Ukrainian player signs for Ebbw Vale

When footballer 17-year-old Dmytrii Barduk arrived in Ebbw Vale he noticed a football pitch, which he pointed out to support worker Darren Kershaw.

RTB Ebbw Vale Football Club were approached to ask if Dmytrii could come along to training, and now he has been registered as a player.

Dmytrii Barduk in the Ebbw Vale football club strip picture: Grant Matthews

Chairman Grant Matthews said: “All the players have got together to get him a training kit, boots and pads so he feels like one of the boys.

“He’s not turning up in odd bits of gear, he’s dressed the same as everyone else and feels included.

“We communicate with him by using an app on his phone that translates what we’re both saying but we also communicate through the language of football.

“We have started calling him ‘Deet’ and he understands that we’re calling him that so he has a nickname like the other boys.”

Dmytrii Barduk with the Ebbw Vale football team picture: Grant Matthews

Dmytrii has started off in the development team due to his age, and is due to start playing in the coming weeks.

Mr Matthews said: “It could be very hard for him in coming to us but he’s one of the first boys at training every week and one of the last to go home.

“It’s shocking that someone of that age has been through what he’s been through, we are trying to guard him a bit.

Dmytrii Barduk in training: picture: Grant Matthews

“We want to build him up through the club in gradual manners because in football you have to dea with the physicality and the mentality.

“It has been lovely to see the boys all pull together especially after what has happened in the last couple of weeks.

“It shows to me that we are a fully inclusive club and that we don’t segregate anyone at all.”