Serhiy Rebrov Apologizes for Padel Game with Vasily Berezutsky

Serhiy Rebrov has issued a public apology after a video of him playing padel with former Russia defender Vasily Berezutsky sparked outrage in Ukraine.

The clip, filmed in Marbella, Spain, showed the pair as doubles partners and spread rapidly across Ukrainian social media in recent days. The exact date of the recording remains unknown, but the reaction was immediate and fierce, with many fans accusing the former Ukraine head coach of crossing a line at a time of war.

Under pressure, Rebrov responded on Instagram, stressing both his ignorance of Berezutsky’s recent career move and his own political stance.

“I knew about Berezutsky’s antiwar stance, but I wasn’t aware that he had recently gone to Russia to work as a coach — I don’t follow football in the terrorist state,” Rebrov wrote. “As a public figure, I want to apologize to the Ukrainians I offended by doing this, but I ask that no one doubt my pro-Ukrainian stance.”

Rebrov, a former Dynamo Kyiv and Tottenham forward, took charge of Ukraine’s national team in 2023. His tenure ended in the spring of 2026 after Ukraine failed to qualify for the World Cup, a setback that prompted his resignation. He has since moved upstairs, now serving as a vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Football, which only heightens the scrutiny on his actions off the pitch.

On the other side of this storm stands Berezutsky, a familiar name from a different footballing era. A mainstay of CSKA Moscow and the Russian national team in the 2010s, he was one of the few Russian athletes to speak out publicly on February 24, 2022, posting “No to war” on social media as the invasion began. At that point, he was part of the CSKA coaching staff led by his twin brother, Alexei.

That chapter did not last. After CSKA dismissed Alexei Berezutsky as head coach in the summer of 2022, Vasily left Russia for Spain. His coaching path eventually led him back into Russian football: in December 2025 he took over as head coach of Ural, then in the First League. The job was short-lived. Ural failed to secure promotion to the Russian Premier League, and Berezutsky departed at the end of the season.

Those details matter in Ukraine, where every association with Russian football is examined under a microscope. Rebrov’s claim that he did not know Berezutsky had returned to work in Russia sits at the heart of the backlash and his subsequent apology.

For a coach who once led his country from the touchline and now helps shape its football policy, even a casual game of padel has become a political act.