Brazilian midfielder Taison, who currently plays for FC Shakhtar Donetsk, could obtain Ukrainian citizenship in the next few months.
“If there are no obstacles from a technical point of view, then it
should work. Lawyers are involved in this matter, and if all goes well,
this could happen in two or three months,” the club’s director general,
Serhiy Palkin, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that this idea was born during a personal conversation with the player.
“First it was just a conversation, and then Taison asked me to speak
with the Football Federation of Ukraine. He said that if they want to
see him in the national team, then he would talk with his parents. I
spoke with the FFU, it was interesting to them, and the leadership of
the federation discussed this issue with the head coach. When approval
was obtained, Taison started talking with his parents, relatives, and
eventually made this decision,” Palkin said.
He said that that the main reason for this process was an interest in
Taison’s services from the coaching staff of Ukraine’s national team,
whereas for the club the Ukrainian nationality of the Brazilian, due to a
limit on the number of foreign players in the national league, plays no
special role.
“You know that our goalkeeper and central defenders are Ukrainians.
No matter who is playing as a midfielder, by and large, it will not be a
problem for us to find four Ukrainians,” he said.
The 25-year-old Taison Barcellos Freda has played in the Ukrainian
Premier League since August 2010, when he moved to Metalist Kharkiv from
Brazil’s Internacional for $6 million. In January 2013, he moved from
Metalist to Shakhtar for $20 million.
