UKRAINIAN YOUNGSTER SIGNS FOR DUNDEE UNITED ACADEMY

Dundee United Academy have completed the signing of Ukrainian youngster Stanislav ‘Stas’ Drabych.

Stas and his family left Lviv in Western Ukraine to take up refuge in Scotland in March before he earned a deal at United.

Stas, 11, was part of the Lviv Academy ‘Rukh’ which was a residential school that provided training and schooling, before his family were forced to flee their homeland.

After being contacted by the head teacher at Stas’ primary school in Dundee, United offered him the chance to impress during a trial.

Following a successful trial, Stas formally joined the Academy in September with United Head of Player Care, Education and Safeguarding Niall Nicolson providing the player and his family ongoing support.

Player care

"We take player care very seriously at Dundee United and have done all we can to help Stas and his family,” said Niall.

"He was buddied up with an established player and we have worked with him on the language barrier. He couldn’t speak a lot of English at first and this was an entirely different culture.

"His dad was also out of work initially, so we helped with transport to training and also used Google Translate on the phone to communicate.

"Stas also got the chance, as other academy players do, to be the ballboy at a game and when I told him it was like Christmas Day.

"He loved the experience and we’ll do all we can to help him - and all players under our care - feel at home at Dundee United."