tell everyone, like Andriy Gusin, how great I am."
Bremen met the Ukrainian envoy with great caution. For five seasons, Skripnik had to confirm in every match entrusted to him the reputation of not only a tough destroyer, but also combine it with intelligent play in support. Viktor managed all this to the full, but he could not demonstrate the scoring ability he was famous for in Ukraine: in five years he scored only one goal. Although in the season before last, things seemed to be improving.
After the resounding defeat of the Ukrainian national team in Dortmund (1:4 in the playoff match on the way to the 2002 World Cup), Skripnik, who took the field in that ill-fated match, was teased for a long time. They thought, they say, that you have a weak goalkeeper, but it turned out that the whole team was weak. The upset Viktor had few counterarguments. But life gave him the opportunity to partially rehabilitate himself - in a game against Bayern.
"The list of Werder's penalty takers included three: Herzog, Ailton, and me. The three of us had to decide who would go to the spot. But usually Herzog would just grab the ball and do everything himself. He didn't play against Bayern, and Ailton missed against Freiburg. I think in the game against Bayern, Herzog was simply scared. He refused to take it himself and pointed at me. The national teams played the following Wednesday, and now another date - in goal, the formidable Genghis Khan (one of Oliver Kahn's nicknames) squints fiercely. I didn't try to be clever, I struck without a pause, with all my strength and anger. Kahn capitulated, and I got going. I scored again. After that, Ailton began to calculate: he had scored only seven, and if he added penalties, it would be whoa... And so, we beat Schalke 3:0, and he suddenly announces that he will take the penalty now. Yeah, I think, right now. Where were you before, my friend? I take the ball and convert it. But in the next game, with the score 2:2, all my penalty-taking rivals showed no eagerness: someone turned away, and someone went to the center circle to tie their shoelaces. I had to score again myself."
Skripnik scored his last goal in the winter of this year against Arminia - a beautiful header from a corner kick. But then another injury forced the footballer to leave the main squad again and come under the supervision of doctors.
This time, the fans and the public were well-disposed towards our legionary. After all, several years ago, in a similar situation, when another Ukrainian footballer, Yuri Maximov, was forced to leave Bremen, everyone unanimously thought that Skripnik's days at Werder were also numbered. "Journalists were in a hurry to draw conclusions. That summer I read many forecasts about my fate. But no one was interested in how hard it is to train with unrelenting pain. At first I was offended, and then I simply stopped reading such attacks. Moreover, the club also began to 'stir'. Klaus Allofs, who had never liked foreign players, took over as sporting director, and said in his welcome speech something along the lines of: 'Guys, I've already found a replacement for you.' After Max left, I, of course, thought about the same bleak prospect. I also had five offers from other clubs. Yet I decided to put off my farewell to Werder. After all, not only my fate was uncertain. Coach Schaaf's position was also shaky."
Everything turned out for the best. Thomas Schaaf stayed and gained such faith in the Ukrainian footballer that he himself offered him a place on the coaching staff. The German coach advises: "Stay with me. 38 is exactly the age when it's not too late to start. You'll get a German license, you'll work." But I want to return to Ukraine and apply my experience there. Schaaf jokes, though: "Look, at home, foreign specialists are now held in high regard..."
"Why did I never leave Bremen in all that time? Opportunities, of course, existed. But I'm a conservative, I don't like changing surroundings or lifestyle. It took me a long time to leave Metalurh; had it not been for Werder, I would hardly have left Dnipro. I took root in Bremen. If things were bad, I would have left.
But everything is fine. I've settled in Germany, my family likes it here, I've made friends. The children - my son Vladik and daughter Liana - go to school, do tennis and dancing. In Germany, I came to appreciate family in a different way. In Ukraine, everything is simple: today you are a husband, tomorrow you're already a father, and the day after tomorrow the child goes to school, but you don't even notice it because you spend all your time at the training base. In Europe, everything is different. It was in Germany that I felt like a real father. I got the opportunity to be home more often, go to the cinema and musicals with my family.
"Language? I'm learning. More precisely, I continue to learn. I never really learned to speak it properly; the grammar is poor. It comes out about like a Caucasian speaking Russian. The children correct me - naturally, German comes much easier to them. But we don't forget our homeland. Every year we try to visit Dnipropetrovsk and Novomoskovsk - either in summer during vacation, or in winter for New Year."