Tens of thousands of fans of the football club Benfica Lisbon symbolically showed their solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian player Roman Yaremchuk. When the 26-year-old forward came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute of Sunday’s Portuguese first division game between Benfica and club Vitória Guimarães, the 40,000 crowd began to applaud him.
Many held up Ukrainian flags and stood up. Yaremchuk visibly fought back tears. He also received the captain’s armband when he came on as a substitute.
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The footballer was born in Lviv (Lemberg) in western Ukraine and started his career at Dynamo Kyiv. Among other things, he played four years with the Belgian first division club KAA Gent and last year signed a five-year contract with the Portuguese record champions. Yaremchuk has also made 36 appearances for the Ukraine national team.
“Unidos!” Benfica commented on the clip on Twitter, in German: “United!”. In an interview, coach Nélson Veríssimo called the war in Ukraine “regrettable” and “we all want peace as soon as possible”.
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