KYIV, Ukraine — Over the weekend, a unique soccer tournament took place in Kyiv, featuring players selected from the thousands of Ukrainians injured during the ongoing war. Despite their injuries, including lost limbs due to Russian assaults, these individuals gathered at a stadium to participate in a competition aimed at uplifting their spirits through sport.
The event, titled the “League of the Mighty,” is the first soccer championship for amputees in Ukraine, organized by the country’s Association of Football. In response to the increasing number of war-related injuries, the association has dedicated efforts over the past year to forming local teams and fostering community engagement.
The matches featured two teams each comprised of six outfield players and one goalkeeper. The outfield players were all lower-limb amputees, while the goalkeepers had upper-limb amputations. Remarkably, the players competed without prosthetics, utilizing wrist clutches to maintain control of the ball.
Pokrova AMP emerged as the champion of the tournament, with their captain, Valentyn Osovskyi, expressing immense joy over their victory. “We’re really glad that we had to work our way through, it was interesting,” he remarked. He also emphasized the team’s ambition to establish their own championship and to prepare a formidable squad to represent Ukraine on the international football stage.
Andriy Shevhenko, president of the Ukrainian Association of Football, highlighted that the organization aims to prioritize the development of amputee soccer over the next few years, especially considering there are more than 100,000 amputees in Ukraine, the majority of whom are veterans who served in defense of the nation.
Olena Balbek, an adviser to the association’s president, pointed out that engaging in sports is a crucial avenue for supporting the mental and physical rehabilitation of amputees, while simultaneously integrating them into society. She remarked, “This is a societal effort. We’re focusing on sports because it’s our area of expertise to make sure this is normalized.”
Based on internal studies, Balbek indicated that there are at least 60 professional amputee players in Ukraine, which is significant given that there are approximately 1,000 such players globally. She acknowledged that, although the circumstances leading to this development are unfortunate, they present a substantial opportunity for engaging more individuals in the sport.
The weekend’s tournament showcased five teams from various regions of Ukraine and illustrated the association’s commitment to advancing grassroots amputee football since the commencement of the large-scale invasion. The association features a dedicated department that aids local entities in forming teams.
Balbek described the initiative as multifaceted, involving collaboration with veterans’ organizations, local initiatives, and football clubs that emphasize the need for establishing amputee teams. “Football is the best rehabilitation for me,” stated Mykola Gatala, captain of the Pokrova AMP-One team. “It has helped me both physically and mentally. I’m doing it with my brothers in arms who went through the same things I did. We understand each other.”
