Liverpool fans hope that Jurgen Klopp will usher in a new era at the club and is in for the long haul, set on winning a lot of trophies. If that is indeed the case, the first goal on the German’s Anfield tenure will be remembered as historic. Unfortunately for the Merseysiders, it wasn’t scored by a player in red, rather by a little known visitor. Marko Devic of Rubin Kazan netted in a spectacular fashion in the Europa League fixture on October 22, eventually earning his side a point in a 1-1 draw, as Klopp’s troops failed to find the winner despite playing against ten men in the second-half.
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Devic is far more famous in Qatar, after helping Al Rayyan to promotion to the Qatar Stars League in the beginning of 2015. The fact that he is largely anonymous in Europe is purely down to bad luck from his point of view, and good luck as far as England are concerned. At least one player who was on the pitch at Anfield against Rubin remembers him extremely well – namely James Milner who witnessed very closely as Devic scored what could have been a fateful goal for Ukraine against the Three Lions in Donetsk at Euro 2012.
It was the last fixture at the group stage, and the hosts needed to win in order to qualify for the quarter-finals at the expense of England. Ukraine played superbly, and were extremely unfortunate to fall behind early in the second period when Wayne Rooney scored thanks to a disastrous error by goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov. Fourteen minutes later, Devic had a great chance and managed to beat Joe Hart, only for John Terry to clear the ball off the line. It had clearly crossed the line, but the Hungarian team of referees failed to notice. England survived, hanging on to the 1-0 win to top the group, before losing on penalties to Italy in the quarters.
“You need a bit of luck going with you. Two years ago we didn’t get that luck with Frank Lampard’s goal, a big turning point in the game against Germany [at the 2010 World Cup]. Today the luck turned,” England captain Steven Gerrard acknowledged that day.
“I will never forget that moment. If the goal stood, we had every chance of winning the game. That mistake by the referees was fateful,” Devic later recalled.
It was indeed fateful in the extreme for Devic’s career. In the game against England, he deputised for the unfit Andriy Shevchenko. Devic was viewed by many as the natural heir to the greatest Ukrainian striker of all time. Small margins define sport and Devic’s failure to make his chance count took him from potential saviour to scapegoat. The striker’s career went downhill thereafter.
It is a remarkable and rather unusual career nevertheless. Devic is Serbian, born in Belgrade in October 1983, but he was never recognised in his homeland before moving to the tiny Volyn Lutsk in 2005. The youngster apparently failed to impress, and the team was eventually relegated, but the scouts of Metalist Kharkiv saw something different in him. Metalist were the rising power of Ukrainian football at the time, and signing for them in the summer of 2006 was a dream come true for Devic.
Gradually, a mediocre midfielder turned into a prolific striker under the shrewd guidance of coach Myron Markevych. Devic was the top scorer in the league in 2007/08, received Ukrainian citizenship that summer, and made his debut for the national team. By 2012, he was one of the brightest stars in the country, scoring 16 goals in all competitions in each of the previous two seasons, and Shakhtar Donetsk, the richest and most successful club in Ukraine, signed him for €5million ahead of the Euros.
Maybe life would have been easier for Devic in the new surroundings had his goal against England been allowed. As things stood, he failed to prove his worth at Shakhtar, and returned to Metalist after just eight months. He flourished once again, becoming the club’s all-time top scorer, but the striker didn’t enjoy the same fortune with the national team. He was an outsider amongst Shakhrar and Dynamo Kiev players, and became especially unpopular in the dressing room after demanding to take a penalty in the game against San Marino to complete a hat-trick and become the first ever Ukrainian to do so – even though his teammate Yevhen Seleznyov also had two goals at that stage and was also in search of making history.
A cruel 2014 followed for Devic from all points of view. It started with political drama in Ukraine, which forced the Metalist owner to flee. The club fell apart and were forced to sell all their best players and Devic moved to Rubin Kazan, who needed a proven striker to replace Salomon Rondon to Zenit. The first months were relatively decent, as Devic scored three goals in his first 11 games in the Russian Premier League, but relations with coach Rinat Bilyaletdinov broke beyond repair. Devic didn’t play at all in the first half of the 2014/15 season, and was eventually loaned out to Al Rayyan. By that time, Rubin desperately wanted to get rid of the player who earned €1.8million annually.
“Devic constantly missed training sessions for strange reasons. Each time it was something different with him – a toothache today, an ankle injury tomorrow. Bilyaletdinov was shocked”, a source told Segodnya newspaper at the time of Devic’s move.
The four months at Al Rayyan, where he scored in 11 goals in 18 games, proved to be a welcome break for the striker and his popularity with their fans eased his frustration over delayed payment of his wages. “I only got my salary lately with the help of FIFA. We didn’t have luck with our Sheikh Saoud Bin Khalid Al Thani who doesn’t like to spend money”, Devic told Championat.ru this week. “But I certainly don’t regret going there. It was an interesting experience”.
Upon returning to Kazan, he was optimistic of more playing time after Bilyaletdinov was sacked in September.
“The coach who didn’t trust me isn’t here anymore, and I don’t want to discuss him. Now I am given chances to play, and see no reason to leave. I have an opportunity to improve my game”, he said two months ago.
And that is exactly what he did. Interim coach Valeriy Chalyi made Devic his personal project, and the former international delivered in great style. The goal against Liverpool at Anfield was extremely important for both of them, and the Serbian-cum-Ukrainian simply can’t stop scoring ever since. Overall, Devic has scored seven goals in eight games by the end of November.
Such rich form made Ukrainian journalists wonder why national coach Mykhaylo Fomenko didn’t recall Devic for the Euro 2016 playoffs against Slovenia. Ukraine have two world class wingers in Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka, but their options are limited as far as strikers are concerned.
Reborn at Rubin, Devic could prove to be a perfect solution, and he himself stated that his desire of playing for Ukraine is as strong as ever at the age of 32. It remains to be seen whether Fomenko risks unsettling the dressing room by recalling him, but it could be a great gamble.
England didn’t have to face him in the qualifying campaign, but if Ukraine are drawn against them in the group stage, Devic will be itching to set the record straight. But even if that dream won’t come true, Devic wrote his name in history by stunning both Klopp and The Kop.
