The whole team came back from vacation in great shape
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
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Shakhtar fitness coach Utku Alemdaroğlu talked about his first impressions of the team’s work at the pre-season training camp
– Could you please introduce yourself and tell us something about your background and responsibilities at Shakhtar?
– I am a professor at Pamukkale University in Türkiye, and I have been an athletic performance specialist for about 20 years. I have worked in several clubs, the last of which was Eyüpspor, but along the way I have also worked for teams such as Trabzonspor and Türkiye U21. My main duty is to improve the athletic performance of the players of this team. So the specific picture is like this.
– What does it feel like to be part of Shakhtar?
– It is very exciting and I am really happy to be here because Shakhtar is not only a big club in Ukraine, but also a legendary team in Europe that won the UEFA Cup in their history. I was really excited to join Shakhtar. When we came here, we were welcomed very well: we knew we would meet family here, but we also saw it in real life, so I am grateful for that.
– On the first day when Arda Turan introduced you to our players, he said that all the players would hate you. Can you please comment on that?
– This hatred is a common fate for athletic performance specialists because we work very intensely and powerfully during the pre-season. Yes, they may hate us during this perios, but I think in the long run we will grow to love each other. But what Arda Turan said – this is hatred that can be typical during this first pre-season, and I hope they will love me in the future.
– What are your main requirements for players and what do you focus on during training?
– We usually have two goals: to give our all on the pitch and in the gym and to have fun outside of them. But I think we also combined that because we tried to make sure they had fun on the pitch. The training sessions are hard, I know that, but we added a little fun to them. We will also work like that during the season, so it is hard for the first few days, but it will get better in the future.
– If we talk about physical condition, what kind of Shakhtar do you want to see in the first official game and during this season?
– The thing is that we have different conditions here: we start the season very early, because we play the first official game on July 10, but the good thing is that the whole team came back from vacation in great shape. We did a test – a physical fitness test – and the results show that everyone is in good condition. We will improve. So I have to emphasise that we have a long mid-season break. If we get there in good physical shape, we will become even better.
– What are your main goals with Shakhtar?
– We have dreams. We came here to make these dreams come true. It is not easy, we are far from our families, our children, our country, but there is one reason: we have dreams and we are chasing them. Our main goal is to win the European competition again, but to get there, we have one more step – the Ukrainian League. So, if you ask me what my first goal is, it is to win the Ukrainian League again.
– I am a professor at Pamukkale University in Türkiye, and I have been an athletic performance specialist for about 20 years. I have worked in several clubs, the last of which was Eyüpspor, but along the way I have also worked for teams such as Trabzonspor and Türkiye U21. My main duty is to improve the athletic performance of the players of this team. So the specific picture is like this.
– What does it feel like to be part of Shakhtar?
– It is very exciting and I am really happy to be here because Shakhtar is not only a big club in Ukraine, but also a legendary team in Europe that won the UEFA Cup in their history. I was really excited to join Shakhtar. When we came here, we were welcomed very well: we knew we would meet family here, but we also saw it in real life, so I am grateful for that.
– On the first day when Arda Turan introduced you to our players, he said that all the players would hate you. Can you please comment on that?
– This hatred is a common fate for athletic performance specialists because we work very intensely and powerfully during the pre-season. Yes, they may hate us during this perios, but I think in the long run we will grow to love each other. But what Arda Turan said – this is hatred that can be typical during this first pre-season, and I hope they will love me in the future.
– What are your main requirements for players and what do you focus on during training?
– We usually have two goals: to give our all on the pitch and in the gym and to have fun outside of them. But I think we also combined that because we tried to make sure they had fun on the pitch. The training sessions are hard, I know that, but we added a little fun to them. We will also work like that during the season, so it is hard for the first few days, but it will get better in the future.
– If we talk about physical condition, what kind of Shakhtar do you want to see in the first official game and during this season?
– The thing is that we have different conditions here: we start the season very early, because we play the first official game on July 10, but the good thing is that the whole team came back from vacation in great shape. We did a test – a physical fitness test – and the results show that everyone is in good condition. We will improve. So I have to emphasise that we have a long mid-season break. If we get there in good physical shape, we will become even better.
– What are your main goals with Shakhtar?
– We have dreams. We came here to make these dreams come true. It is not easy, we are far from our families, our children, our country, but there is one reason: we have dreams and we are chasing them. Our main goal is to win the European competition again, but to get there, we have one more step – the Ukrainian League. So, if you ask me what my first goal is, it is to win the Ukrainian League again.