It is 11 years since I visited Dnipropetrovsk. It may have changed, but back then it was a bracingly industrial city, the river thick with green sludge. Amid the factories and the endless brick there was one oasis: Dnipro's impressive training base, a block of immaculate, manicured pitches surrounded by trees. "Dnipro always had a good school," said their then coach, Yevhen Kucherevskyi. He is dead now, killed in a car crash in August 2006, but the academy remains a cornerstone of the club: 12 of the first-team squad are home-grown.
The Guardian: Dnipro’s Europa League run reaps seeds sown by Yevhen Kucherevskyi
Players of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk take part in a training session in Kyiv on May 13, 2015, on the eve of the UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg football match between FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and SSC Napoli.
